In 2021, there were 1.21 billion monthly active users of Meta's Instagram, making up over 28 percent of the world's internet users. By 2025, it has been forecast that there will be 1.44 billion monthly active users of the social media platform, which would account for 31.2 percent of global internet users.

How popular is Instagram?

Instagram, as of January 2022, was the fourth most popular social media platform in the world in terms of user numbers. YouTube and WhatsApp ranked in second and third place, respectively, whilst Facebook remained the most popular, with almost three billion monthly active users worldwide.

India had the largest number of Instagram users as of January 2022, with a total of over 230 million users in the country. The second-largest Instagram audience could be found in the United States, with almost 160 million people subscribing to the photo and video sharing app.

Gen Z and Instagram

As of September 2021, Gen Z users in the United States spent an average of five hours per week on Instagram. Although Instagram ranked third in terms of hours per week spent on the platform, Gen Z users spent considerably more time on TikTok, amounting to a weekly average of over 10 hours being spent on the mobile-first video app.

Most followed accounts on Instagram

As of May 2022, Instagram’s own account had 504.37 million followers. In terms of celebrities, Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (@chistiano) had over 440.41 million followers on the social network. Moreover, the average media value of an Instagram post by Ronaldo was over 985,000 U.S. dollars.

The most liked post on Instagram as of May 2022 was Photo of an Egg, which was posted in 2019 by the account @world_record_egg. Photo of an Egg has not only exceeded 55 million likes on the platform, but it also has nearly 3.5 million comments, and the account itself has over 4.5 million Instagram followers. After mysterious posts published by the account, World Record Egg revealed itself as part of a mental health campaign aimed at the difficulties and demands of using social media.

As of February 2025, India had a total of 413.85 million Instagram users, the largest Instagram audience in the world. The United States had 171.7 million users, and Brazil had 140.7 million. Indonesia, Turkey, and Japan ranked in fourth, fifth and sixth position, respectively. Kazakhstan is the leading country for Instagram audience reach, with 86.2 percent of the population using the social media service. Turkey came in second, with a penetration rate of 85.5 percent and Uruguay ranked third, with 87.1 percent, followed closely by the UAE, Brazil, and Bahrain. It took Instagram 11.2 years to reach the milestone of 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, took 11 years, whilst Facebook took 13.3 years and YouTube took just over 14 years. Instagram’s demographics in the United States As of March 2025, Instagram was the fourth most visited social media service in the United States, after Facebook, Pinterest and X. Out of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, TikTok was the most used of all three platforms by Generation Z. Overall, 57 percent of Gen Z social media users used Instagram in 2021, down from 61 percent in 2020 and 64 percent in 2019. Instagram finds most popularity with those in the 25 to 34 year age group, and as of January 2025, roughly 28.3 of all users in the United States belonged to this age group. The social media app was also more likely to be used by women. Most followed accounts on Instagram Instagram’s official account had the most followers as of April 2024 with over 672 million followers. Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) had over 628 million followers on the platform, while the Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi (@leomessi) had over 502 million followers. The Instagram accounts of the American singer and actress Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) and the media personality and makeup mogul Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) had over 400 million followers each.

Introduction

Instagram Users statistics: Instagram has become a worldwide beast with 2 billion monthly active users (MAUs) and is the 3rd largest social network behind Facebook and YouTube. This massive user population represents around 35.9% of the 5.56 billion internet users around the world, and an incredible 34.6% of worldwide mobile users are connecting on Instagram each month.

The largest user population in India with 392.5 million, followed by the US with 172.6 million, Brazil with 141.4 million, and Indonesia with 90.2 million users. Users spend an average of almost 34 minutes each day using the platform, and this signals Instagram’s connection for deep engagement.

To better leverage, Instagram’s audience has almost equal gender representation and largely made up of Gen Z and Millennials; thus, Instagram is still a relevant channel for companies who want to access these digitally native audiences.

Access detailed insights with our Instagram datasets, featuring follower counts, verified status, account types, and engagement scores. Explore post information including URLs, descriptions, hashtags, comments, likes, media, posting dates, locations, and reel URLs. Perfect for understanding user engagement and content trends to drive informed decisions and optimize your social media strategies. Over 750M records available Price starts at $250/100K records Data formats are available in JSON, NDJSON, CSV, XLSX and Parquet. 100% ethical and compliant data collection Included datapoints:

Account Fbid Id Followers Posts Count Is Business Account Is Professional Account Is Verified Avg Engagement External Url Biography Business Category Name Category Name Post Hashtags Following Posts Profile Image Link Profile URL Profile Name Highlights Count Highlights Full Name Is Private Bio Hashtags URL Is Joined Recently And much more

Cristiano Ronaldo has one of the most popular Instagram accounts as of April 2024.

              The Portuguese footballer is the most-followed person on the photo sharing app platform with 628 million followers. Instagram's own account was ranked first with roughly 672 million followers.

              How popular is Instagram?

              Instagram is a photo-sharing social networking service that enables users to take pictures and edit them with filters. The platform allows users to post and share their images online and directly with their friends and followers on the social network. The cross-platform app reached one billion monthly active users in mid-2018. In 2020, there were over 114 million Instagram users in the United States and experts project this figure to surpass 127 million users in 2023.

              Who uses Instagram?

              Instagram audiences are predominantly young – recent data states that almost 60 percent of U.S. Instagram users are aged 34 years or younger. Fall 2020 data reveals that Instagram is also one of the most popular social media for teens and one of the social networks with the biggest reach among teens in the United States.

              Celebrity influencers on Instagram
              Many celebrities and athletes are brand spokespeople and generate additional income with social media advertising and sponsored content. Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo ranked first again, as the average media value of one of his Instagram posts was 985,441 U.S. dollars.

Introduction

Instagram Demographics Statistics: Instagram is a popular platform known for its eye-catching visuals and user-generated content. With over 2 billion monthly active users, it offers a lively and engaged community for brands and businesses of all sizes.

This includes important user demographics, trends in usage, advertising insights, and the rise of video content. Understanding this information can help you improve your brand’s social media strategy and connect better with Instagram’s diverse audience.

There are over 2 billion registered users on Instagram in 2025.

As of April 2025, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 25 and 34 years, and 29.5 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16.3 percent of users belonged to the 35 to 44 year age group. Instagram users With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide. The social photo sharing app is especially popular in India and in the United States, which have respectively 413.85 million and 171.7 million Instagram users each. Instagram features One of the most popular features of Instagram is Stories. Users can post photos and videos to their Stories stream and the content is live for others to view for 24 hours before it disappears. In January 2019, the company reported that there were 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users. Instagram Stories directly competes with Snapchat, another photo sharing app that initially became famous due to it’s “vanishing photos” feature. As of the first quarter of 2025, Snapchat had 460 million daily active users.

Instagram data-download example dataset

In this repository you can find a data-set consisting of 11 personal Instagram archives, or Data-Download Packages (DDPs).

How the data was generated

These Instagram accounts were all new and generated by a group of researchers who were interested to figure out in detail the structure and variety in structure of these Instagram DDPs. The participants user the Instagram account extensively for approximately a week. The participants also intensively communicated with each other so that the data can be used as an example of a network.

The data was primarily generated to evaluate the performance of de-identification software. Therefore, the text in the DDPs particularly contain many randomly chosen (Dutch) first names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and URLS. In addition, the images in the DDPs contain many faces and text as well. The DDPs contain faces and text (usernames) of third parties. However, only content of so-called `professional accounts' are shared, such as accounts of famous individuals or institutions who self-consciously and actively seek publicity, and these sources are easily publicly available. Furthermore, the DDPs do not contain sensitive personal data of these individuals.

Obtaining your Instagram DDP

After using the Instagram accounts intensively for approximately a week, the participants requested their personal Instagram DDPs by using the following steps. You can follow these steps yourself if you are interested in your personal Instagram DDP.

1. Go to www.instagram.com and log in
2. Click on your profile picture, go to Settings and Privacy and Security
3. Scroll to Data download and click Request download
4. Enter your email adress and click Next
5. Enter your password and click Request download

Instagram then delivered the data in a compressed zip folder with the format username_YYYYMMDD.zip (i.e., Instagram handle and date of download) to the participant, and the participants shared these DDPs with us.

Data cleaning

To comply with the Instagram user agreement, participants shared their full name, phone number and e-mail address. In addition, Instagram logged the i.p. addresses the participant used during their active period on Instagram. After colleting the DDPs, we manually replaced such information with random replacements such that the DDps shared here do not contain any personal data of the participants.

How this data-set can be used

This data-set was generated with the intention to evaluate the performance of the de-identification software. We invite other researchers to use this data-set for example to investigate what type of data can be found in Instagram DDPs or to investigate the structure of Instagram DDPs. The packages can also be used for example data-analyses, although no substantive research questions can be answered using this data as the data does not reflect how research subjects behave `in the wild'.

Authors

The data collection is executed by Laura Boeschoten, Ruben van den Goorbergh and Daniel Oberski of Utrecht University. For questions, please contact l.boeschoten@uu.nl.

Acknowledgments

The researchers would like to thank everyone who participated in this data-generation project.

The most significant cohorts of users on Instagram are aged 18 – 24.

Data Type: Instagram Account Posts Data

Fields:

Post_id: Integer (Unique identifier for the owner of the Instagram account) Post_Type: Boolean (Indicator if the post is a video, image or carousel) comments: Integer (Number of comments on the post) likes: Integer (Number of likes on the post)

59% of adults in the united states are using Instagram daily.

Introduction

Instagram Statistics: Instagram has been a major part of social media culture since 2010 and now has over 2 billion monthly active users globally, ranking it among the top five platforms in the world. Instagram’s short-form video format, Reels, hit a massive milestone of over 150 billion daily viewers coming late 2024, which is reflective of the staggering user engagement growth within the platform.

By January 2025, 5.24 billion of the world’s population, almost 64%, were using social media in some way, with Instagram a major player in that space. Unique to Instagram is the combination of visual storytelling, hashtags, discoverability features, and in-app commerce that keeps users engaged for a staggering average of almost 2 hours daily.

Instagram has shifted from a photo-sharing app to an entertainment and shopping center, all with an audience of 1.8 billion Reels users. If brands and audiences are your thing, Instagram is still a top-tier platform, a canvas and a window for a dynamic, immersive experience with limitless marketing potential.

There were 111 187 100 Instagram users in Indonesia in September 2023, which accounted for 39.1% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 55.4%. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (43 200 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where women lead by 18 500 000.

As of April 2025, around 17.6 percent of global active Instagram users were men between the ages of 25 and 34 years. More than half of the global Instagram population worldwide was aged 34 years or younger. Teens and social media As one of the biggest social networks worldwide, Instagram is especially popular with teenagers. As of fall 2023, the photo-sharing app ranked third in terms of preferred social network among teenagers in the United States, following TikTok and Snapchat. Instagram was one of the most influential advertising channels among female Gen Z users when making purchasing decisions. Teens reported feeling more confident, popular, and better about themselves when using social media, and less lonely, depressed and anxious. However, social media can also have negative effects on teens, which can be much more pronounced on those with low emotional well-being. It was found that 35 percent of teenagers with low social-emotional well-being reported to have experienced cyber bullying when using social media, while in comparison only five percent of teenagers with high social-emotional well-being stated the same. As such, social media can have a big impact on already fragile states of mind.

Introduction

Surprising Instagram Marketing Statistics: Instagram has solidified its position as a pivotal platform for digital marketing, boasting over 2.4 billion monthly active users globally as of 2024. India leads with approximately 362.9 million users, followed by the United States with around 158.4 million. The platform's visual-centric features, including Stories and Reels, have significantly contributed to its widespread adoption. Notably, over 400 million users engage with Instagram Stories daily

In terms of advertising, Instagram's influence is substantial. Brands are projected to invest over USD 10 billion in Instagram ads in 2024. This surge is attributed to the platform's high engagement rates and its ability to connect businesses with a diverse audience. Furthermore, Instagram is anticipated to generate more than half of Meta Platforms' advertising revenue in the U.S. by 2025, driven by improved monetization strategies and the growing popularity of short-form videos like Reels.

User engagement on Instagram remains robust. U.S. adults spend an average of 33.1 minutes per day on the platform, reflecting its integral role in daily digital consumption. Additionally, 60% of users discover new products through Instagram, underscoring its effectiveness as a tool for brand discovery and consumer influence.

Given these Instagram Marketing statistics, Instagram continues to be an essential platform for businesses aiming to enhance their online presence and engage with a global audience.

There were 172 606 200 Instagram users in United States of America in June 2024, which accounted for 50% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 55.4%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (48 800 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 35 to 44, where women lead by 14 900 000.

There were 28 531 100 Instagram users in France in March 2024, which accounted for 42.6% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 55.3%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (8 400 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 35 to 44, where women lead by 2 300 000.

There were 12 383 500 Instagram users in Kazakhstan in June 2022, which accounted for 62.6% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 56.4%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (3 500 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 45 to 54, where women lead by 457 100.

A dataset of top-performing Instagram posts with 75K+ plays. Includes captions, play counts, likes, comments, and creator info—ideal for trend tracking, influencer research, content benchmarking, and performance analysis on high-engagement Instagram content.