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.

In January 2019, photo sharing platform Instagram reported 500 million daily active Stories users worldwide, up from 400 million global DAU in June 2018. Stories is a feature of the app allowing users post photo and video sequences that disappear 24 hours after being posted. Instagram usage Instagram has over one billion monthly active users and is one of the most popular social networks worldwide. The app allows users to edit and share photos with other users, either publicly or with pre-approved followers. In 2018, the number of Instagram users in the United States was almost 105 million users, with U.S. Instagram audiences set to grow to 131 million users by 2022. As of April 2019, it was found that the United States, Brazil and India had the largest Instagram audiences with the United States heading the ranking by a wide margin. Users between the ages of 25 and 34 years constituted the biggest demographic group, followed by users aged 18 to 24 years. Overall, over two thirds of global Instagram audiences were aged 34 and younger. Advertising and marketing on Instagram Due to the visual nature of the platform, Instagram is a perfect opportunity for brands and retailers to display their products in a flattering way. Many celebrities and influencers generate a sizable income by posting ads in the form of sponsored posts on Instagram. In 2018, there were approximately 3.7 million sponsored influencer posts on the platform. The most popular content type of Instagram posts by influencers worldwide were photos – videos accounted for just 13.56 percent of influencer posts.

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.

How many active users are on Instagram? In 2023, the photo sharing site is projected to reach ***** million monthly active users in the United States, up from ***** million users in 2020. Social network reach The internet has brought about many changes in how people around the world communicate, especially through one of its most powerful inventions: social media. According to a recent study, internet users worldwide spend an average of over *********** per day on one of the many social media platforms. Such websites and apps are increasingly used not just for social sharing, but also as means to building reputation, finding career opportunities or monetary income. As of January 2021, an estimated ** percent of the world’s population was using social networking, with West and Northern Europe having the highest penetration rate – ** percent of the respective region's populations. Eastern Asia placed first in a global ranking of mobile social media penetration according to geographical region. Industry leaders Facebook is by far the most popular social network with over *** billion global monthly active users but Instagram, the mobile photo and video-sharing application launched in 2010, is quickly growing in popularity. Instagram was bought by Facebook back in 2012. As of June 2018, there are an estimated *********** Instagram monthly active users worldwide. There are an estimated *********** Instagram users in the United States alone, a number which is forecast to grow to over *** million in 2023. According to the company, the secret to their success is their unique visual storytelling approach to social media. Users registered with the platform can upload pictures and videos, to which they can also apply filters, frames and other effects. They can also attach captions, tags of other people/accounts, whether friends, celebrities or companies and hashtags, which make the media easy to find if one is looking for specific subjects. There are a reported ** million photos uploaded to Instagram every day.

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How many people use Instagram?

Instagram is a social media app which focuses on photo and video sharing. It is owned by Facebook, which recently rebranded as Meta, in a move towards the metaverse. As of December 2021, Instagram reached a new milestone of 2 billion active users worldwide. The platform previously reached 1 billion users in June 2018.

Users aged 25 to 34 years made up the biggest Instagram user group by age worldwide, followed by 18 to 24 year olds. Overall, men accounted for 51.6 percent of global Instagram users.

Most popular Instagram accounts and content

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was the most followed person on Instagram as of 2021, with approximately 315 million followers. Ranked in second and third position were the Rock and Ariana Grande, both having over 250 million followers each.

It’s not only athletes and actors who drive the views on Instagram though. Instagram has long since become a medium for people and communities to spread their messages, and in the past two years, social activists and educators have used Instagram for their movements. Political and educational accounts generate high engagement rates with their content. Posts from political accounts receive an average engagement rate of 2.74 percent and educational posts receive an average of 2.56 percent.

Social media usage worldwide

There are 3.4 billion social media users worldwide and this is expected to increase to 4.41 billion by 2025. Instagram is most popular in India with a total of 201.1 million users, followed by the U.S. with 157.1 million and Brazil with 114.9 million active users. Instagram is the fourth most popular social media site in the world, after Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp, respectively.

As of October 2021, Brunei was the country with the highest Instagram audience reach with 92 percent of the population using the platform. This was followed by Guam with 79.2 percent and the Cayman Islands with 78.8 percent audience reach.

As of October 2021, Facebook had almost 3 billion users worldwide. The penetration rate for Facebook in the United States in 2021 was 70.59 percent and it is expected to reach 76.87 percent by 2026.

TikTok has 136 million monthly active users in the US alone.

Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook reported around four billion monthly core Family product users. The United States and China account for the most high-profile social platforms Most top ranked social networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but services like Chinese social networks WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin have also garnered mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content. Douyin’s popularity has led to the platform releasing an international version of its network: a little app called TikTok. How many people use social media? The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political, or economic borders. In 2025, social networking sites are estimated to reach 5.42 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

There are currently over 1.5 billion active users on TikTok worldwide.

Russia had nearly ********** Instagram users in January 2025. The user count steadily increased until January 2022 when it reached over **********. In mid-March 2022, the social media platform was blocked in the country, as its parent company Meta was claimed an extremist organization.

As of the first quarter of 2025, photo and video sharing app Snapchat had 460 million daily active users worldwide, up from 460 million global DAU in the fourth quarter of 2024. The app has seen steady increases in daily active users since the beginning of 2019. Snapchat is relevant for teenagers Originally launched in 2011, Snapchat has become one of the most popular social messaging and photo sharing apps worldwide; making its CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel one of the world’s richest social media entrepreneurs. With almost 800 million active users as of April 2024, Snapchat easily ranks among the most popular social networks worldwide. According to U.S. teenagers in fall 2023, Snapchat is the second most important social network of their generation, ahead of photo sharing competitor Instagram and other networks such as Twitter or Facebook. Overall, 48 percent of U.S. internet users aged 15 to 25 years were reportedly using Snapchat, the highest usage reach among any age group. When it comes to user satisfaction with social media, Snapchat’s performance is fair to middling. According to recent survey data, the social app scored 72 out of 100 points on a consumer satisfaction scale, ranking ahead of Twitter and Facebook but behind Pinterest and eternal rival Instagram.

Facebook probably needs no introduction; nonetheless, here is a quick history of the company. The world’s biggest and most-famous social network was launched by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a...

Teenagers make up the largest group of active users on TikTok.

WhatsApp and Facebook were the most used social media in the Netherlands, both having the highest overall number of users but also seeing much daily use. WhatsApp had over ** million Dutch users, whereas Facebook had around ** million users. The daily active users (DAU) of social media in the Netherlands like WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat increased in recent years. As of 2023, roughly *** million individuals in the Netherlands used Instagram every day. Most popular social media among Millennials in the Netherlands WhatsApp and Facebook ranked as the most popular apps for 22-to-36-year-olds. 90 percent of the Millennials said they used the messaging app, whereas the social network reached a usage rate of ** percent. Instagram and Snapchat, however, were more popular among respondents aged **************** Is social media use expected to increase or decrease? Estimates from Statista’s Digital Market Outlook indicate that social media use in the Netherlands is believed to increase until 2024. The social media user penetration was projected roughly ** percent that year, compared to ** percent in 2018.

As of January 2025, the largest group of Facebook users in the Netherlands were aged 25 to 34 years, making up around three million users of the social network in the country. WhatsApp and Facebook remain the two most popular online social platforms in the Netherlands, with more than ten million users each. The amount of daily active users (DAU) of social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat in the Netherlands has increased in recent years.

In 2024, Facebook had over 844 million daily active users (DAU) on Android worldwide. Instagram ranked second with over 693 million DAU among Android users. TikTok followed, with more than 247 million users accessing the app each day during the same examined period.

Regional TikTok user statistics differentiate significantly. Each major region has also experienced growth a different times.

Globally the average user spends 52 minutes on TikTok every day. About 90% of their worldwide users access TikTok on a daily basis.

Meta's family of apps continues to dominate the global social media landscape, with 3.43 billion daily active users across its core products in the first quarter of 2025. This represents a slight increase from the previous quarter and underscores the company's enduring influence in connecting people worldwide. Instagram's global reach and demographics Among Meta's portfolio, Instagram stands out with its impressive user base in key markets. India leads with 362 million users, followed by the United States with 169 million and Brazil with 134 million. Messenger and WhatsApp usage trends Meta's messaging apps continue to see robust engagement. Facebook Messenger averaged 394 million daily active users on Android devices between October 2023 and October 2024, with iOS users adding another 175 million on average. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has solidified its position as the leading communication channel for global smartphone users, reaching an estimated three billion unique active users worldwide in June 2024.

These TikTok user statistics tell the whole story of the new social media giant and give you some insights into the app's future.