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.

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

From 2023 to 2024, Tiny accounts on Instagram, accounts with under *** followers, saw the biggest increase in engagement. Overall, these accounts saw year-on-year increases in engagement of around ** percent. Small accounts, with between *** and ***** followers, saw a decrease in interactions of ***** percent.

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.

Introduction

Instagram Engagement Statistics: According to the most recent statistics on Instagram engagement, the average engagement rate for all categories of posts made by business accounts stands at 0.56%. This figure evaluates the total likes and comments a post garners and contrasts it with the follower count of the account at the time of posting.

In simpler terms, this average engagement rate indicates that for every 10,000 followers an Instagram business account possesses, approximately 56 of them engage by either commenting on a post, liking it, or doing both. The majority of Instagram marketing professionals concur that a favorable engagement rate falls between 1% and 5%; however, as the follower count increases, achieving this rate becomes more challenging.

In 2025, the environment has changed considerably, with new formats, content styles, and tiers of creators shaping the definition of success. Micro and nano influencers are surpassing celebrities in terms of interaction metrics, while Reels continue to excel beyond static 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.

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)

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.

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

data Source - https://statso.io/instagram-reach-analysis-case-study/

Certainly! Let's conduct a case study on Instagram reach analysis. To make the case study more specific, let's imagine a scenario where a fashion brand called "Fashionista" wants to analyze the reach of their Instagram account over the past six months.

Objective: Analyze the reach of Fashionista's Instagram account and identify trends, patterns, and insights that can help improve their reach and engagement.

Steps for the Instagram Reach Analysis:

1. Data Collection:

   • Gather data from Fashionista's Instagram account for the past six months.
   • Collect metrics such as follower count, post reach, impressions, likes, comments, and engagement rate.
   • Use Instagram's built-in analytics or third-party tools like Iconosquare or Sprout Social to retrieve the necessary data.

2. Define Key Metrics:

   • Identify the key metrics that will help assess the reach of Fashionista's Instagram account.
   • Key metrics may include follower growth rate, average reach per post, total impressions, engagement rate, and engagement per post.

3. Analyze Follower Growth:

   • Plot the follower count over the past six months to observe any trends.
   • Calculate the follower growth rate to understand the rate at which the account is gaining or losing followers.
   • Look for any significant changes in follower count and investigate potential reasons behind those changes.

4. Evaluate Post Reach and Impressions:

   • Analyze the average reach per post and total impressions to understand the reach of Fashionista's content.
   • Identify posts with the highest and lowest reach and compare their characteristics.
   • Look for patterns or themes that resonate well with the audience and those that underperform.

5. Assess Engagement:

   • Calculate the average engagement rate and compare it across different types of content (e.g., images, videos, stories, reels).
   • Identify posts with the highest engagement rate and analyze their content, captions, and hashtags.
   • Look for patterns or elements that encourage higher engagement from the audience.

6. Identify Optimal Posting Times:

   • Analyze the data to identify the days and times when Fashionista's posts receive the highest reach and engagement.
   • Experiment with posting at different times and measure the impact on reach and engagement.

7. Monitor Competitors:

   • Analyze the reach and engagement of Fashionista's competitors' Instagram accounts.
   • Identify strategies or content types that work well for competitors and consider adopting similar approaches if relevant.

8. Generate Insights and Recommendations:

   • Summarize the findings from the analysis and identify key insights and trends.
   • Recommend strategies to improve Fashionista's Instagram reach based on the insights obtained.
   • Provide actionable recommendations such as optimizing content, using relevant hashtags, collaborating with influencers, or running Instagram ads.

By conducting a thorough analysis of Fashionista's Instagram reach, you'll gain valuable insights into their audience's behavior, content performance, and engagement patterns. These insights can help guide future content strategies and optimize reach and engagement on Instagram.

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

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

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.

Instagram[a] is a photo and video sharing social networking service founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and later acquired by American company Facebook Inc. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can be shared publicly or with preapproved followers. Users can browse other users' content by tag and location, view trending content, like photos, and follow other users to add their content to a personal feed.

Instagram was originally distinguished by allowing content to be framed only in a square (1:1) aspect ratio of 640 pixels to match the display width of the iPhone at the time. In 2015, this restrictions was eased with an increase to 1080 pixels. It also added messaging features, the ability to include multiple images or videos in a single post, and a Stories feature—similar to its main competitor Snapchat—which allowed users to post their content to a sequential feed, with each post accessible to others for 24 hours. As of January 2019, Stories is used by 500 million people daily.

This dataset comprises of the details of top 1000 influencers in instagram

Explore the short-form video landscape on Instagram with this specialized dataset featuring Reels content. This collection includes millions of Reels posts from global creators, influencers, and brands, providing a focused view into one of Instagram’s fastest-growing content formats.

Key Features:

🎥 Reel-Specific Posts: Every entry in the dataset is confirmed to be an Instagram Reel, with associated metadata.

📊 Content & Engagement Metrics: Includes video captions, hashtags, view counts, like counts, comment counts, share counts, and timestamp data.

👤 Creator Information: Features public account data such as usernames, follower counts, bio snippets, and account category where available.

📈 Trend Discovery & Analysis: Perfect for analyzing video content performance, audio trends, visual themes, and influencer strategies on Reels.

🎯 Ready for Analysis: Delivered in clean CSV format, API, or custom formats, optimized for direct use in analytics, dashboards, machine learning models, or campaign planning.

This dataset is ideal for marketers, social strategists, and researchers looking to understand what drives engagement in short-form video content across the Instagram ecosystem.

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.

Use our Instagram Hashtags dataset (public data) to extract insights by filtering hashtags, follower counts, account type, or engagement metrics. Depending on your needs, you can purchase the full dataset or a customized subset. Popular use cases include trend analysis, brand monitoring, hashtag optimization, and influencer marketing. The dataset includes key data points such as hashtags, engagement scores, associated posts, locations, account types (business/non-business), and much more.

1) Data Introduction • The Instagram Multi-Class Fake Account Dataset (IMFAD) contains four account types: physical, spam, fraud, and bot accounts, making it suitable for multi-class classification tasks.

2) Data Utilization (1) Instagram Multi-Class Fake Account Dataset (IMFAD) has characteristics that: • It was created as part of a fake Instagram account detection research project. • All data has been anonymized and refined to be made public safely. (2) Instagram Multi-Class Fake Account Dataset (IMFAD) can be used to: • Machine Learning Model Study: Helps students, researchers, and developers build models for fake account detection.

instagram.com is ranked #8 in US with 5.71B Traffic. Categories: Newspapers, Online Services. Learn more about website traffic, market share, and more!

Global ad spend were expected to reach over $134 billion in 2022. This means that it has increased by over 17% yearly.