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 January 2024, India had a total of 362 million Instagram users, the largest Instagram audience in the world. The United States had 169 million users, and Brazil had 134 million. Indonesia, Turkey, and Japan ranked in fourth, fifth and sixth position, respectively. Brunei is the leading country for Instagram audience reach, with 92 percent of the population using the social media service. Guam came in second, with a penetration rate of 79.2 percent and the Cayman Islands ranked third, with 78.8 percent, followed closely by Kazakhstan, Iceland and Montenegro. 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 May 2021, Instagram was the fourth most visited social media service in the United States, after Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. 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, 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 December 2021, roughly a third 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 February 2022 with over 470 million followers. Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) had over 401 million followers on the platform and media personality and makeup mogul Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) had over 309 million followers. National Geographic (@natgeo) had over 206.9 million followers, sharing educational content through its renowned photojournalism.

The number of Instagram users ranking is led by India with 331.94 million users, while the United States is following with 156.08 million users. In contrast, Seychelles is at the bottom of the ranking with 0.02 million users, showing a difference of 331.92 million users to India. User figures, shown here with regards to the platform instagram, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

There were 83 770 000 Instagram users in Indonesia in December 2020, which accounted for 29.5% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 52.1%. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (30 000 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 13 to 17, where women lead by 4 400 000.

There were 1 210 100 Instagram users in Georgia in December 2020, which accounted for 31.1% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 57.6%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (400 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 35 to 44, where women lead by 74 000.

As of April 2024, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 18 and 24 years, and 30.6 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16 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 362.9 million and 169.7 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 second quarter of 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users.

There were 137 600 000 Instagram users in United States of America in December 2020, which accounted for 40% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 56.8%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (45 000 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 45 to 54, where women lead by 6 100 000.

There were 103 380 000 Instagram users in India in June 2020, which accounted for 7.1% of its entire population. The majority of them were men - 72.8%. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (47 000 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where men lead by 35 000 000.

There were 80 590 000 Instagram users in India in January 2020, which accounted for 5.5% of its entire population. The majority of them were men - 72.7%. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (38 700 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where men lead by 29 000 000.

There were 2 479 000 Instagram users in Jordan in September 2020, which accounted for 22.3% of its entire population. The majority of them were men - 51.8%. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (900 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 25 to 34, where men lead by 440 000.

There were 32 230 000 Instagram users in Mexico in December 2020, which accounted for 22.8% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 54.5%. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (11 400 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where women lead by 5 100 000.

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.

There were 4 479 000 Instagram users in Portugal in September 2020, which accounted for 44.4% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 54.5%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (1 260 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 45 to 54, where women lead by 260 000.

How many active users are on Instagram? In 2023, the photo sharing site is projected to reach 127.2 million monthly active users in the United States, up from 114.6 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 145 minutes 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 54 percent of the world’s population was using social networking, with West and Northern Europe having the highest penetration rate – 79 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 2.8 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 1 billion Instagram monthly active users worldwide. There are an estimated 115 million Instagram users in the United States alone, a number which is forecast to grow to over 127 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 60 million photos uploaded to Instagram every day.

As of April 2024, around 16.5 percent of global active Instagram users were men between the ages of 18 and 24 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 2020, the photo-sharing app ranked third in terms of preferred social network among teenagers in the United States, second to Snapchat and TikTok. Instagram was one of the most influential advertising channels among female Gen Z users when making purchasing decisions. Teens report feeling more confident, popular, and better about themselves when using social media, and less lonely, depressed and anxious. Social media can have negative effects on teens, which is also 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.

There were 514 900 Instagram users in Haiti in December 2020, which accounted for 4.2% of its entire population. The majority of them were men - 57.9%. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (208 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where men lead by 120 000.

Watching other people's Instagram Stories was the most popular Instagram activity among Instagram users in the United States. During the March 2020 survey, 42 percent of respondents stated that they had watched other people's Instagram Stories in the past month. A further 39 percent of respondents indicated that they had browsed their feeds for posts from Instagram friends or accounts they were following.

There were 12 267 000 Instagram users in Saudi Arabia in January 2020, which accounted for 32.4% of its entire population. The majority of them were men - 63%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (7 200 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 25 to 34, where men lead by 4 600 000.

Swedes of ages between 16 and 25 years were the most active Instagram users as of the third quarter of 2020. To be precise, 90 percent of the respondents reported to be using the app that year. Overall, the older the generation was, the less they used Instagram. Swedes who used the platform and who were 76 years old or older accounted for 35 percent of all respondents. Furthermore, Instagram usage rate had grown dramatically over the last eight years. Over three thousand Swedes were interviewed between 2013 and 2020 and while four percent of them had confessed to using Instagram daily in 2013, this had increased to 50 percent by 2020.

Why Instagram?       A survey conducted in the first half of 2019 investigated the most common purposes of using Instagram among Swedish population. In fact, over 70 percent of the respondents used the platform to keep contact with friends and family, and over half of the respondents used it for entertainment. The least common reason for usage was to strengthen professional network, according to nine percent of the respondents.

Instagram ranked second       Among other social media platforms, Instagram took second place in 2020. Facebook was used by 81 percent of the interviewed Internet users in Sweden and ranked first, while Instagram was used by 71 percent. Snapchat ranked third with 42 percent of the respondents using it.

There were 5 450 000 Instagram users in Sweden in November 2020, which accounted for 51.7% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 56.1%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (1 360 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 45 to 54, where women lead by 330 000.