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.

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.

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 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).

According to data provided by NapoleonCat, around 4.5 million South Korean women aged between 25 and 34 years old were using Instagram as of September 2024. InstagramAs of September 2024, around 24.22 million Instagram users were South Korean. Instagram’s popularity is growing, while the popularity of Facebook is declining, especially among younger users. According to a survey among South Korean Instagram users, the majority stated that they used it to check out others’ posts, while around half of them answered they were looking for posts under specific hashtags. Social media usageSocial media is increasingly important for South Koreans and almost every South Korean aged between 20 and 29 years old is using social media. A different survey found that the most preferred content was humorous content, as well as current issues and trends. Nevertheless, more than three quarters of respondents were using social media for its original purpose: socializing.

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.

The reach by social network in the 'Instagram' segment of the digital advertising market in Europe was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2028 by in total 31.8 million users (+10.81 percent). After the sixth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 325.9 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Find more in-depth information regarding the revenue growth concerning the social media advertising segment of the digital advertising market in the United States and the share of revenue generated via mobile purchases concerning the digital advertising mobile segment of the digital advertising market in Europe. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

As of December 2024, Instagram had approximately 3.76 million users from Hong Kong. About 60 percent of these users were female, with most being between the ages of 25 and 34.

As of January 2025, 28.3 percent of Instagram users in the United States were aged between 25 and 34 years, making up the platform’s largest audience in the country. Overall, the group with the second-highest usage was those aged 18 to 24 years, with 26.5 percent of users, followed by 19.4 percent that were aged 35 to 44 years. The age group that used Instagram the least was those older than 65 years, making up 5.8 percent of users, respectively. Popular social media platforms in the United States Instagram was the third most visited social media platform in the United States as of March 2024 across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices combined, accounting for 14.13 percent of all social media visits in the country. Despite Instagram’s popularity, Facebook remained the leading social media platform by far in the U.S., accounting for almost 50 percent of all social media visits. Pinterest and X (formerly Twitter) ranked second and fourth in terms of visits, with 21.2 percent and 10.91 percent of visits, respectively. Instagram’s global audience Instagram’s global popularity continues to surge, with no signs of slowing down. As of January 2024, the country with the largest Instagram audience was India with 362.9 million users, while the United States had the second-highest market with 169.65 million users, followed by Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey, respectively. As of April 2024, Instagram was the third most popular social network globally, reaching two billion monthly active users.

The number of Instagram users in Brazil was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 26.6 million users (+20.57 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Instagram user base is estimated to reach 155.84 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Instagram users of was continuously increasing over the past years.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).

As of September 2024, the number of Instagram users in Turkey totaled approximately 58.3 million. The highest number of users recorded throughout the observed period was in October 2023, with 60.3 million users.

As of January 2025, Meta's Instagram had a total of 33.8 million active users in Germany. In December 2023, the social media platform had 32.05 million active users, demonstrating an overall increase of more than one million users in Germany within a year. Overall, Instagram's largest audience in Germany can be found in the 25 to 34 year age group.

The number of Instagram users in Mexico was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 9.3 million users (+23.89 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Instagram user base is estimated to reach 48.24 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Instagram users of was continuously increasing over the past years.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).Find more key insights for the number of Instagram users in countries like United States and Canada.

This statistic described the number of Instagram user in the Middle East and North Africa in 2016, by country. During 2016, the number of Instagram users in Saudi Arabia was about 2.1 million.

As of January 2024, Meta's Instagram had 2.5 million users in Denmark, down from 2.6 million in 2023. Although Instagram was one of the most popular social networks in Denmark with a reach of 65.3 percent in 2023, Facebook continues to be the most used social media platform amongst Danes.

According to a July 2019 report, there were 11.8 million internet users in Canada used Instagram via any device at least once per month in 2018. By 2023 the number of Instagram users in Canada is projected to reach 14.3 million.

Instagram is a social media app owned by Meta which focuses on photo and video sharing. As of January 2025, there were over 8.92 million Instagram users in the Netherlands, accounting for 51 percent of the total population. Although Instagram has seen an overall decrease in users since the middle of 2023, it is still the second most used social media platform for 14 to 22-year-olds in the Netherlands. Overall, 56.2 percent of Instagram users in the Netherlands in January 2025 were women. The leading user base in terms of age and gender were women in the 25 to 34 year age group, who accounted for 14.6 percent of all users. Social media in the Netherlands In 2024, there were 13.36 million social network users in the Netherlands, an increase of over 1 million since 2021. By 2026, there will be an estimated 13.82 million users. The internet usage penetration rate was 87.81 percent in 2023 and is predicted to reach 88.86 percent by 2026. Popular social media platforms Market leader Facebook had a total of 12.87 million users in the Netherlands in December 2024, which accounted for 73.6 percent of the population. As of September 2024, users aged between 25 and 34 years were the platform's largest audience and made up almost one quarter of all Dutch Facebook users. Furthermore, 18.6 percent of Facebook’s user base were between the ages of 18 and 24 years. In 2023, the Netherlands, saw a total of 3.1 million users of online networking platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and 13.3 million users of instant messaging service WhatsApp.

In December 2022, Instagram had about 10.9 million active users from Taiwan. The social media had a higher penetration rate among female than male users. Over two-thirds of the Taiwanese Instagram users were under 34 years old.

As of December 2024, the number of Instagram users in Egypt continued increasing, reaching around 19.4 million. This number remained constant since May 2024. On the other hand, a dramatic drop in the number of users on the platform can be observed during April 2022 as well as during January 2023. Since January 2021, the social media platform users in the country have been following an overall increasing trend with roughly five million new additions.