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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

In January 2025, Instagram had almost 35 million users in the United Kingdom (UK). The largest share of Instagram users were individuals aged between 25 and 34 years old, at 29.7 percent. This was followed by the category of users aged 18 to 24 years. Individuals over 65 years old, were less likely to use the social media platform, making up the smallest share of Instagram users during this period. Leading social media in the UK According to figures based on approximately fifteen billion hits online per month, Facebook was the leading social media website in the UK as of November 2024, holding over 60.48 percent of the social media market share. This was followed by X (Twitter) and Instagram. The Pinterest website ranked fourth during that period, with a market share of 5.83 percent. Facebook: Leader in the UK The number of social network users in the UK experienced an increase of roughly 6.5 million users between 2018 and 2023. The share of female Facebook users is slightly higher than the number of male users. At a quarter of respondents, individuals aged between 25 and 34 years old made up the largest share of Facebook users in the UK. This was followed by roughly 19 percent of users within the 35 to 44 years old category. Facebook usage appeared to be the lowest among those aged 65 and older.

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).

In January 2025, almost 30 percent of Instagram users in France were aged between 25 and 34 years, making up the platform's largest audience in the country. Users aged 18 to 24 years made up 28.8 percent of users, and 4.5 percent of Instagram users in France belonged to the group aged 65 years and older.

In January 2025, the number of Instagram users in Germany stood at around 33.8 million individuals. The largest share of Instagram users in Germany were women aged between 25 and 34 years old, with Instagram’s popularity decreasing among older respondents. Those over 65 years of age made up 3.3 percent of users. Additionally, Instagram had slightly more female users in Germany than male users. Instagram’s popularity worldwide Instagram is one of the most popular social networks worldwide, with two billion active users. With audiences of 362.9 million users and 169.65 million users respectively, India and the United States led the list of the countries with the most Instagram users. In January 2024. Brazil and Indonesia ranked third and fourth, while Germany was ninth in the list. Instagram user demographics worldwide As of April 2024, almost one third of Instagram's global audience is made up of individuals aged between 18 and 25 years old. The second-largest share of Instagram users is individuals within the 25 to 34 years old age group. Older generations constituted a far smaller share of Instagram's user base.

According to information from NapoleonCat, the highest share of male Instagram users in Indonesia, 19.1 percent, were between the ages of 25 and 34 years as of December 2024. As of this date, there were approximately 90.2 million Instagram users in Indonesia, of which 45.8 percent were male.

In January 2025, 55.4 percent of Instagram users in the United States were women, and 44.6 percent were men. Overall, Instagram finds much popularity in the U.S., and the country is home to the platform's second-largest worldwide audience, with around 169.65 million users in the country.

As of January 2025, there were over 6.46 million Instagram users in Portugal, accounting for 64 percent of the population. Instagram saw a steady increase in users in Portugal throughout 2019 and 2020, however, user numbers declined sharply in May 2021. Overall, as of August and October 2023, audience numbers were higher than ever.

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.

In Hong Kong, as of January 2025, the largest group of Instagram users were aged 25 to 34, making up 35.3 percent of the platform's user base. Female users outnumbered males across all age groups.

As of February 2025, there were over 6.46 million Instagram users in Portugal, accounting for 64 percent of the population. Overall, 55.4 percent of users were women. People aged 25 to 34 years made up 26.9 percent of Instagram's users base in Portugal, whilst just 5.5 percent of users were aged 65 years and over.

As of January 2025, there were a total of 33.8 million users of Meta's Instagram in Germany. Overall, 14.5 percent of these users were men between the ages of 25 and 34 years, and a further 15.1 percent were women of the same age range, making these demographics the largest audiences of the app in Germany. Those over 65 years of age made up 3.3 percent of Instagram's German audience.

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.

The number of Instagram users in Czechia fluctuated in the observed period. The figures were dropping from July 2022 to January 2023. However, in February 2023, the number of Instagram significantly increased and as of May 2023, there were 4.2 million users, the highest value in the observed period. Following this rise, the figures decreased again, amounting to 3.95 million users by February 2025. The figures have been the same since May 2024.

In January 2025, there were more than 27 million users of Meta's Instagram in Spain. Overall, almost 26 percent of these users were women between the ages of 18 and 34 years, and a further 23.6 percent were men in the same age groups, making these demographics the largest audiences of the app in the country.