Meta's family of apps continues to dominate the global social media landscape, with 3.35 billion daily active users across its core products in the fourth quarter of 2024. This represents a slight increase from the previous quarter and underscores the company's enduring influence in connecting people worldwide. The steady growth in user numbers has been accompanied by rising revenue, with Meta's average revenue per user reaching 49.63 U.S. dollars in 2024, up from 44.60 U.S. dollars in 2023. 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.

During the fourth quarter of 2023, Meta stated that 3.98 billion people were using at least one of the company's core products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger) each month. This was a slight increase of monthly active users (MAU) when compared to the previous quarter. Daily active users (DAU) of Meta's core products also saw year-over-year increases.

With roughly three billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2023, Facebook is the most used online social network worldwide. The platform surpassed two billion active users in the second quarter of 2017, taking just over 13 years to reach this milestone. In comparison, Meta-owned Instagram took 11.2 years, and Google’s YouTube took just over 14 years to achieve this landmark. As of January 2022, Facebook’s leading audience base was in India, with almost 330 million users whilst the United States ranked second with an approximate total of 179 million users. The platform also finds remarkable popularity in Indonesia and Brazil. Social Media usage in the United States In January 2021, Facebook was the platform on which users in the United States spent the most time per day. The average time spent on Facebook was 33 minutes, followed by TikTok with 32 minutes and Twitter with 31 daily minutes. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, all major social media platforms saw an increase in daily usage, which then either plateaued or decreased in 2021. At the end of 2021, over a quarter of all Facebook users in the United States belonged to the 25 to 34 year age group and 18.2 percent of users were in the 35 to 44 year age group. In general, Facebook users were more likely to be female. Meta Platforms Meta is Facebook’s recently renamed parent company and had a grand total of 3.59 billion core product users by the final quarter of 2021. Other Meta products include Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus – Meta’s virtual reality subsidiary which produces VR headsets. In 2021, Meta's revenue amounted to 117 billion US dollars, up from around 86 billion U.S. dollars in the previous financial year.

Which county has the most Facebook users? There are more than 378 million Facebook users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of Facebook audience size. To put this into context, if India’s Facebook audience were a country then it would be ranked third in terms of largest population worldwide. Apart from India, there are several other markets with more than 100 million Facebook users each: The United States, Indonesia, and Brazil with 193.8 million, 119.05 million, and 112.55 million Facebook users respectively. Facebook – the most used social media Meta, the company that was previously called Facebook, owns four of the most popular social media platforms worldwide, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram. As of the third quarter of 2021, there were around 3,5 billion cumulative monthly users of the company’s products worldwide. With around 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social media worldwide. With an audience of this scale, it is no surprise that the vast majority of Facebook’s revenue is generated through advertising. Facebook usage by device As of July 2021, it was found that 98.5 percent of active users accessed their Facebook account from mobile devices. In fact, almost 81.8 percent of Facebook audiences worldwide access the platform only via mobile phone. Facebook is not only available through mobile browser as the company has published several mobile apps for users to access their products and services. As of the third quarter 2021, the four core Meta products were leading the ranking of most downloaded mobile apps worldwide, with WhatsApp amassing approximately six billion downloads.

In March 2024, Threads generated around 28 million downloads worldwide. Meta Platforms released its X competitor Threads in July 2023. The app generated about 73 million app downloads within the first month of release. The text-based social platform was initially launched in 100 countries but was notable absent in the EU due to data protection regulations. On December 14, 2023, Threads was finally launched in the EU.

The number of Facebook users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 12.6 million users (+5.04 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Facebook user base is estimated to reach 262.8 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Facebook users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform facebook, 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 January 2025, 24.2 percent of Facebook users in the United States were aged between 25 and 34 years, making up Facebook’s largest audience in the country. Overall, 19 percent of users belonged to the 18 to 24-year age group. Does everyone in the U.S. use Facebook? In 2023, there were approximately 247 million Facebook users in the U.S., a figure which is projected to steadily increase, and reach 262.8 million by 2028. Social media users in the United States have a very high awareness of the social media giant. Expectedly, 94 percent of users had heard of the brand in 2023. Although the vast majority of U.S. social networkers knew of Facebook, the likeability of the platform was not so impressive at 68 percent. Nonetheless, usage, loyalty, and buzz around the brand remained relatively high. Facebook, Meta, and the metaverse A strategic rebranding from Facebook to Meta Platforms in late 2021 boded well for the company in Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to be strongly linked to the metaverse, and to be considered more than just a social media company. According to a survey conducted in the U.S. in early 2022, Meta Platforms is the brand that Americans most associated with the metaverse.  

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Meta's Facebook had 408 million monthly active users (MAUs) in Europe. During the same quarter of 2022, the platform amassed around 407 million MAUs in Europe.

Monthly active users worldwide

In the fourth quarter of 2008 Facebook provided a service for just 100 million active users. Thirteen years on, as of the second quarter of 2021 that number had risen to an astounding 2.89 billion MAUs. The number of MAUs has never taken a backward step during the examined period.

 Growth outside of Europe and North America 

Facebook continues to focus on regions outside of Europe and North America, and the reward of this effort can be seen in areas such as the Asia Pacific region, where the company has seen significant gains in terms of growing the active user base. Facebook reached over 788 million daily active users (DAU) in the second quarter of 2021.

Among Meta Platforms, the messenger WhatsApp had the largest audience in Russia, with nearly 84 million monthly users in January 2022. Instagram was used by 67 million Russians in that month. A lower user count was recorded for Facebook, to which consumers preferred domestic social networks like VK (Vkontakte) and Ok.ru (Odnoklassniki). Russia was the third-largest market of WhatsApp by number of users in 2020, following only India and Brazil. Furthermore, it was the most popular messenger app in the country, with nearly twice as many monthly users as those of Telegram.

Facebook and Twitter ban in Russia in 2022 In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started in February 2022, Meta blocked Facebook pages of Russian state-owned media RT and Sputnik in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK). On March 4, 2022, The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) banned Facebook for discriminating against Russian media. It also blocked Twitter, demanding that the platform removed false information about the military attack.

Instagram ban in Russia in 2022 On March 10, 2022, Reuters reported that Meta permitted Facebook and Instagram posts in several countries that contained violent speech toward Russian soldiers in relation to the war, which would otherwise be prohibited under the company's hate speech policy. On the following day, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia considered that propaganda of terrorism and requested to designate Meta as an extremist organization and ban its activity in the country. Meta's global affairs chief Nick Clegg stated on March 11, 2022, that the policy changes would only apply in Ukraine. Roskomnadzor banned Instagram access in Russia on March 14, 2022.

In October 2022, Meta's Horizon World VR gaming platform claimed about 200 thousand active users, down from 280 thousand active users in February of the same year. The original target of 500 thousand active users at year-end was adjusted to a goal of a user base of 280 thousand. Expansion of the platform is currently limited due to small regional availability (Horizon Worlds is only available in seven countries) and the necessity of either an Oculus Rift S or a Meta Quest 2 VR headset.

As of the fourth quarter of 2023, Facebook had a combined 272 million monthly active users (MAU) in the United States and Canada, up by one million users when compared to the previous quarter.

Facebook user data – additional information

Facebook’s data use policy or privacy policy as it is also known, highlights the company’s guidelines concerning user privacy, information and how they are likely to be used. It also highlights the difference between public and private data and the websites and third part apps which are integrated into its services.

Federal agencies and governments have the right to request user data from Facebook. This issue was highlighted in late 2014, when Facebook came under attack from the British press for not releasing relevant information on the men responsible for the supposed pre planned murder on the British soldier Lee Rigby. In the second half of 2020, the number of user data requests issued to Facebook from the United States amounted to 61,262. This figure was higher than any other country, and India ranked second with 40,300 data requests.

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 2025, users aged 25 to 34 years made up Facebook's largest audience in the United States, accounting for 24.2 percent of the social network's user base, with 12.3 percent of those users being women. Overall, 9.7 percent of users aged 35 to 44 years were women, and 9.3 percent were men. How many people use Facebook in the United States? Facebook is by far the most used social network in the world and finds a huge share of its audience in the United States. Facebook’s U.S. audience size comes second only to India. In 2023, there were over 246 million Facebook users in the U.S. By 2028, it is estimated that around 263 million people in the U.S. will be signed up for the platform. How do users in the United States view the platform? Although Facebook is widely used and very popular with U.S. consumers, there are issues of trust with its North American audience. As of November 2021, 72 percent of respondents reported that they did not trust Facebook with their personal data. Despite having privacy doubts, a May 2022 survey found that 20 percent of adults had a very favorable opinion of Facebook, and one-third held a somewhat positive view of the platform.

As of January 2025, Russia had the most Facebook users in the Caucasus region, with over 70 million users. Azerbaijan ranked second with approximately 5.1 million users.   Facebook usage in Russia Facebook, together with some other social media platforms of Meta, were banned in Russia in 2022. Prior to the ban, Facebook’s popularity in Russia was conditioned by the presence of VK, or previously VKontakte, for some the local version of the former. In 2022, Facebook ranked sixth by number of social media publications in the country, while VK listed first. When it comes to user demographics, users aged 25 to 34 years represented the largest share of Meta Platforms' advertising audience in the country. Global overview Even though Facebook was not the most popular social media platform in Russia, it remained the global leader with more than three billion active users as of 2024. In terms of usage by country, the largest number of the Facebook users was recorded in India, at approximately 378 million as of April 2024.

Users aged 25 to 34 years old made up the largest audience of Facebook in the United Kingdom in January 2025, accounting for 24.7 percent of all users. Overall, Facebook users aged 35 to 44 were the platform's second-largest demographic in the UK, followed by those aged 18 to 24. Dip in overall user numbers As of November 2024, there were over 55.9 million Facebook users in the UK, up from 39.01 million in September 2018, according to napoleoncat.com. However, since a peak of 57.1 million users in May 2022, Facebook's audience has decreased slightly. Facebook’s user number issues have not just been limited to the United Kingdom, with figures released by the company highlighting issues in several key markets. There was a small growth in Europe from the first quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020. The company counted 305 million daily active users (DAU) in Europe during the first quarter of 2020. Facebook United Kingdom key source of European revenue Facebook UK Limited generated approximately 211 million British pounds in revenue during 2015, a figure that skyrocketed  to 842 million British pounds in 2016. According to Facebook UK, this was the results of the company commencing advertiser reseller services in April 2016. In 2019, Facebook UK Limited revenue reached roughly one billion British pounds. In the third quarter of 2024, the company’s total European revenue reached over 9.49 billion U.S. dollars 

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.

The number of Facebook users in Italy was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 5.6 million users (+18.4 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Facebook user base is estimated to reach 35.98 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Facebook users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform facebook, 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).

The number of Facebook users in Austria was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.3 million users (+5.52 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Facebook user base is estimated to reach 5.72 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Facebook users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform facebook, 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 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.

As of the fourth quarter of 2024, Meta's Threads had approximately 275 million monthly active users (MAU), up from 200 million MAU in the third quarter of 2024. Just 24 hours after the release of Threads in July 2023, 30 million people were using the new network from Meta Platforms.