China was home to ove 1.18 bilion social media users in 2025, making it the country with the largest audience. It is expected that by 2030, the number of social media users in the country will exceed 1.3 billion. Additionally, India currently has around 874 billion users, and is estimated to reach 1.12 billion by 2023.

In 2022, Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for around ****** million social media users, ranking as the fifth most popular region for this type of platform worldwide. Brazil and Mexico were the countries with the continent’s biggest social network audiences, registering ****** million and ***** million users each in the measured period. Additionally, Brazil is also the fifth largest market for social media worldwide.

Meta’s new contenders

The products owned by social media giant Meta (formerly known as Facebook Inc.) still reign across the social media landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean, as Facebook is still used by almost ** percent of the continent’s population. However, new competitors like Telegram and content-focused networks like TikTok are challenging Meta’s hegemony. The ByteDance-owned company TikTok has already surpassed Instagram in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru regarding the number of users, becoming the second-largest network in these countries.

Hardships on internet access

Even though Latin America increases its connectivity in traffic via mobile devices, the inequality in access to the internet throughout the continent also is also reflected in the presence of its populations on social media platforms. Almost ** percent of people living in South America have access to these networks, against ** percent of those living in Central America and only ** percent of those living in the Caribbean.

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

As of February 2025, 5.56 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 20254. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2025, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 141 minutes per day, down from 143 minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent on social media per day is Brazil, with online users spending an average of 3 hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just 2 hours and 16 minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, the global social network penetration rate is 62.3 percent. Northern Europe had an 81.7 percent social media penetration rate, topping the ranking of global social media usage by region. Eastern and Middle Africa closed the ranking with 10.1 and 9.6 percent usage reach, respectively. People access social media for a variety of reasons. Users like to find funny or entertaining content and enjoy sharing photos and videos with friends, but mainly use social media to stay in touch with current events friends. Global impact of social mediaSocial media has a wide-reaching and significant impact on not only online activities but also offline behavior and life in general. During a global online user survey in February 2019, a significant share of respondents stated that social media had increased their access to information, ease of communication, and freedom of expression. On the flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

A survey done in March 2022 found that 31% of Republican voters said they would use Truth Social often and 14% said they plan to use the platform a lot.

The US has historically been the target country for Twitter since its launch in 2006. This is the full breakdown of Twitter users by country.

These Twitter user statistics will give you the complete story of where Twitter is at today and what the future looks like for the social media company.

As of February 2025, China ranked first among the countries with the most internet users worldwide. The world's most populated country had 1.11 billion internet users, more than triple the third-ranked United States, with just around 322 million internet users. Overall, all BRIC markets had over two billion internet users, accounting for four of the ten countries with more than 100 million internet users. Worldwide internet usage As of October 2024, there were more than five billion internet users worldwide. There are, however, stark differences in user distribution according to region. Eastern Asia is home to 1.34 billion internet users, while African and Middle Eastern regions had lower user figures. Moreover, the urban areas showed a higher percentage of internet access than rural areas. Internet use in China China ranks first in the list of countries with the most internet users. Due to its ongoing and fast-paced economic development and a cultural inclination towards technology, more than a billion of the estimated 1.4 billion population in China are online. As of the third quarter of 2023, around 87 percent of Chinese internet users stated using WeChat, the most popular social network in the country. On average, Chinese internet users spent five hours and 33 minutes online daily.

In 2024, Iceland was the worldwide leader in terms of internet freedom. The country ranked first with 94 index points in the Freedom House Index, where each country received a numerical score from 100 (the freest) to 0 (the least free). Estonia ranked second with a 92 index points, followed by Canada, with a score of 86 index points. Internet restrictions worldwide The decline of internet freedom in 2022 is mainly linked to political conflicts in different parts of the world. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government intensified its attempts to control the online content in the country. The government placed restrictions on three different U.S.-based social media platforms at the same time, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These restrictions made it to the top of the longest-lasting limitations on the web in 2022. Social protests rose in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. The Iranian government decided to shut down the internet and various social media platforms in an attempt to minimize the communication between the protesters. In 2022, 11 new internet restrictions were recorded in Iran. However, residents in the Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir saw the highest number of new internet restrictions, which amounted to more than double than the ones in Iran. The impact of internet shutdowns In 2022, the economic impact of internet restrictions worldwide reached an estimated 23.79 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, the highest financial losses due to internet shutdowns were caused by limitations in Russia, and more than seven thousand hours of restricted various online services had an economic impact of 21.59 billion U.S. dollars. The restrictions impacted around 113 million people in the country. Myanmar placed the most extended restriction on internet services, lasting 17,520 hours in total. Similar restrictions in India affected over 120 million people. 

According to a survey of content creators conducted in May 2022 in nine global markets, there were over 303 million users worldwide who regularly posted the results of their activities online as content creators. Among the examined markets, Brazil counted 106 million content creators, while the United States has around 86 million content creators as of the examined period. Content creators are social media and online users who share their experiences online via user-generated content. While their user base is often smaller than the one of an influencer, content creators have been observed to captivate users more effectively thanks to the creation of more intimate and topic-oriented communities.

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, Russia had the most Facebook users in the Caucasus region, with over ** million users. Azerbaijan ranked second with approximately *** 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 ***** 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 *** million as of April 2024.

In March 2025 in Norway, Facebook was the most visited social media platform, accounting for ***** percent of the market share. Pinterest ranked second, making up more than ***** percent of social network visits. Meta's Instagram followed, with *** percent of social media visits in Norway.  Social media users over the years  Overall, the share of individuals who participated in social networks increased significantly over the years. Starting at under ** percent of individuals in 2011, the share of social media users peaked in 2023, when ***** percent of the interviewed Norwegians reported to be using social networks. In 2022, the percentage was ***** percent.  Compared to the other Nordic countries, Norway ranked third by number of social media users in 2024, with **** million users that year. Sweden was the Nordic country with most social media users – **** million. Denmark was second and Finland was fourth in the ranking.

In 2022, around ** percent of the New Zealand population were active social media users. The social media penetration rate has continued to increase, in-line with the growing digitalization of the country. While not the most active country in the Asia Pacific region, New Zealand still ranked in the top ten in terms of social media penetration out of countries from Asia Pacific. How are Kiwis using social media? Most of the population use social media on a mobile device. With increasing smartphone usage and accessibility, current global trends look set to establish the standard for mobile-only social media usage in the near future. In fact, many social media services are better experienced on a mobile device. An average of *** hour and ** minutes per day were spent on social media by internet users in the country in 2020. This is much lower than the approximate **** hours per day spent by online users in the Philippines. Which social media are the most popular? The most popular social networks in the country included YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. YouTube and Facebook dominated the market, both with over ** percent penetration rates. Facebook was popular among all age groups, with the highest number of Facebook users in the 25 to 34-year age group. Instagram has gained popularity with younger generations in the country.

In 2022, Instagram was the world's leading social media app, with *** million downloads WhatsApp ranked second with *** million downloads, while Telegram surpassed the remaining mobile versions of Meta-owned social media platforms Facebook and Messenger. Newcomer BeReal, a photo-sharing social media app launched in 2020, entered the ranking in tenth position with over ** million global downloads during the examined year.

More than three-quarters of the Russian online population aged 16 years and older used the Telegram messenger, thus making it the most-used social media platform among those listed in the ranking. WhatsApp ranked second, with a penetration rate of nearly 74 percent, followed by VK and TikTok. Social media usage in Russia In 2024, the daily time spent on social media in Russia was recorded at roughly two hours and 20 minutes per user on average. After Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) were blocked in Russia at the end of February and the beginning of March 2022, a significant increase in activity was recorded on VK and Telegram. For example, the daily audience on VK increased by almost nine percent, while the number of friends requests and feed views grew by 250 percent and 25 percent, respectively. YouTube From the global perspective, YouTube ranked second after Facebook, which remained the leading social media platform with about three billion active users. The U.S.-based channel MrBeast had the highest number of subscribers on YouTube with around 343 million as of January 2025. India-based T-Series followed with 284 million subscribers as of that month.

The United States is leading the ranking by ad spending in the 'Video Advertising' segment of the digital advertising market, recording ** billion U.S. dollars. Following closely behind is China with **** billion U.S. dollars, while Canada is trailing the ranking with *** billion U.S. dollars, resulting in a difference of **** billion U.S. dollars to the ranking leader, the United States. Find other insights concerning similar markets and segments, such as a ranking by country regarding ad spending in the digital advertising market and a ranking of subsegments in Worldwide regarding ad spending|revenue in the segment Banner Advertising | Video Advertising | Search Advertising | Social Media Advertising . The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

This statistic shows a ranking of the estimated number of Instagram users in 2020 in Africa, differentiated by country. The user numbers 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 more than 150 countries and regions worldwide. All input data are sourced from international institutions, national statistical offices, and trade associations. All data has been are processed to generate comparable datasets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

The number of Reddit users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 10.3 million users (+5.21 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Reddit user base is estimated to reach 208.12 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Reddit users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here with regards to the platform reddit, 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. Reddit users encompass both users that are logged in and those that are not.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 Reddit users in countries like Mexico and Canada.