The global social media penetration rate in was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 11.6 (+18.19 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the penetration rate is estimated to reach 75.31 and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the social media penetration rate of was continuously increasing over the past years.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2019 and 2020, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to *** minutes per day, up from *** minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent on social media per day is the Philippines, with online users spending an average of ***** hours and ** minute on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just *** hours and ***** minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, the global social network penetration rate is nearly ** percent. Western Europe had a ** percent social media penetration rate, topping the ranking of global social media usage by region. Eastern and Middle Africa closed the ranking with *** and ***** 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 flipside, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

How many people use social media?

              Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities. In 2024, over five billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to over six billion in 2028.

              Who uses social media?
              Social networking is one of the most popular digital activities worldwide and it is no surprise that social networking penetration across all regions is constantly increasing. As of January 2023, the global social media usage rate stood at 59 percent. This figure is anticipated to grow as lesser developed digital markets catch up with other regions
              when it comes to infrastructure development and the availability of cheap mobile devices. In fact, most of social media’s global growth is driven by the increasing usage of mobile devices. Mobile-first market Eastern Asia topped the global ranking of mobile social networking penetration, followed by established digital powerhouses such as the Americas and Northern Europe.

              How much time do people spend on social media?
              Social media is an integral part of daily internet usage. On average, internet users spend 151 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps, an increase of 40 minutes since 2015. On average, internet users in Latin America had the highest average time spent per day on social media.

              What are the most popular social media platforms?
              Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently boasts approximately 2.9 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social network worldwide. In June 2023, the top social media apps in the Apple App Store included mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram Messenger, as well as the ever-popular app version of Facebook.

In 2025, Facebook remained the most popular social media network for news worldwide, with ** percent of respondents to a survey held in February that year saying that they had used the platform for news in the last week. On the other hand, TikTok news consumption is on the rise—in 2025, it was *** times higher than in 2020, when it stood at just *** percent.

As of February 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 usage Currently, 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 and friends. Global impact of social media Social 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 polarization in politics, and heightened everyday distractions.

In 2024, around ** percent of the population of the United Kingdom was active on social media. By 2028, it is expected that ** percent of the country's population will be using social media services. Social media's global reach As of April 2024, Northern and Western Europe possessed the highest rates of social network penetration globally, with **** and **** percent, respectively. Eastern and Middle Africa had the lowest coverage, with **** and *** percent. The global average was **** percent, which means that almost *** out of ***people around the world are using social networks. Other major platforms Although Meta continues to dominate the social media landscape in the UK, other social media brands are consistently getting more popular, especially with younger users. In 2024, video-sharing social media app TikTok had an awareness of over ** percent in the UK and a usage of over ** percent. Snapchat, owned by Snap Inc., had an awareness of around ** percent.

This statistic presents the share of internet users worldwide who believe that social media platforms have had an impact on selected aspects of daily life as of February 2019. During the survey period, 44 percent of respondents stated that they believed that social media platforms have led to an increasing polarization in politics.

This statistic presents the average number of social media accounts per internet user as of July 2019, sorted by age group. During the survey period, it was found that global internet users aged 16 to 24 years had an average of *** social media accounts.

In 2024, almost ** percent of the population in the United States were using social media, up from ** percent in 2029. It is estimated that by 2029, around ** percent of the U.S. population will be using social media.

In 2022, daily time spent on TikTok in the United Kingdom (UK) reached approximately ** minutes, up by over *** percent compared to 2019. In comparison, Facebook usage between 2020 to 2022 went down to approximately ** minutes on a daily basis. In the examined time, Instagram engagement remained at around ** minutes per day among UK users in the examined period.

In 2023, adults in the United States spent a total of *** billion minutes on Facebook per day, making the social network the most popular platform in terms of daily user engagement. However, this is set to change as TikTok is projected to overtake the blue giant in 2025 as Facebook's daily usage time is projected to decline by then.

In 2019, social media users in the Latin American region ranked in terms of daily social network usage, spending an average of * hours and ** minutes per day on social networks. Users in North America accessed social media for approximately *** hour and ** minutes per day.

During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, approximately 83 percent selected increased exposure as a benefit of social media marketing. Increased traffic followed, mentioned by 73 percent of the respondents, while 65 percent cited generated leads.

              The multibillion-dollar social media ad industry

              Between 2019 – the last year before the pandemic – and 2024, global social media advertising spending skyrocketed by 140 percent, surpassing an estimated 230 billion U.S. dollars in the latter year. That figure was forecast to increase by nearly 50 percent by the end of the decade, exceeding 345 billion dollars in 2029. As of 2024, the social media networks with the most monthly active users were Facebook, with over three billion, and YouTube, with more than 2.5 billion.

              Pros and cons of GenAI for social media marketing

              According to another 2024 survey, generative artificial intelligence's (GenAI) leading benefits for social media marketing according to professionals worldwide included increased efficiency and easier idea generation. The third place was a tie between increased content production and enhanced creativity. All those advantages were cited by between 33 and 38 percent of the interviewees. As for GenAI's top challenges for global social media marketing,
              maintaining authenticity and the value of human creativity ranked first, mentioned by 43 and 40 percent of the respondents, respectively. Another 35 percent deemed ensuring the content resonates as an obstacle.

Facebook remains the most popular social media in Latin America in 2025, with an audience of 448 million users. However, other platforms currently have a higher growth rate than Meta's flagship platform. The Byte-dance owned platform TikTok has become the third-largest platform in the region, with around 261.9 million users, only behind Instagram, which amasses around 276.4 million users.

A global survey conducted in the third quarter of 2024 found that the main reason for using social media was to keep in touch with friends and family, with over 50.8 percent of social media users saying this was their main reason for using online networks. Overall, 39 percent of social media users said that filling spare time was their main reason for using social media platforms, whilst 34.5 percent of respondents said they used it to read news stories. Less than one in five users were on social platforms for the reason of following celebrities and influencers.

              The most popular social network

              Facebook dominates the social media landscape. The world's most popular social media platform turned 20 in February 2024, and it continues to lead the way in terms of user numbers. As of February 2025, the social network had over three billion global users. YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp follow, but none of these well-known brands can surpass Facebook’s audience size.
              Moreover, as of the final quarter of 2023, there were almost four billion Meta product users.

              Ever-evolving social media usage

              The utilization of social media remains largely gratuitous; however, companies have been encouraging users to become paid subscribers to reduce dependence on advertising profits. Meta Verified entices users by offering a blue verification badge and proactive account protection, among other things. X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, and Reddit also offer users the chance to upgrade their social media accounts for a monthly free.

Over the last two observations, the reach by social network in Mexico is forecast to significantly increase in almost all segments. Particularly striking is the exceptionally strong increase of the segment TikTok towards the end of the forecast period, as it is predicted to reach **** million users by 2029. In contrast, the reach of Tumblr, WeChat, and Snapchat, are expected to see a decrease in users throughout the analyzed period.Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the social network reach in Spain and a comparison of the ad spending in the world.The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

In 2025, Facebook remained the most-used social platform for news in the United States, with ** percent of respondents reporting they accessed news on it. YouTube followed closely at ** percent, recording a slight increase from the previous year. X (formerly Twitter) saw the most notable growth, rising by ***** percent to ** percent.

The number of Instagram users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 2.1 million users (+7.02 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Instagram user base is estimated to reach 32 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).

In August 2024, Facebook accounted for ***** percent of all visits to social media websites in South America. Meanwhile, Pinterest's share of visits amounted to ***** percent, while Instagram registered around ***** percent. Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia were among the South American countries with the most Facebook users.

Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities and in 2021, ** percent of the population in the United States had a social networking profile, representing a *** percent increase from the ** percent usage reach in the previous year. This equals approximately 223 million U.S. social media users as of 2020. Global social media access According to estimates, the number of worldwide social media users reached *** billion in January 2021. The overall most popular social network based on active users is the American market leader Facebook. In January 2021, Facebook had some **** billion accounts, followed by YouTube and WhatsApp with roughly *** billion and *** billion users respectively. The regions with the highest penetration of social media users are Western and Northern Europe. Social media audiences in the United States Although knowing how many people use social media is a powerful indicator of the tremendous influence such websites and apps have in our day to day life, how people are using them and who these users are is also telling. A report on social media usage released in 2019 shows that among Americans, younger online audiences were more likely to use social networks than older generations. Social media users in the United States use different social networks for a wide range of purposes. In a February 2019 survey, Instagram was the top social network for viewing photos whereas Facebook was more popular for sharing content.