The number of social media users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 4.7 million users (+8.92 percent). After the eleventh consecutive increasing year, the social media user base is estimated to reach 57.35 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of social media users of was continuously increasing over the past years.The shown figures regarding social media users have been derived from survey data that has been processed to estimate missing demographics.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 Pinterest users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.3 million users (+3.14 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Pinterest user base is estimated to reach 9.88 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Pinterest users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform pinterest, 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 use of social media platforms continues to increase in the United Kingdom (UK) and is predicted to do so for the foreseeable future. As of 2024, there are a total of 52.7 million social network users in the UK. The number of social media users in the UK is expected to reach 65 million by 2027. Facebook users in the United Kingdom Social media network Facebook, which recently rebranded as Meta in a move towards the metaverse, had 51.34 million users in the United Kingdom as of December 2021, a relatively small increase on the previous year of 0.3 million. Two years prior, the number of FB users in the UK was 44.86 million. Throughout 2021, Facebook’s user numbers declined, sinking to 49.35 in September, however, toward the end of the year, audience figures recovered. Furthermore, Facebook Messenger, Facebook’s instant messaging app, had a total of 35.71 million UK users at the end of 2021. The majority of UK Facebook users at the end of last year belonged to the 25 to 34 year age group which made up 25.1 percent of all users. Overall, 12.5 percent of audiences this age group were women and 12.7 percent were men. Popular social networks in the United Kingdom In 2021, social media app Instagram had a total of 28 million UK users. Instagram was most popular amongst 25 to 34 year olds, accounting for approximately a third of users. In addition, professional online networking platform LinkedIn also finds popularity amongst this demographic, with 57.2 percent of its users being between the ages of 25 and 34 years.

According to a survey of social media users conducted in the United Kingdom between April 2023 and March 2024, 67 percent of Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2012, were using social media daily. The same was true for around 71 percent of Millennials and Generation X users in the country. Surprisingly, Baby Boomers had the highest share of daily usage frequency, as 73 percent of respondents in this age cohort reported engaging with social media daily.

According to a survey of social media users conducted in the United Kingdom between April 2023 and March 2024, 68 percent of Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2012, were using social media to send private messages. The same was true for around 60 percent of Millennials in the country. Half of Gen Z reported liking content published by influencers and content creators, while only 13 percent of UK Baby Boomers and 36 percent of Millennials reported doing the same.

As of June 2023, 28 percent of social media users in the United Kingdom (UK) were aged between 30 and 39 years old. Overall, 22 percent of social networks user in the UK belonged to the 18 to 29 year age group.

Ipsos data on the share of Facebook use among certain age groups in the UK shows that the group between 25 and 34 years of age has the largest share of use and the group between 45 and 54 has the smallest share. All above 55 years of age were in grouped together distorting the data by bringing too many respondents together. Nonetheless the trend is clear: use among the young but not among the youngest is most common and decreases with the age of the respondents group. When compared to the number of Facebook users per age group in the United States as well as to numbers from the Netherlands similar observations can be made.

Facebook is the leading social network worldwide and holds the highest market share of social networks in the UK.

Further information about social media usage in the UK and Facebook can be found in the Dossier: Facebook in the United Kingdom.

As of early 2024, advertising on YouTube had the highest reach in the United Kingdom among the presented social networks, with roughly 91 percent. LinkedIn and Facebook followed, with 72.5 and 68.9 percent, respectively. An ad medium attractive for marketers… The UK is the third-largest social media market worldwide, behind the United States and China. The market was worth 9.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2023 and is expected to grow to 10.9 billion by 2028. In the same period, social media usage is also forecast to increase. Its penetration rate is projected to deepen from an already high 91 percent to 94 percent of internet users. …but not so trusted by consumers Popular as it is, social media advertising was the second-least trusted medium among adults in the UK in 2023. Only influencer ads scored lower. This holds true across all age groups, underscoring the fact that even though social media is especially popular among younger internet users, they do not necessarily trust everything they see there. In the age group of 18 to 34, cinema is the most trusted ad medium; among older adults, TV reigns supreme.

In 2022, daily time spent on TikTok in the United Kingdom (UK) reached approximately 50 minutes, up by over 110 percent compared to 2019. In comparison, Facebook usage between 2020 to 2022 went down to approximately 43 minutes on a daily basis. In the examined time, Instagram engagement remained at around 30 minutes per day among UK users in the examined period.

During coronavirus lockdowns in 2020, many UK adults resorted to social media. Facebook and Messenger were the apps with the largest audience reach throughout the year. However apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, Pinterest, Houseparty and especially TikTok, saw a steep jump March and April 2020. As of December2020, there were 11.4 million adults in the United Kingdom accessing TikTok.

According to a survey of younger internet users conducted in the United Kingdom in 2021, 97 percent of respondents aged between 16 and17 years old used social media, while 94 percent had their own social media profile. Over nine in 10 respondents belonging to the 12 to 15 year age group used social media, whilst 89 percent had their profiles. Overall, around one fifth of those aged three to four years used social media, and one quarter of this age group had their own social media profile.

As of January 2024, 49.9 percent of social media users in the United Kingdom were women. Overall, the penetration rate of social media in the UK stood at 91.17 percent in 2023, and is expected to rise to over 93 percent by 2027.

In 2023, children in the United Kingdom spent an average of 127 minutes per day on TikTok. This was followed by Instagram, as children in the UK reported using the app for an average of 40 minutes daily. Children in the UK aged between four and 18 years also used Facebook for 15 minutes a day on average in the measured period.

Mobile ownership and usage among UK children In 2021, around 60 percent of kids aged between eight and 11 years in the UK owned a smartphone, while children aged between five and seven having access to their own device were approximately 30 percent. Mobile phones were also the second most popular devices used to access the web by children aged between eight and 11 years, as tablet computers were still the most popular option for users aged between three and 11 years. Children were not immune to the popularity acquired by short video format content in 2020 and 2021, spending an average of 97 minutes per day engaging with TikTok, as well as over 50 minutes on the YouTube app in 2021.

Children data protection In 2021, 37 percent of U.S. parents and 44 percent of UK parents reported being slightly concerned with their children’s device usage habits. While the share of parents reporting to be very or extremely concerned was considerably smaller, children are considered among the most vulnerable digital audiences and need additional attention when it comes to data and privacy protection. According to a study conducted during the first quarter of 2022, 76 percent of children’s apps hosted in the Google Play Store and 67 percent of apps hosted in the Apple App Store transmitted users’ locations to advertisers.

Additionally, 42 percent of kids’ apps were found to collect persistent identifiers, such as users’ IP addresses, which could potentially lead to Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) violations in the United States. In the United Kingdom, companies have to take into account several obligations when considering online environments for children, including an age-appropriate design and avoiding sharing children’s data.

During an early 2023 survey carried out among among people who run their own business or side hustle in the United Kingdom, nine percent stated they used TikTok as primary social media platforms used by small businesses for sales generation. Facebook ranked first, named by 30 percent of respondents.

In 2022, YouTube was the most used social platform among children and teenagers in the United Kingdom, with 88 percent of respondents stating that they had used the service. WhatsApp ranked second, with 55 percent of kids and teens in the UK being active on the platform. Additionally, usage of TikTok and Snapchat increased from 2021 to 2021 among those aged three to 17 in the UK.

Youth accounts on the rise again From 80 percent in 2012, the share of children aged 12 to 15 years of age with a social media account fell to 70 percent in 2018, but increased again in 2020, peaking at 87 percent. Despite some major social networks setting minimum age limits in their terms of service, 30 percent of children aged 5 to 7 years had a social media account in 2020, according to Ofcom.

Facebook falling out of favor with teens Among teens and young adults in the United States, Youtuba and Instagram had a higher reach than any other social network, slightly ahead of Facebook and Snapchat. When you remove young adults from the picture, Snapchat is clearly the most important social network and Facebook barely comes into the equation. Since the Fall/Autumn period of 2017, less than ten percent of teens in the United States said Facebook was their most important social network, compared with more than 34 percent of teens who nominated Snapchat. The new hot trend among Gen Z is TikTok, selected by 29 percent of respondents and ranking second.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom in 2022, 15 percent of TikTok users aged between 13 and 17 years had experienced anonymous trolling in the past month, and a further 15 percent had seen sexualized images on the platform. Overall, 14 percent of teenagers in the UK who used YouTube had recently seen violent or gory content, whilst one in ten respondents had seen images of diet restriction on Instagram.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom in the third quarter of 2023, the main reason for using social media was to keep in touch with family and friends, with 55.4 percent of internet users choosing this reason. Overall, 40 percent of internet users in the UK said their main reason for accessing social media platforms was to fill spare time.

The most-used social media site among teenagers and young adults in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020 was YouTube. A survey carried out by AudienceProject revealed that 82 percent of 15 to 25-year-olds said they used the video-sharing platform, making it more popular than Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

YouTube stars

The leading celebrity YouTube channel in the UK in terms of the number of subscribers is Ed Sheeran. The pop singer had a 42.8 million subscribers as of December 2019. Other popular celebrity channels were One Direction and Adele, although Ed Sheeran had more subscribers than both of these combined.

Social media and generational differences

Comparing the social media sites most used by other age groups reveals some interesting differences. In the 26 to 35 age group, Facebook was the most popular social media platform with 82.5 percent. Of those aged 36 to 45, less than 30 percent used Facebook, and just 13.2 percent used YouTube.

According to a survey of internet users conducted in June 2023 in the United Kingdom, 80 percent of men reported using YouTube at least monthly, while 70 percent of women reported similar consumption trends. Among women, Facebook was the most used social media platform to consume video content - as approximately 74 percent of women in the UK reported engaging with the platform monthly.

During the third quarter of 2024, internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) spent an average over five and a half hours per day accessing the internet via any device. UK online audiences spent approximately one hour and 37 minutes per day on social media, while an additional 50 minutes were devoted to using a gaming console daily. Traditional media - is usage declining? Some forms of traditional media in the country are in decline more than others when it comes to usage, which is especially visible in the case of TV. In recent years the number of TV households in the UK has remained fairly unchanged, however, the time spent watching television has been constantly decreasing. Interestingly, radio listenership has not followed this trend. Digital radio format usage is growing as per some studies. Yet, live radio dominates the time spent with any audio in the UK by a large margin.British radio is a showcase for the loyalty of its fans. In mid-2023, after 30 years of employment at BBC, Ken Bruce, one of the highest-earning presenters of the company, left to work at a rival radio station. He took both of his signature programs to his new employer. Even though BBC Radio 2 remains the leading radio station in the UK by audience numbers, Bruce’s departure meant a loss of a million listeners for the BBC between the first and second quarters of 2023.

According to a November 2024 study of travelers in the United Kingdom, Instagram had the highest conversion rate for travel visits or travel purchases among the selected social media platforms. Overall, 44 percent of respondents visited a destination or made a travel purchase after seeing travel-related content on Instagram. TikTok and Facebook followed in the ranking, with conversion rates of 42 and 40 percent, respectively.