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 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.

There were 172 606 500 Instagram users in United States of America in April 2024, which accounted for 50.2% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 55.5%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (48 800 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 35 to 44, where women lead by 14 900 000.

There were 90 183 200 Instagram users in Indonesia in August 2024, which accounted for 31.8% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 54.2%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (36 000 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where women lead by 12 600 000.

59% of adults in the united states are using Instagram daily.

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.

There are over 1.5 billion registered users on Instagram in 2024.

There were 19 183 000 Instagram users in Iraq in April 2024, which accounted for 41.3% of its entire population. The majority of them were men - 60.3%. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (7 700 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 25 to 34, where men lead by 4 400 000.

There were 1 323 000 Instagram users in Croatia in July 2021, which accounted for 33% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 54.9%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (440 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 35 to 44, where women lead by 97 000.

The most significant cohorts of users on Instagram are aged 25 – 34.

There were 526 600 Instagram users in Estonia in April 2024, which accounted for 41.9% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 60.6%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (157 300). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 35 to 44, where women lead by 48 500.

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.

There were 1 779 700 Instagram users in Georgia in May 2024, which accounted for 45.7% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 58.4%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (593 100). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 35 to 44, where women lead by 135 300.

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.

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

According to a global online survey conducted in 2022, 50 percent of weekly Instagram users said that they wanted to see funny content on the social media platform. Additionally, 46 percent of all respondents said that they wanted to see creative content, whilst 41 percent said they wanted to see informative content on Instagram. Over a third of users wanted to see engaging content on the photo and video sharing app.

Instagram’s global popularity
Meta-owned image and video sharing app Instagram enjoys an impressive reach among digital audiences. As of January 2023, Brunei and Kazakhstan were the countries with the highest audience reach, while Brazil presented an Instagram reach of over 63.6 percent for the examined period. Instagram's audience is forecasted to reach 1.4 billion global users in 2024, an increase of 73 percent compared to the 805 million users registered in 2018.

Instagram usage on mobile Instagram's popularity is not only evident in its reach but also in its download numbers. Between January 2020 and April 2023, the Meta-powered

There were 19 554 400 Instagram users in Thailand in March 2024, which accounted for 27.8% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 60.9%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (8 200 000). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 25 to 34, where women lead by 3 300 000.

There were 1 949 300 Instagram users in Bulgaria in May 2024, which accounted for 29% of its entire population. The majority of them were women - 55.8%. People aged 25 to 34 were the largest user group (583 700). The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where women lead by 249 000.

Between 2023 and 2024, Carousels and single image posts on Instagram experienced a slight decrease in engagement. Overall, engagement on Reels from feed* stood at 6.92 percent in 2024, up from 4.5 percent in 2023. Additionally, average user reach on Instagram decresed from 2023 to 2024.