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.

This statistic presents the social network membership reach among the online population in the United States. During the February 2017 survey, 27 percent of U.S. internet users accessed the social image sharing platform Pinterest. Facebook was ranked first with a 78 percent usage rate.

Despite a tumultuous 2018, Facebook is still the top social network in the United States, with 169.76 million mobile users accessing the Facebook app in September 2019. The company’s other properties Instagram and Facebook Messenger ranked second and third with 121 and 106 million users respectively. Cambridge Analytica scandal 2018 The biggest social media company in the world had a difficult 2018. The platform has long been accused of enabling the spread of fake news during the 2016 election and beyond. One of the first and biggest negative Facebook stories of 2018 was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which unfolded from March 2018. The Guardian, The Observer, and The New York Times simultaneously reported on political data firm Cambridge Analytica harvesting data of millions of Facebook users worldwide without their knowledge before the 2016 election, which led to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg having to testify before Congress in April 2018. Facebook usage behavior changes Due to the revelations about Facebook and the company’s treatment of private user data, many U.S. users are planning to use the social network much less and to be much more careful about what they post . During an April 2018 survey, only 20 percent of respondents stated that their Facebook usage has not changed, and they were planning on continuing to use the social platform as much as they always had in the past.

This statistic shows the results of a 2017 survey in which consumers in the United States were asked which social media sites they use for researching new food products, recipes, and nutritional information. According to the report, 38 percent of respondents indicated that they use Facebook for researching food.

In January 2025, X, formerly known as Twitter, held a market share of more than 58 percent in Hong Kong's social media scene in terms of pageviews across all devices, followed by YouTube and Facebook. The American social news and discussion website Reddit has gained traction since the anti-government protests in the city in 2020. Facebook is losing ground A few years before 2017, Facebook controlled over 80 percent of the social media arena in Hong Kong. The drastic change started in 2018, when the networking site lost nearly 11 percentage points and another 19 percentage points in the following year. For many Gen Z and Millennials in the financial hub, Instagram became the favorite social media platform and YouTube was used more often than Facebook. Facebook was still the second place to go after Instagram for product research, it has been losing its appeal among young users and advertisers. Platforms claiming the new spots When it came to advertising audience size, X took the lead. YouTube came in second, however, its ad reach in Hong Kong was among the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region. In comparison, the fourth placeholder Instagram has been picking up steam, reaching 51.6 percent of internet users in Hong Kong. However, the biggest industry threat was TikTok, the most downloaded social media app in Hong Kong as of the time of writing. TikTok’s rising popularity among teenage users may probably change the game of video consumption.

This statistic shows the share of respondents using social media in the Netherlands from 2016 to 2018, by social media platform. During the survey, respondents were asked which social media platform they used. As of 2016, roughly 20 percent of Dutch respondents used Snapchat. Snapchat, however, was not included in the 2017-survey. Among the most popular social media platforms in both years are WhatsApp and Facebook, with YouTube being the third most used social platform in the Netherlands. Tumblr was the least used social media platform in 2016, with less than five percent of respondents indicating they use Tumblr. The same amount of respondents said they do not use social media whereas three percent said they use a different social media platform. In general, the popularity of social media in the Netherlands has not yet ceased to grow as the increasing number of daily active users of the leading social media platforms in the Netherlands from 2016 to 2017 show.

In the third quarter of 2023, WhatsApp was the most popular social media platform in Nigeria. It was mentioned by over 95 percent of internet users in the country aged 16 to 64 years. In absolute terms, the number of people using WhatsApp was estimated at approximately 8.8 million for the full year 2023. Social media platforms with most users The count of Facebook users in Nigeria significantly exceeded that of WhatsApp in 2022. In that year, Facebook users were expected to add up to slightly over 36 million, representing a user penetration rate of around 16.7 percent. Moreover, considering the count of users, around 26 million people were potentially reachable by online advertisers on Facebook. YouTube was another popular social network used by residents in Nigeria. Individuals who used the platform were forecast at nearly 6.7 million in 2022. Increasing overall social media usage In recent years, the number of social media users in Nigeria has been on the rise. As of 2022, social media users in the country reached roughly 34 million in total, expanding from the 18 million individuals registered in 2017. On the basis that this increasing trend keeps stable, it is expected that, by 2025, over 90 million people will use at least one social media platform in Nigeria. Overall, the most followed network accounts are those of friends, family, and people known by the social media user

Which social media platforms are the most popular in Luxembourg? When asked in 2017 which social network they used, roughly 80 percent of the respondents from the Grand Duchy answered they used Facebook. Picture apps Instagram and Snapchat followed, but were cited less often. Facebook had around 360,000 monthly active users from Luxembourg in 2018. The share of the population in the Grand Duchy that used the platform in 2018, however, was lower than in neighboring Belgium.

Social media penetration not the highest in the Benelux region

As of 2019, the penetration rate of social media in Luxembourg increased, whereas these percentages remained roughly the same in Belgium and the Netherlands. 62 percent of the Grand Duchy’s population actively used a social network on either a desktop or a mobile device. This was, however, two percent lower than the penetration rate in the Netherlands, and three percent lower than that of Belgium, which had the highest penetration rate of active social media users in the Benelux region.

What about Instagram in Luxembourg?

Concerning the user demographics of Instagram in the Grand Duchy in 2019, most users could be found in ages between 25 to 34 years and they were likely to be women. Additionally, 27 percent of the total Luxembourgish population was an active user of the photo application in 2018. This percentage was slightly higher than in Belgium (with 26 percent) but lower than that of the Netherlands (32 percent).

In 2024, TikTok was still the most downloaded mobile app worldwide. The short-video sharing app generated 825.5 million downloads during the same year. The social video app Instagram followed with 817 million downloads. Fast-fashion app Temu ranked in fifth, with over 516 million downloads for global users in the last examined year, while ByteDance-published video editing app CapCut had around 410 million downloads. TikTok Owned by the Beijing-based tech company ByteDance and launched in 2017, TikTok quickly gained popularity after the acquisition of Musical.ly in 2018. In 2025, the number of TikTok users worldwide was expected to exceed 955 million, with the United States being one of the leading markets. In 2024, TikTok engaged the largest audience from Indonesia, with over 157 million consumers from the region using the app. United States, and Brazil followed with 120.5 and 105.2 users, respectively. Meta Platforms In October 2021, Facebook was renamed and rebranded as Meta, with the CEO Mark Zuckerberg aiming to be associated with the metaverse. Meta’s products include Facebook, Messager, Instagram, and WhatsApp, also known as Meta’s Family of Apps (FoA), generating most of Meta’s revenue. Moreover, these are among the most popular social networks worldwide. As part of its rebranding, Meta’s Reality Labs business segment develops a series of virtual reality (VR) headsets, the Meta Quest - one of the leading VR devices on the market.

This statistic shows the result of a survey on the daily usage of social media platforms in Poland as of February 2017, broken down by age group. According to the survey, the users visiting most social media platforms were in the age group 16-24. The most popular social media application of this group was Facebook with more than 85 percent of daily use. However, WhatsApp, Twitter and Netflix were more frequently visited social networking sites in the 25-34 age group than in the group 16-24.

Mobile accounts for approximately half of web traffic worldwide. In the last quarter of 2024, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 62.54 percent of global website traffic. Mobiles and smartphones consistently hoovered around the 50 percent mark since the beginning of 2017, before surpassing it in 2020. Mobile traffic Due to low infrastructure and financial restraints, many emerging digital markets skipped the desktop internet phase entirely and moved straight onto mobile internet via smartphone and tablet devices. India is a prime example of a market with a significant mobile-first online population. Other countries with a significant share of mobile internet traffic include Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. In most African markets, mobile accounts for more than half of the web traffic. By contrast, mobile only makes up around 45.49 percent of online traffic in the United States. Mobile usage The most popular mobile internet activities worldwide include watching movies or videos online, e-mail usage and accessing social media. Apps are a very popular way to watch video on the go and the most-downloaded entertainment apps in the Apple App Store are Netflix, Tencent Video and Amazon Prime Video.

As of 2024 there are currently over 1 billion active users on TikTok worldwide.

The number of Twitter users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 4.3 million users (+5.32 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Twitter user base is estimated to reach 85.08 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Twitter users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform twitter, 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.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 Twitter users in countries like Canada and Mexico.

According to a survey conducted among 627 teenagers in Australia, YouTube remained the leading social media platform. Although its user penetration has decreased from 86 percent in 2017 to 72 percent in 2020. Other popular social media platforms among teenagers include Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.

According to a May 2024 survey, WhatsApp was the most popular social media platform in Mexico. At that time, 96 percent of those interviewed said they had an active account on the messaging app. Also owned by Meta Platforms Inc., Facebook and Instagram ranked second and third, being used by 86 and 81 percent of respondents, respectively. Social media penetration and demographics Close to 70 percent of the Mexican population was expected to be on Facebook by the end of 2023 (slightly below the estimated 71.43 percent for the United States during the same period). Its popularity in the North American country relies heavily on young internet users: when it comes to the distribution of Mexican Facebook users by age group, more than 56 percent were between 18 and 34 years old. All news just a click away According to a February 2022 survey, half of internet users in Mexico used Facebook for news consumption, while YouTube is used by 34 percent of the country's online audiences for the same function. This preference was also observed across all age groups: more than a third of the country's news consumers across all demographics turned to the Meta-owned social network to find, read, watch, share, or comment on the news.

In the third quarter of 2023, nearly 75 percent of the internet users in Morocco used Facebook each month. Instagram was the second most popular social media platform in the country, as it was used by roughly 70 percent of the people. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger followed, with a share of 60.8 percent and 58.3 percent, respectively. Social media users keep increasing With the rising internet penetration rate and mobile internet adoption, the use of social media has increased in Morocco in recent years. In 2022, social media users in the country amounted to around 24 million. The number grew steadily in the previous years, rising from roughly 14 million in 2017. As the most popular social media platform, Facebook accounted for about 22 million users in 2022, with the number being forecast to increase to 27 million by 2025. In comparison, approximately 10 million people actively used Instagram in 2022, and it is projected to reach 15 million in 2025. Sending messages is the primary online activity Among the different types of social media, Moroccans regularly used instant messenger platforms, such as WhatsApp, and social networks like Facebook as of 2021. In contrast, consumer review networks and discussion forums were the least used platforms. In the same year, the most popular activities among Moroccan social media users were sending private messages, commenting on posts, liking other users’ posts, and following people. As of 2020, users in Morocco spent an average of two hours and 30 minutes per day on social media. The average time was lower than in other African countries such as Nigeria (three hours and 45 minutes) and Egypt (two hours and 50 minutes).

The share of social media users in German was highest among the 14-39 years age groups, though 40-49-year-olds were not far behind. While user rates are traditionally expected to be high among younger demographics, especially those born after social media emerged on the world stage, older age groups are also becoming increasingly familiar with it.

Socially acceptable

The leading social media platforms in Germany, including those primarily known for being a messaging service, are YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook. Among social media apps downloaded in the Google Play Store, to name one example, the most popular one was Instagram, owned by Facebook. In fact, Facebook usage numbers were generally high in Europe, though this was not the case for Instagram, when comparing to other countries in the world.

Rising user numbers

Social network user numbers in Germany are predicted to continue rising in the 2020s, moving towards 50 million users. The same can be said for the user penetration rate regarding social media.

The statistic shows the share of internet users in the United States who use selected social networking sites as of February 2017, sorted by gender. During the survey period, it was found that 82 percent of female internet users in the United States used Facebook.

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.

This statistic represents the results of a survey regarding the leading three mobile wallet platforms used by merchants on social media in Indonesia in 2017. During the survey period, about 83 percent of the respondents stated that PayPal is their most preferred mode of payment.