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).

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 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, 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

71 percent of UK respondents answer our survey on "Most used social media platforms by type" with "Instant messengers (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat)". The survey was conducted in 2023, among 24,187 consumers.Find this and more survey data on most used social media platforms by type in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

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.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom in 2023, Facebook was the most popular social media platform for consuming local news for 59 percent of respondents. Twitter outranked Facebook as the top used social media platform when it came to breaking news and UK news, with a share of 61 percent and 68 percent respectively. However, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat were the most used platforms for celebrity news.

According to a survey of internet users conducted in June 2023 in the United Kingdom, 77 percent of users aged between 25 and 44 years reported using Facebook at least monthly, while over 85 percent of users in the same age reported using YouTube monthly. Overall, 74 percent of social media users aged between 13 and 17 years reported engaging with TikTok, while 90 percent reported engaging with YouTube, while Instagram was used by 53 percent of respondents in the same demographic.

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.

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.

The ad spending in the 'Social Media Advertising' segment of the digital advertising market in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2028 by in total 1.1 billion U.S. dollars (+11.27 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 10.85 billion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the ad spending of the 'Social Media Advertising' segment of the digital advertising market was continuously increasing over the past years.Find other key market indicators concerning the average ad spending per internet user (ARPU) and revenue growth. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The statistic illustrates findings of a survey among female users regarding the use of social media in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020. During the survey period, it was found that 85 percent of responding adult females that go online were Facebook users.

It was found that adults in the United Kingdom engage with social media equally as much as with video streaming platforms. For example as of May 2023, UK TikTok users spent 58 minutes per day with the social network while Netflix users in the country also spent the same amount of time using the video streaming service daily. Video viewing - ad-supported options are driving consumption Since 2021, the reach of video-on-demand subscriptions in the United Kingdom has been oscillating around 19 million households. The viewership boom that started during the coronavirus outbreak has now transitioned into steady audience numbers. Video streaming in the UK remains strong, however, the market is pivoting from premium models to free ad-supported ones such as broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD). The data shows that the viewership of BVOD services surpassed the SVOD viewer-base. Among many BVOD platforms, BBC iPlayer is by far the most popular ad-supported service in the UK, followed by ITV and All 4, showing the prevalence of local players. However, international services, such as Pluto TV, are slowly entering the market as well. In fact, while Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are losing viewer interest, Pluto TV is one of the platforms that experienced an increase in total content viewing hours between 2022 and 2023, indicating its growth potential.