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.

As of October 2025, **** percent of TikTok's global audience were women between the ages of 18 and 24 years, while male users of the same age formed **** percent of the platform's audience. The online audience of the popular social video platform was further composed of **** percent of female users aged between 25 and 34 years and **** percent of male users in the same age group.

*****Documentation Process***** 1. Data Preparation: - Upload the data into Power Query to assess quality and identify duplicate values, if any. - Verify data quality and types for each column, addressing any miswriting or inconsistencies. 2. Data Management: - Duplicate the original data sheet for future reference and label the new sheet as the "Working File" to preserve the integrity of the original dataset. 3. Understanding Metrics: - Clarify the meaning of column headers, particularly distinguishing between Impressions and Reach, and comprehend how Engagement Rate is calculated. - Engagement Rate formula: Total likes, comments, and shares divided by Reach. 4. Data Integrity Assurance: - Recognize that Impressions should outnumber Reach, reflecting total views versus unique audience size. - Investigate discrepancies between Reach and Impressions to ensure data integrity, identifying and resolving root causes for accurate reporting and analysis. 5. Data Correction: - Collaborate with the relevant team to rectify data inaccuracies, specifically addressing the discrepancy between Impressions and Reach. - Engage with the concerned team to understand the root cause of discrepancies between Impressions and Reach. - Identify instances where Impressions surpass Reach, potentially attributable to data transformation errors. - Following the rectification process, meticulously adjust the dataset to reflect the corrected Impressions and Reach values accurately. - Ensure diligent implementation of the corrections to maintain the integrity and reliability of the data. - Conduct a thorough recalculation of the Engagement Rate post-correction, adhering to rigorous data integrity standards to uphold the credibility of the analysis. 6. Data Enhancement: - Categorize Audience Age into three groups: "Senior Adults" (45+ years), "Mature Adults" (31-45 years), and "Adolescent Adults" (<30 years) within a new column named "Age Group." - Split date and time into separate columns using the text-to-columns option for improved analysis. 7. Temporal Analysis: - Introduce a new column for "Weekend and Weekday," renamed as "Weekday Type," to discern patterns and trends in engagement. - Define time periods by categorizing into "Morning," "Afternoon," "Evening," and "Night" based on time intervals. 8. Sentiment Analysis: - Populate blank cells in the Sentiment column with "Mixed Sentiment," denoting content containing both positive and negative sentiments or ambiguity. 9. Geographical Analysis: - Group countries and obtain additional continent data from an online source (e.g., https://statisticstimes.com/geography/countries-by-continents.php). - Add a new column for "Audience Continent" and utilize XLOOKUP function to retrieve corresponding continent data.

*****Drawing Conclusions and Providing a Summary*****

• The data is equally distributed across different categories, platforms, and over the years.
• Most of our audience comprises senior adults (aged 45 and above).
• Most of our audience exhibit mixed sentiments about our posts. However, an equal portion expresses consistent sentiments.
• The majority of our posts were located in Africa.
• The number of posts increased from the first year to the second year and remained relatively consistent for the third year.
• The optimal time for posting is during the night on weekdays.
• The highest engagement rates were observed in Croatia then Malawi.
• The number of posts targeting senior adults is significantly higher than the other two categories. However, the engagement rates for mature and adolescent adults are also noteworthy, based on the number of targeted posts.

Over the five years through 2025-26, industry revenue is forecast to expand at a compound annual rate of 20.3% to reach £12.5 billion. Social media platforms are integral to people's lives, offering ways to communicate, create and view content and share information. According to Ofcom, approximately 89% of UK internet users in 2023 used social media apps or sites. Teenagers and young adults are the biggest users. Advertising is the primary revenue source for social media platforms, although subscription-based services are gaining momentum as platforms seek to diversify their incomes. TikTok is the success story of the past five years, becoming the most downloaded app between 2020 and 2022, according to Apptopia. The short-form video platform has over 30 million monthly users in the UK in 2025. After Musk's takeover, X, formerly known as Twitter, adjusted its content moderation and allowed previously banned accounts to return. As a result, over 600 advertisers pulled their ads from the site because of fears their brand may be associated with malcontent. In response to falling ad revenue, X has introduced a subscription-based service which enables users to verify themselves and boosts the number of people who view their tweets. Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram have responded by introducing a similar service. In 2025, more social media platforms are using AI to boost user engagement. This improves click-through rates and drives higher advertising revenue. Industry revenue is expected to grow by 6.3% in 2025-26. Over the five years through 2030-31, social media platforms' revenue is projected to climb at an estimated 9.2% to reach £19.4 billion. Regulations relating to how data is collected, stored, and shared will force advertisers and platforms to rethink how they can target their desired demographics. The tightening of regulations will raise industry compliance costs, weighing on profit margin. Older age groups present a new revenue opportunity for social media platforms if they can bridge the gap between passive TV consumption and interactive digital engagement. Augmented Reality (AR) technology will move beyond filters to become standard for immersive product trials, interactive ads, and virtual meetups

How much time do people spend on social media?

              As of 2024, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 143 minutes per day, down from 151 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 three hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in
              the U.S. was just two hours and 16 minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, 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 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 flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

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.

Inspiration

Which countries have the most social contacts in the world? In particular, do countries with more social contacts among the elderly report more deaths caused by a pandemic caused by a respiratory virus?

Context

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports have shown that the elderly are at a higher risk of dying than any other age groups. 8 out of 10 deaths reported in the U.S. have been in adults 65 years old and older. Countries have also began to enforce 2km social distancing to contain the pandemic.

To this end, I wanted to explore the relationship between social contacts among the elderly and its relationship with the number of COVID-19 deaths across countries.

Content

This dataset includes a subset of the projected social contact matrices in 152 countries from surveys Prem et al. 2020. It was based on the POLYMOD study where information on social contacts was obtained using cross-sectional surveys in Belgium (BE), Germany (DE), Finland (FI), Great Britain (GB), Italy (IT), Luxembourg (LU), The Netherlands (NL), and Poland (PL) between May 2005 and September 2006.

This dataset includes contact rates from study participants ages 65+ for all countries from all sources of contact (work, home, school and others).

I used this R code to extract this data:

load('../input/contacts.Rdata') # https://github.com/kieshaprem/covid19-agestructureSEIR-wuhan-social-distancing/blob/master/data/contacts.Rdata
View(contacts)
contacts[["ALB"]][["home"]]
contacts[["ITA"]][["all"]]
rowSums(contacts[["ALB"]][["all"]])
out1 = data.frame(); for (n in names(contacts)) { x = (contacts[[n]][["all"]])[16,]; out <- rbind(out, data.frame(x)) }
out2 = data.frame(); for (n in names(contacts)) { x = (contacts[[n]][["all"]])[15,]; out <- rbind(out, data.frame(x)) }
out3 = data.frame(); for (n in names(contacts)) { x = (contacts[[n]][["all"]])[14,]; out <- rbind(out, data.frame(x)) }
m1 = data.frame(t(matrix(unlist(out1), nrow=16)))
m2 = data.frame(t(matrix(unlist(out2), nrow=16)))
m3 = data.frame(t(matrix(unlist(out3), nrow=16)))
rownames(m1) = names(contacts)
colnames(m1) = c("00_04", "05_09", "10_14", "15_19", "20_24", "25_29", "30_34", "35_39", "40_44", "45_49", "50_54", "55_59", "60_64", "65_69", "70_74", "75_79")
rownames(m2) = rownames(m1)
rownames(m3) = rownames(m1)
colnames(m2) = colnames(m1)
colnames(m3) = colnames(m1)
write.csv(zapsmall(m1),"contacts_75_79.csv", row.names = TRUE)
write.csv(zapsmall(m2),"contacts_70_74.csv", row.names = TRUE)
write.csv(zapsmall(m3),"contacts_65_69.csv", row.names = TRUE)

Rows names correspond to the 3 letter country ISO code, e.g. ITA represents Italy. Column names are the age groups of the individuals contacted in 5 year intervals from 0 to 80 years old. Cell values are the projected mean social contact rate.

https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F1139998%2Ffa3ddc065ea46009e345f24ab0d905d2%2Fcontact_distribution.png?generation=1588258740223812&alt=media" alt="">

Acknowledgements

Thanks goes to Dr. Kiesha Prem for her correspondence and her team for publishing their work on social contact matrices.

References

• The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: a modelling study
• Projecting social contact matrices in 152 countries using contact surveys and demographic data
• Social Contacts and Mixing Patterns Relevant to the Spread of Infectious Diseases (POLYMOD study)

Related resources

• My starter notebook
• http://www.socialcontactdata.org/
• https://www.kaggle.com/tsubasatwi/close-contact-status-of-corona-in-japan
• Facebook Data for Good Mobility Dashboard

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.

As of June 2024, 99 percent of adults in the United States between 18 and 49 years were internet users, making it the age group with the highest level of internet penetration in the country. A further share of 97 percent of adults using the internet were between 18 and 29 years old. Mobile internet usage Mobile internet usage continues to surge in the United States, with 96.2 percent of internet users accessing the web via phones as of the third quarter of 2023. In April 2024, YouTube's mobile app led with a 74 percent audience reach, while TikTok topped weekly engagement among social apps. Mobile apps and privacy Mobile apps became an essential part of mobile users, this high usage raised new concerns about data privacy. By June 2023, three in four internet users supported data localization to protect their information. Additionally, As of September 2024, 13.5 percent of paid iOS apps stated that they collected user data, with 88 percent of this data used to enhance app functionality.

Facebook received 73,390 user data requests from federal agencies and courts in the United States during the second half of 2023. The social network produced some user data in 88.84 percent of requests from U.S. federal authorities. The United States accounts for the largest share of Facebook user data requests worldwide.

During a 2024 survey, 77 percent of respondents from Nigeria stated that they used social media as a source of news. In comparison, just 23 percent of Japanese respondents said the same. Large portions of social media users around the world admit that they do not trust social platforms either as media sources or as a way to get news, and yet they continue to access such networks on a daily basis.

              Social media: trust and consumption

              Despite the majority of adults surveyed in each country reporting that they used social networks to keep up to date with news and current affairs, a 2018 study showed that social media is the least trusted news source in the world. Less than 35 percent of adults in Europe considered social networks to be trustworthy in this respect, yet more than 50 percent of adults in Portugal, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia said that they got their news on social media.

              What is clear is that we live in an era where social media is such an enormous part of daily life that consumers will still use it in spite of their doubts or reservations. Concerns about fake news and propaganda on social media have not stopped billions of users accessing their favorite networks on a daily basis.
              Most Millennials in the United States use social media for news every day, and younger consumers in European countries are much more likely to use social networks for national political news than their older peers.
              Like it or not, reading news on social is fast becoming the norm for younger generations, and this form of news consumption will likely increase further regardless of whether consumers fully trust their chosen network or not.

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.

Bootstrapped mean contacts with 95% CIs. CI, confidence interval. (XLSX)

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).

During a January 2024 global survey among marketers, nearly 60 percent reported plans to increase their organic use of YouTube for marketing purposes in the following 12 months. LinkedIn and Instagram followed, respectively mentioned by 57 and 56 percent of the respondents intending to use them more. According to the same survey, Facebook was the most important social media platform for marketers worldwide.

As of September 2024, 46 percent of social media users in the United Kingdom were aged between 30 to 49 years. Overall, one-quarter of social network users in the UK were aged 18 to 29 years. Over 20 percent of social media users in the UK stated that Facebook was their favorite social media platform.

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.

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.

As of October 2025, 6.04 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 73.2 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.66 billion, or 68.7 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 2025. In the Netherlands, Norway, and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide—over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a 10-percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most considerable usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group of 15 to 24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.