Social Media Usage Statistics

The worldwide accessibility to the internet is one of the defining phenomena of our time, reshaping the world as we know it.

Marketing has been transformed by the rise of social networks, which is shown to be continuing in the most recent global social media statistics research. 

Social media is now used by more than half of the world’s population (58.4 percent ) Around the world, 4.62 billion people use social media, with 424 million new users joining in the last year. The average amount of time spent on social media per day is 2h 27m.

A world without the internet is now unthinkable. The internet, which connects billions of people around the world, is a key component of the modern information society.

The global internet penetration rate is 59%, with Northern Europe leading the way with a population internet penetration rate of 95%. 

The UAE, Denmark, and South Korea have the highest internet penetration rates in the world. North Korea, on the other hand, ranks last in the world with virtually no online usage penetration among the general population.

Asia had the most online users in 2019, with over 2.3 billion according to the most recent count. With nearly 728 million internet users, Europe came in second.

So, how big is social media, and how has it evolved in the last few years?  In this article, we will tackle a statistical roundup where you’ll discover the latest social media usage data.

Social Media Usage Statistics

Social media, which includes blogs, forums, business networks, photo-sharing platforms, social gaming, microblogs, and chat apps is the lovechild of the World Wide Web. 

Because of the power of social networking, the number of monthly active social media users is expected to reach 3.43 billion by 2023, accounting for roughly a third of the world’s population.

China alone is expected to account for 800 million of these users in 2023, with India accounting for 450 million.

Leading social networks typically have a large number of user accounts and high levels of user engagement. Facebook is the first social media platform to surpass 1 billion monthly active users, with 2.6 billion MAU as of the first quarter of 2020.

In addition, the platform is ranked first among the most popular social networks in the world. 

Instagram, a photo and video-sharing platform with over 1 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active users for its Stories feature, is another popular social app and network.

WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat are some of the most popular social media platforms for online users.

Despite the widespread use of social media, the market potential is still growing, as both user numbers and user engagement continue to rise.

This prompts global brands and their marketers to take advantage of that time and screen space to promote various products and services through social media marketing or social advertising.

In recent years, there has been a clear shift in social networking towards mobile platforms. Smartphone and tablet apps, as well as mobile web access, have made mobile-first or mobile-only platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat more accessible. 

Furthermore, apps like these have raised the profile of location-based services like Foursquare and allowed users to access visual blogging sites like Tumblr and Pinterest from their tablets.

In 2018, 99.2 million online users in the United States exclusively used mobile devices to access social networking sites.

How many people use social media?

One of the most popular online activities is using social media. Over 3.6 billion people used social media in 2020, with that number expected to rise to nearly 4.41 billion by 2025.

Social networking is one of the most popular digital activities around the world, and it’s no surprise that its popularity is growing across all regions. The global social media usage rate was 49 percent in January 2020. 

Eastern Asia, a mobile-first market, ranked first in the world for mobile social networking penetration, followed by established digital powerhouses like the Americas and Northern Europe. In addition, in January 2022, 17 social media platforms has at least 300 million active users:

• Monthly active users on Facebook are 2.910 billion.
• The potential advertising reach of YouTube is 2.562 billion people.
• WhatsApp has a monthly active user base of at least 2 billion people.
• The estimated advertising reach of Instagram is 1.478 billion.
• There are 1.263 billion monthly active users on WeChat (including Weixin).
• TikTok has a monthly active user base of 1 billion people.
• The total number of people who could see your ad on Facebook Messenger is 988 million.
• QQ has 574 million active monthly users.
• With 573 million monthly active users, Sina Weibo is the most popular social media platform in China.
• The potential advertising reach of Snapchat is 557 million
• Telegram has 550 million active monthly users.
• Pinterest has a monthly active user base of 444 million
• The advertising reach of Twitter is estimated to be around 436 million
• Quora has around 300 million monthly active users, while Reddit has around 430 million 

How many social media accounts do most people have?

According to the Global Web Index, the average number of social media accounts held by a millennial or Gen Z person is 8.4, up 75% from 4.8 in 2014.

According to a study of 46 countries with internet users aged 16 to 64, Japan had the fewest social network accounts at 3.8 per person, while India had the most at 11.5 per person.

In 2020, the average number of social media accounts per person will be 8.4. From 4.8 accounts per person in 2014 to 8.4 accounts per person in 2020, the number of accounts per person has increased by 75%.

To begin with, the expansion of multi-networking is linked to the expansion of platform options. Second, individual platform specialization, such as Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn plays a role and the audience will be interested in the following five highlights:

• India: Each person has 11.4 accounts
• United States: Each person has 7.1 accounts
• United Kingdom: Each person has 6.9 accounts.
• Canada: Each person has 6.8 accounts.
• Japan: Each person has 3.8 accounts.

How much time do people spend on social media?

The use of social media has become an inextricable part of daily internet usage. Internet users spend an average of 144 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps, up more than half an hour from 2015.

Latin American social media users ranked first in terms of daily social network usage in 2019, spending an average of 3 hours and 32 minutes per day on social media. Users in North America spent an average of one hour and 56 minutes per day on social media.

What are the most widely used social media sites?

Facebook, the most popular social network on the planet, was the first to surpass one billion registered accounts and now has approximately 2.7 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social network on the planet. 

Mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, as well as the ever-popular app version of Facebook, were among the top social media apps in the Apple App Store in June 2020.

Facebook was the first to surpass one billion registered accounts, and it now has more than 2.89 billion monthly active users.

Facebook, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram are the company’s four largest social media platforms, each with over one billion monthly active users. Facebook reported over 3.58 billion monthly core Family product users in the third quarter of 2021.

The most well-known social media platforms are in the United States and China. Although the majority of the top-ranked social networks with over 100 million users originated in the United States, services such as WeChat, QQ, and the video-sharing app Douyin have also gained mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content.

Because of Douyin’s popularity, the platform has released an international version of its network, called TikTok, a small app.

Social Media Usage In Minute

Millions of messages, e-mails, and texts are sent, scrolled, and uploaded in an internet minute, and hundreds of hours of content are digested. Users around the world streamed 452 thousand hours of Netflix content in a single internet minute in 2021.

Among the billions of online users around the world, media and communications are two major drivers of online activity.

Digital video streaming is on the rise, thanks to improvements in digital infrastructure and more affordable data plans, whether through free video platforms or subscription services. 

Netflix has over 209 million subscribers as of mid-2021, making it one of the most popular video streaming services in the world.

The company is also working hard to keep up with the voracious appetites of its users: in 2019, it produced 2,769 hours of original first-run content, up from 73 hours in 2013.

Online communication via social media and messaging apps is also very popular. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram are the most popular communication apps on the Google Play Store.

The initial appeal of OTT (Over The Top)  messaging services, which rose to prominence in the early 2010s, was that messaging was free, whereas SMS messages were not.

Since then, messaging apps have expanded their capabilities, with the ability to send photos, videos, group chats, and free voice calls becoming commonplace.

Social Media Usage By Gender

The global gender split of social media users is currently 54 percent men and 46 percent women.

In the United States, however, women are the most active users: 76 percent of all female internet users have social network accounts, compared to 72 percent of all male internet users.

• In North America, 54 percent of users are female, while 46 percent are male.
• In South America, 52 percent of users are female, while 48 percent are male.
• In Western Europe, 50 percent of users are female, while 50 percent are male.
• In Southern Africa, 52 percent of users are female, while 48 percent are male.
• In Southern Asia, 27 percent of users are female, while  73 percent are male.
• In Oceania,  53 percent of users are female, while 47 percent are male.

You can see that when looking at location, men and women use social media in different ways. When it comes to platform usage, the gender divide is perhaps the most noticeable.

People who use YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok are more likely to be male than people who use other popular social networks. Sites like Facebook and Instagram are more geared toward women, especially Pinterest, which has the most female users.

Social Media Usage in the United States

As of 2020, there are 240 million social media users in the United States, or 72.3 percent of the population, according to platform statements. In the United States, 81.9 percent of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 use YouTube, while 73.4 percent use Facebook.

The number of Americans on social media (penetration) is calculated by dividing the total number of active social network users by the total population of those aged 13 and up. 72.3 percent of the total US population, regardless of age, has a social network account, totaling 231.47 million people.

● US Social Media Usage By Age, Gender, Race

In the United States, women are more likely to use social media, particularly Snapchat and Pinterest, whereas men are more likely to use YouTube and Twitter.

For the entire US population, the percentage of people who use social media versus the total population by race is: 80% Hispanic, 77% Black, and 69% White

The percentage of Americans who use social media by age is primarily made up of Gen Z and Millennials, which is unsurprising

• 84% of those aged 18-29
• 81% of those aged 30-49
• 73% of those aged 50-64
• 45% of those aged 65+

With a year-on-year growth rate of 3.1 percent from 2019 to 2020, 70 percent of the US population has active social media accounts. The original US market size record was 5% in 2005, and it took just under 6 years for growth in the US to reach 50% of the population in 2011.

Between 2020 and 2021, America’s social media growth rate was 4.3 percent and the total number of users in the United States has increased by 10 million.

How Fast Is Social Media Growing?

Year after year, how much does social networking expand? In 2021, the world’s active social media users will number 4.48 billion, up 13.13 percent from 3.69 billion in 2020. There were only 2.07 billion users in 2015, indicating a 115.59 percent increase in users in just six years.

Statistics on social media growth over the last six years:

2021: 4.480 billion active users (+13.13%)
2020: 3.960 billion active users (+13.7%)
2019: 3.484 billion active users (+9.2%)
2018: 3.196 billion active users (+9.0%)
2017: 2.796 billion active users (+21%)
2016: 2.307 billion active users (+11%)
2015: 2.078 billion active users

India had the most significant social media growth in 2019-2020, with 130 million new users – or 9.6 percent of the country’s total population – joining platforms, according to Keipo’s analysis.

China came in second with 15 million new users, followed by Indonesia (12 million), Brazil (11 million), Iran (9.4 million), and the United States in sixth place with 6.9 million new users.

The top 20 social media growth rankings by country are listed below, representing the largest number of users rather than a percentage increase. By region, the number of people using social media is increasing.

Between April 2019 and January 2020, the total number of people using social media increased by 9.2 percent.

When looking at the rate of new active users’ activation by region, Europe had the slowest activation rate at 4.9 percent. Whereas Asia saw the most significant increase in social media user base growth (16.98%), followed by Africa (13.92%).

Growth of social media by region in 2019-2020:

• +6.96 percent in North America
• +8.00 percent in South America
• +4.32 percent in Europe
• +13.92 percent in Africa
• +16.98 percent in Asia
• +4.9 percent in Australasia

Conclusion

What was unimaginable just one generation ago is now a part of the daily lives of one-third of the world’s population, thanks to the rapid and drastic changes brought about by social media.

As much as the internet has benefited us, it has also brought about several unintended consequences. Overuse of digital technologies has been linked to a lower quality of life for people’s mental and emotional health.

Those who are unable to function without the use of social media may be suffering from social media addiction, which can be crippling.

Taking a break from using social media may be necessary if your addiction is so bad that you need professional help to overcome it.