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150 Essential Social Media Stats
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150 Essential Social Media Stats For Your Research

Billions of people use social media across the world, which creates immense opportunities for marketers. But you often need accurate social media stats to make good decisions, and to ensure your marketing activities are on the nose and profitable.

We’ve curated this colossal list of up-to-date social media stats to use as a resource for your marketing, to identify how social media is used, when it’s used, who uses it, and more. Our sources are carefully selected to ensure their credibility, and we always link to the original source where possible so that you can access the primary data.

Here are some of the most useful social media statistics out there, all compiled into one juicy article.

Table of contents

General social media statistics

Social media demographics

Social media statistics for Australia

Influencer social media stats

Businesses on social media

Social media advertising stats

Facebook statistics

Instagram statistics

LinkedIn statistics

Twitter statistics

YouTube statistics

TikTok statistics

General social media statistics

These are the general social media statistics that include total audiences for the platforms, average hours, social media growth, and more. They are non-platform specific and will give you a general idea of social media usage across the planet.

How many people use social media?

4.70 billion people use social media as of July 2022. The global social media user base has increased by more than 5 percent over the past 12 months, with the latest global total now equivalent to 59% of the world’s total population. (source: DataReportal)

What are the average hours on social media?

The average daily amount of time spent on social media worldwide is two hours and 27 minutes—the highest ever recorded. (source: Oberlo)

What are the most popular social media platforms?

As of January 2022, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are the most popular social media platforms. Here is the full list of social media platforms by active users:

Platform Active users (in millions)
Facebook 2910
YouTube 2562
Instagram 1478
TikTok 1000
Snapchat 557
Pinterest 444
Twitter 436
Reddit 430

(source: Statista)

What is the average number of social accounts?

The average number of social media accounts a millennial or Gen Z-er has is 8.4 worldwide, up 75% from 4.8 accounts in 2014. (source: Global Web Index)

What is the percentage of internet users who use social media?

There are 4.74 billion social media users around the world in October 2022, equating to 59.3% of the total global population. (source: DataReportal)

Employee usage for social media

  • 77% of workers use social media at work. (source: Zippia)
  • 34% ever use social media while at work to take a mental break from their job. (source: Pew Research)
  • 27% of workers use social media to connect with friends and family while at work. (source: Pew Research)
  • 24% of workers use social media to make or support professional connections. (source: Pew Research)
  • 20% of workers use social media to get information that helps them solve problems at work. (source: Pew Research)
  • 17% of workers use social media to build or strengthen personal relationships with coworkers. (source: Pew Research)
  • 17% of workers use social media to learn about someone they work with. (source: Pew Research)
  • 12% of workers use social media to ask work-related questions of people outside their organisation. (source: Pew Research)

Social media growth

How much has social media grown?

Social media user numbers have continued to grow since November 2021, with 190 million new users joining social media since this time last year. (source: DataReportal)

What is the fastest growing social network?

  • The fastest-growing social network is TikTok, which grew 89% in 2019, 87% in 2020, 29% in 2021, and 8.2% in 2022 (so far). (source: Statista)
  • This is followed by Reddit, whose user base grew 14.4% in 2021. Like TikTok, its growth has slowed in comparison to 2020, when the number of Reddit users rose by 25.9%. (source: Oberlo)
  • The third fastest-growing social network is LinkedIn. In 2021, the professional networking platform saw a 4.2% increase in the number of users. (source: Oberlo)
  • This is followed by Instagram and Pinterest, with growth rates of 3.7% and 3.1% respectively. (source: Oberlo)
  • Sixth on the list of the fastest-growing social network is Snapchat, with a 2.6% increase in the number of users. (source: Oberlo)
  • Facebook is next, with 0.8%. As the world’s most popular social media platform in terms of users, its growth is starting to plateau. (source: Oberlo)

Social media demographics

Social media demographics include statistical, personal data on users, such as their age, gender, income, and more. They provide a general idea of what kinds of people use social media, and whether it may be the right decision for your marketing (although you will probably want to look into the demographics for specific platforms, which you’ll find later on in the article).

Social media platform usage by age

Age Percentage of respondents
18 – 29 84%
30 – 49 81%
50 – 64 73%
65+ 45%

(source: Pew Research)

Social media by gender

Gender Percentage of respondents
Male 66%
Female 78%

(source: Pew Research)

Social media by income

Income Percentage of respondents
Less than $30,000 69%
$30,000 – $49,999 76%
$50,000 – $74,999 65%
$75,000+ 78%

(source: Pew Research)

Social media by education

Education level Percentage of respondents
High school or less 64%
Some college 76%
College graduate 77%

(source: Pew Research)

Top 10 countries using social media

Country Number of users (millions)
China 1,021
India 755
United States 302
Indonesia 217
Brazil 165
Russia 115
Japan 101
Mexico 98
Philippines 84
Vietnam 72

(source: Statista)

Social media statistics for Australia

  • There were 20.50 million social media users in Australia in January 2021. (source: DataReportal)
  • The number of social media users in Australia remained unchanged between 2020 and 2021. (source: DataReportal)
  • The number of social media users in Australia was equivalent to 79.9% of the total population in January 2021. (source: DataReportal)

Influencer social media stats

With their massive audiences, influencers can have the power to make or break brands. These are some of the key influencers stats that demonstrate just how powerful they can be, how much money they make, popular industries, and more.

How big is the influencer marketing industry?

The influencer marketing industry is set to reach $16.4 billion USD in 2022. (source: Influencer Marketing Hub)

How much money do influencers make?

  • A nano-influencer can make $195 per post on Instagram. (source: Statista)
  • A mid-tier influencer can make $1,221 per post on Instagram. (source: Statista)
  • A macro-influencer can make $1,804 per post on Instagram. (source: Statista)

What are the most popular influencer channels?

Channel Percentage of respondents
Instagram 79%
Facebook 50%
TikTok 46%
YouTube 44%

(source: Influencer Marketing Hub)

Influencers by industry/category

Industry/category Percentage distribution
Lifestyle 13.8%
Beauty 8.56%
Music 8.27%
Photography 6.64%
Family 6.20%
Humour, fun & happiness 4.91%
Shows 4.24%
Modelling 3.93%
Cinema 3.81%
Fitness 3.27%

(source: Influencer Marketing Hub)

Businesses on social media

Social media allows businesses to promote their brand, sell products, connect with their customers, and more. The vast majority of them make their way onto social media for these reasons. Here are some helpful social media stats on businesses.

How many major businesses use social media?

Nearly 97% of all Fortune 500 enterprises use at least one social media platform to promote their initiatives and foster positive communication with stakeholders. (source: HubSpot)

Social media marketing stats

How effective is social media marketing?

77% of social media marketers say social media marketing has been somewhat to very effective for their company this year. (source: HubSpot)

How often do social media marketers post?

The majority of marketers say they post on most social media platforms four to six times a week. (source: HubSpot)

How many marketers build social communities?

64% of marketers say they invest in building social media communities. (source: HubSpot)

Social media types of posts

How many marketers repurpose content for social media?

82% of marketers say they repurpose content across social media channels. (source: HubSpot)

What is the most popular social media format?

Short-form videos are the top social media format, used by 54% of social media marketers. These are followed by live streaming, live audio chat rooms, and user-generated content. (source: HubSpot)

What is the most effective type of content on social media?

80% of marketers say funny content is the most effective on social media. (source: HubSpot)

Social media advertising stats

Social advertising can be an extremely cost-effective way to promote your brand, and the products or services you sell. Here are some key social media advertising stats that might be used to justify your ad spend.

How much do companies spend on social media advertising?

Platform Average advertising cost (CPC)
Facebook $0.97 per click
Instagram $3.56 per click
YouTube $3.21 per click
LinkedIn $5.26 per click
Twitter $0.38 per click
Pinterest $1.50 per click
TikTok $1.00 per click

(source: WebFX)

What is social media’s advertising growth?

  • Ad spending in the Social Media Advertising segment is projected to reach US$226.00bn in 2022. (source: Statista)
  • Ad spending is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2022-2027) of 11.24%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$384.90bn by 2027. (source: Statista)
  • Globally, most ad spending will be generated in the United States (US$80,670.00m in 2022). (source: Statista)
  • In the Social Media Advertising segment, US$384.90bn of total ad spending will be generated through mobile in 2027. (source: Statista)

How popular is video advertising on social media?

In 2022, social media video ad spending will grow by 20.1% to $24.35 billion USD. (source: Hootsuite)

How often do people discover brands through social media ads?

Half of adult internet users say that when brands use their data in advertising, it helps them discover (50%) and find (49%) products and services that interest them. (source: Hootsuite)

Facebook statistics

Facebook remains the king of social media. Despite dwindling in recent years, it has an enormous active audience, a massive share of advertising spend, and can be one of the most effective places to market a business. Here are some of the most helpful Facebook statistics you can find.

What is Facebook’s user growth?

Facebook’s user growth rate slowed to just 0.8% during 2021. (source: Sprout Social)

How many Facebook users are there?

There are 2.91 billion active monthly users on Facebook. (source: Statista)

Average time spent on Facebook

The average time spent on Facebook is 33 minutes per day. (source: Statista)

Average Facebook engagement rate

The average engagement rate on Facebook across all the different types of posts is just 0.07%. (source: Data Reportal)

What is the most popular device for accessing Facebook?

98.5% of Facebook users access the platform on mobile devices. (source: Statista)

Facebook as a news source

1 in 3 adults regularly consume news from Facebook, signalling the popularity of timely (and often controversial) content on the platform. (source: Pew Research)

Facebook demographics

What is the education and income of Facebook users?

73% of college-educated Internet users are on Facebook, as are 70% of people earning more than $75k a year. (source: Sprout Social)

What is the Facebook average age of users?

The largest age group on Facebook is 25 – 34, which is 31.5%. (source: Statista)

Facebook genders

On Facebook, 43% of users are female, and 57% male. (source: Statista)

Facebook advertising statistics

What is Facebook’s share of digital ad spending?

Facebook is responsible for a quarter of all digital ad spending (25%) versus Google (28.9%), Amazon (10.3%) and others (35.6%) in 2020 alone. (source: Insider Intelligence)

How many advertisers are on Facebook?

There are approximately 10 million active advertisers on Facebook. (source: Statista)

How many marketers use Facebook advertising?

79% of marketers report buying paid advertising on Facebook. (source: HubSpot)

What is Facebook’s advertising reach?

Facebook’s potential advertising reach is 2.11 billion people. (source Hootsuite)

Facebook video statistics

How many video marketers use Facebook?

84% of video marketers are using Facebook as one of their main video marketing channels. Two-thirds of American marketers do the same. (source: Hootsuite)

How often is video used on Facebook profiles?

Native videos are used on 90% of Facebook profiles. (source: Forbes)

How do people feel about autoplay videos on Facebook?

85% of all videos displayed on Facebook are watched on mute, and 80% of Facebook users feel annoyed because of autoplaying video ads in their news feed. (source: American Press Institute)

Facebook marketing statistics

How effective is Facebook live chat for businesses?

According to Facebook, people are 53% more likely to buy from a business using live chat. (source: Facebook)

How do people want to discover products on Facebook?

According to Facebook, 50% of consumers want to discover new products through Facebook Stories. (source: Facebook)

What is the reach for Facebook Marketplace ads?

Facebook Marketplace ads reach 562 million people. (source: Hootsuite)

Instagram statistics

Instagram burst onto the social media scene in October 2010, and has since become the place to share images online. With its combination of traditional social features (liking, commenting, etc.) and clever styling capabilities, it quickly built an army of loyal fans and remains popular to this day. Here are some useful Instagram statistics to validate your marketing decisions.

What is the growth rate of Instagram?

Instagram has doubled their user base to 2 billion within three years. (source: Sprout Social)

How many Instagram users are there?

  • Instagram has 2 billion monthly active users. (source: Axios)
  • 17.6% of the world population uses Instagram. (source: Social Pilot)

What is the average time spent on Instagram?

The average time spent per day on Instagram is 29 minutes. (source: Statista)

What are the engagement rates on Instagram?

  • Engagement rates on Instagram are approximately six times higher than those on Facebook (0.83% to 0.13%). (source: Social Insider)
  • The average Instagram engagement rate for all types of posts is 1.94%. (source: We Are Social)
  • The engagement rate for photos is 0.46%. (source: We Are Social)
  • The engagement rate for videos is 0.61%. (source: We Are Social)

What are the most popular Instagram content types?

Instagram Stories (83%) and grid posts (93%) remain the most popular types of content among influencers. (source: Insider Intelligence)

How many people shop on Instagram?

According to Instagram, 44% of users shop for products on Instagram weekly (and 28% of those shopping activities are pre-planned). (source: Instagram)

Instagram age groups

Age group Percentage of users
13 – 17 8.5%
18 – 24 30.1%
25 – 34 31.5%
35 – 44 16.1%
45 – 54 8%
55 – 64 3.6%
65+ 2.1%

(source: Hootsuite)

Out of the 25-34 age group, 16.4% are male and 14.8% are female users. (source: Statista)

Instagram demographics

Instagram users by income

Income Percentage of U.S internet users
Under $30k 44%
$30 – $60k 45%
$60 – $70k 36%
$70 – $80k 55%
$80 – $100k 46%
$100k + 60%

(source: Statista)

Instagram genders

Instagram users are 48.4% female and 51.8% male. (source: Statista)

Instagram ad reach by country

Country Total reach
India 230,250,000
U.S.A 159,750,000
Brazil 119,450,000
Indonesia 99,150,000
Russia 63,000,000
Turkey 52,150,000
Japan 46,100,000
Mexico 37,850,000
U.K 31,750,000
Germany 29,850,000
Italy 27,500,000
France 26,550,000
Argentina 24,700,000
Spain 22,850,000
South Korea 20,650,000
Philippines 18,650,000
Thailand 18,500,000
Colombia 18,300,000
Canada 17,400,000
Ukraine 16,100,000

(source: Hootsuite)

Instagram advertising statistics

How big is Instagram’s ad reach?

Instagram ads can reach 849.3 million users. (source: Hootsuite)

What is the average cost-per-click on Instagram?

The average cost-per-click ad cost is between $0.70 – $1.00. (source: HubSpot)

How many marketers advertise through Instagram?

38% of marketers use Instagram’s ad platform. (source: Social Media Examiner)

Instagram video statistics

What percentage of content on Instagram is video?

Video posts make up 14.9% of all content on Instagram. (source: Social Pilot)

How effective are Instagram video posts?

Instagram video posts are more than 2x more likely to generate engagement than image posts. (source: Mention)

LinkedIn statistics

We spend so much of our lives working, it was only a matter of time before there was a social network dedicated to it. LinkedIn is a platform where employees connect, find work, promote their ideas, and more. It can also be a good place for businesses to discover leads, build their professional networks, and ultimately generate revenue. Here are the key LinkedIn statistics you need to know.

How popular is LinkedIn?

According to LinkedIn themselves, they have 810 million active monthly users. (source: LinkedIn)

What is the average time spent on LinkedIn?

16.2% of LinkedIn users use the platform daily (versus 48.5% that log in monthly). (source: Statista)

What is the average LinkedIn engagement rate?

LinkedIn’s average engagement rate is 3.16% per impressions. (source: Social Insider)

Demographics of LinkedIn users

What is the biggest income bracket for LinkedIn users?

44% of LinkedIn users take home more than $75,000 per year. (source: Kinsta)

Average age of LinkedIn users

Age group Percentage of users worldwide
18 – 24 20.4%
25 – 34 59.1%
35 – 54 17.7%
55+ 2.9%

(source: Statista)

LinkedIn genders

LinkedIn’s users are 48% female and 52% male. (source: Statista)

LinkedIn advertising statistics

What is LinkedIn’s advertising reach?

  • LinkedIn reports that 857.1 million can be reached with LinkedIn adverts. (source: DataReportal)
  • Marketers can reach 15.3% of people aged 18 years or older with adverts on LinkedIn. (source: DataReportal)

What LinkedIn gender by ad reach

43.8% of LinkedIn’s ads audience is female, and 56.2% is male. (source: DataReportal)

How many B2B marketers use LinkedIn ads?

5% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn ads. (source: Content Marketing Institute)

LinkedIn marketing statistics

How many companies are on LinkedIn?

There are 58 million companies on LinkedIn. (source: Economic Graph)

How effective is LinkedIn for generating leads?

According to LinkedIn themselves, 40% of B2B marketers believe LinkedIn to be the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads. (source: LinkedIn)

How many B2B content marketers use LinkedIn?

93% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn for organic social marketing. (source: Content Marketing Institute)

How effective is LinkedIn for generating organic traffic?

77% of content marketers say LinkedIn produces the best organic results. (source: Content Marketing Institute)

How effective are LinkedIn live streams?

According to LinkedIn themselves, brands get 7x more reactions and 24x more comments on LinkedIn Live streams than regular video. (source: LinkedIn)

What is the best post frequency for LinkedIn?

According to LinkedIn themselves, companies that post weekly on LinkedIn see a 2x higher engagement rate. (source: LinkedIn)

Twitter statistics

Twitter is a bit of a dark horse when it comes to marketing. It’s often overlooked, but people forget it’s a major platform with millions of daily users, many of whom may be interested in their brand. Here are some Twitter statistics that might demonstrate the potential of the platform.

How many Twitter users are there?

There are 211 million daily active Twitter users. (source: Statista)

What is the average time spent on Twitter?

The average time spent on Twitter is 31 minutes per day. (source: Statista)

How often do people use Twitter?

52% of Twitter users use the platform daily (versus 84% that use it weekly). (source: Statista)

What is the average Twitter engagement rate?

The overall median engagement rate on Twitter is 0.037%. (source: Rival IQ)

Twitter as a news source

  • 85% of people on Twitter watch, read, or listen to the news at least once a day. (source: Twitter)
  • 83% of people on Twitter Tweet about news. (source: Twitter)
  • 3 in 4 people who come to Twitter for news do so at least once a day. (source: Twitter)
  • 55% of people on Twitter get their news from Twitter, more than other social media platforms. (source: Twitter)

Twitter demographics

What is the large age group for Twitter users?

The largest age group for Twitter users is 18-29, which makes up 42%. (source: Statista)

Twitter genders

38.4% of Twitter’s user are female, and 61.6% male. (source: Statista)

Twitter users by country

Country Users (millions)
U.S 76.9
Japan 58.95
India 23.6
Brazil 19.05
Indonesia 18.45
U.K 18.4
Turkey 16.1
Saudi Arabia 14.1
Mexico 13.9
Thailand 11.45
Philippines 10.5
France 10
Spain 8.75
Canada 7.9
Germany 7.75
South Korea 7.2

(source: Statista)

What is the education and income of Twitter users?

One-third of Twitter users are college-educated and make more than $75K annually. (source: Sprout Social)

Twitter advertising statistics

How much is Twitter’s advertising revenue?

Twitter’s ad revenue exceeded $1.41 billion in 2021. (source: Twitter)

How long do people look at Twitter’s ads?

According to Twitter themselves, 26% of people spend more time looking at ads on Twitter vs. other leading platforms. (source: Twitter)

What is the average CPM for Twitter ads?

The average CPM is $6.46. That’s 78% lower than Pinterest’s, which is $30. (source: Statista)

What is Twitter’s ad reach?

Twitter ads reach 5.8% of the world population over age 13. (source: Hootsuite)

YouTube statistics

An unfathomable amount of video is uploaded to YouTube every day, far more than any person can watch in their lifetime. The platform dominates the video landscape not just in terms of social media, but for the entire web. Here is our selection of useful YouTube statistics, to give you a better understanding of the platform and its users.

What is YouTube’s user base?

According to YouTube themselves, YouTube has more than 2 billion active monthly users. (source: YouTube)

How often do people use YouTube?

62% of YouTube’s users log into the platform daily. (source: Statista)

Why do people use YouTube?

The majority of users claim to use YouTube for entertainment rather than to find brands and products. (source: Sprout Social)

What is the average time spent on YouTube?

The average time spent on YouTube is 30 minutes. (source: Statista)

What is the average engagement rate on YouTube?

YouTube has an engagement rate of 1.63% engagement rate for channels with fewer than 15,000 subscribers. (source: Statista)

YouTube demographics

YouTube user income

Income (USD) Share of US adults
Under $50k 76%
50k to $100k 69%
$100k+ 65%

(source: Statista)

What is YouTube’s most popular age group?

YouTube’s largest age group is 15-35. (source: Statista)

YouTube gender

46% of YouTube’s audience is female, and 54% male. (source: Statista)

YouTube advertising statistics

What is YouTube’s advertising revenue?

  • YouTube advertising revenues reached 7.34 billion USD in Q2 of 2022, a 5% YoY increase on the last quarter. (source: Statista)
  • YouTube saw a 25% YoY increase in ad revenue from 2020 to 2021. (source: Statista)

What is YouTube’s ad reach?

YouTube ads have a potential reach of 2.56 billion users, or roughly 1 in 3 people on Earth. (source: Hootsuite)

How effective are YouTube ads for products?

70% of people have bought a product after seeing it in a YouTube ad. (source: Google)

TikTok statistics

TikTok is the new kid on the block, and has grown at an astonishing rate since launching in September 2016. It’s a platform that allows short, quick-consumption videos compiled into endless feeds, and is particularly popular with young people. These are the key TikTok statistics you need to know.

How many users are on TikTok?

TikTok has 1 billion active monthly users. (source: Statista)

How effective is product marketing on TikTok?

Nearly 40% of Gen Z say they’re directly influenced by products they see on TikTok. (source: Sprout Social)

What is the average TikTok screen time?

The average time spent per day on TikTok is 45 minutes. (source: Oberlo)

What is the average TikTok screen time?

TikTok has an engagement rate of 6.72%. This is the highest in social media for 2022. (source: Social Insider)

TikTok demographics

What is the average age of TikTok users?

TikToks’s largest age group is 10-19, making up 25% of their user base. (source: Statista)

TikTok genders

TikTok’s users are 61% female, and 39% male. (source: Statista)

TikTok users by income

Income (USD) Distribution of users
$25k or less 15.4%
$25 – $40k 11.2%
$40 – $60k 12.4%
$60 – $75k 7.2%
$75k – $100k 13.6%
$100k + 40.2%

(source: Statista)

TikTok advertising statistics

What is TikTok’s advertising reach?

TikTok ads reach 17.9% of all internet users aged 18+. That’s 884.9 million people, or 15.9% of the worldwide population of people over 18. (source: Hootsuite)

How effective is TikTok for marketing?

  • 24% of marketers considered TikTok effective for reaching their business goals. (source: Hootsuite)
  • According to TikTok themselves, 67% of users say TikTok inspires them to shop— even when they weren’t planning to do so. (source: TikTok)

Do captions increase impressions on TikTok?

Adding captions to posts increases impressions by 55.7%. (source: Hootsuite)

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