As of October 2025, social media usage statistics show 5.24 billion user identities worldwide — meaning more than two in three people on Earth now use at least one social platform each month.
In the U.S., 84% of adults use YouTube and 71% use Facebook, making them the two most widely used platforms domestically.
Here's a snapshot of the most important numbers before we dig into the detail.
Social Media Snapshot (U.S. Usage Overview)
|
Category |
Metric |
Value |
|
Internet Usage |
Internet users on social media |
~93–95% |
|
Platform Usage |
U.S. adults on YouTube |
~92–93% |
|
Platform Usage |
U.S. adults on Facebook |
~71% |
|
Platform Usage |
U.S. adults on Instagram |
~50% |
How Many People Use Social Media Worldwide?
Total Global User Numbers
The short answer: a lot. But the longer answer requires a small but important caveat.
The 5.24 billion figure refers to social media "user identities," not verified unique individuals.
Platforms count accounts, not people and many people maintain multiple accounts across the same or different platforms. This is why analysts use the term "user identities" rather than "users."
It's a meaningful distinction, and one that's often glossed over in headlines.That said, the scale is still genuinely striking.
Social media users now outnumber non-users globally by two to one. The platform era isn't approaching peak adoption for most of the world's connected population, it has already arrived.
What's often overlooked is that these figures also have a natural floor. Most platforms restrict sign-ups to users aged 13 and above, which means comparing social media user counts against total world population will always produce a slight undercount of true penetration among eligible users.
Among adults aged 18 and above specifically, the figure sits at 92.6% close to 1 in every 1.08 adults globally near saturation in many markets.
How Fast Is Social Media Growing?
Growth hasn't stopped, but it is slowing in relative terms. The addition of 259 million new user identities over the past year represents an annualised rate of 4.87% — that works out to roughly 7.8 new users every second.
As documented in research from Our World in Data, the rise of social media has been one of the fastest technology adoption curves in modern history, with platforms like Facebook and YouTube scaling from millions to billions of users within a single decade.
In practice, analysts who track platform growth commonly note that the biggest remaining pockets of new users are concentrated in South and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Latin America regions where internet infrastructure continues to expand.
Mature markets like the U.S., Western Europe, and Australia are largely in a retention and engagement phase, not a growth phase.
Table 2: Global Social Media User Growth — Year-on-Year
|
Year |
Estimated Global Users |
Annual Growth |
|
2021 |
~4.48 billion |
— |
|
2022 |
~4.70 billion |
~4.9% |
|
2023 |
~4.95 billion |
~5.3% |
|
2024 |
~5.04 billion |
~1.8% |
|
2025 (Oct) |
~5.24 billion |
~4.87% |
Source: Kepios / DataReportal estimates. Figures reflect user identities, not unique individuals.
How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media?
The average internet user now spends 2 hours and 19 minutes per day on social media roughly 18 hours and 36 minutes per week. Put another way, that's more than one full waking day per week, if you assume a standard 7–8 hours of sleep.
Collectively, the world spends approximately 15 billion hours consuming content on social platforms every single day.
That figure is hard to visualize in any meaningful sense, but it does illustrate why advertising budgets have steadily shifted toward social platforms over the past decade.
Time spent on social media varies considerably by region, age group, and platform type. The global average is a useful benchmark, but it masks significant variation users in emerging markets, where social platforms often serve as a primary gateway to the internet, tend to log notably higher daily hours.
Which Social Media Platforms Have the Most Users?
Understanding the Numbers MAU vs. Ad Reach vs. Self-Reported Use
Before looking at platform rankings, it's worth being clear about one thing that trips up a lot of readers: the numbers you see for different platforms are often measuring different things.
Table 4: Social Media Metric Types Explained
|
Metric Type |
What It Measures |
Who Uses It |
Reliability Note |
|
Monthly Active Users (MAU) |
Verified accounts that logged activity in a given month |
Platforms themselves |
Most reliable, but definitions vary by platform |
|
Advertising Reach |
Estimated audience a paid ad can potentially reach |
Platforms' ad tools |
Usually lower than MAU; excludes some user segments |
|
Self-Reported Use |
% of survey respondents who say they use a platform |
Researchers (e.g., Pew, GWI) |
Reflects perception; may over or undercount actual use |
|
Active App Users (Index) |
Relative scale of users who actually open the app |
Third-party tools (e.g., Similarweb) |
Useful for comparison but not absolute counts |
LinkedIn, for example, is often cited as a major platform and it is but it doesn't publish monthly active user figures. Its widely cited numbers reflect total registered members, which is a fundamentally different (and larger) metric.
This is why it doesn't appear in MAU-based rankings despite its significant professional presence.
At first glance the different rankings seem contradictory. They're not they're just measuring different things.
The World's Biggest Social Media Platforms by User Numbers (2025)
Seven platforms now report one billion or more monthly active users. Sixteen platforms report at least 500 million.
Table 5: World's Most Used Social Media Platforms — User Numbers (2025)
|
Platform |
Reported Figure |
Metric Type |
|
|
3.07 billion |
MAU |
|
|
3.00 billion |
MAU |
|
|
3.00 billion |
MAU |
|
YouTube |
2.58 billion |
Ad Reach |
|
TikTok |
1.99 billion |
Ad Reach |
|
WeChat (inc. Weixin) |
1.41 billion |
MAU |
|
Telegram |
1.00 billion |
MAU |
|
Snapchat |
932 million |
MAU |
|
Messenger |
942 million |
Ad Reach |
|
|
765 million |
Ad Reach |
|
|
578 million |
MAU |
|
X (formerly Twitter) |
557 million |
Ad Reach |
|
|
532 million |
MAU |
Sources: Platform-reported figures and Kepios / DataReportal analysis, 2025. Note that MAU and ad reach figures are not directly comparable see Table 4 for explanation.
Most Used Platforms by What Users Actually Report (Global Survey Data)
When GWI asked adult internet users (aged 16+) across 54 major economies which platforms they had used in the past month, the rankings shifted slightly from the MAU list above.
Facebook came first, with 56.9% of respondents reporting use in the past month about 1.5 percentage points ahead of YouTube (55.4%).
Instagram ranked third at 55.1%, followed by WhatsApp (54%) and Messenger (38.4%). Meta platforms, in other words, dominate self-reported use across the board.
The gap between self-reported use and MAU figures is real and worth noting. Survey respondents sometimes under-report platforms they use passively, and may over-report platforms they think of as part of their identity.
Neither figure is wrong they just reflect different dimensions of the same behavior.
Most Used Platforms by App Activity
When Similarweb tracked which apps people actually opened on their smartphones, YouTube ranked first indexed at 100 as the baseline. WhatsApp (86.5) and Instagram (79.9) ranked second and third, with Facebook (77.1) fourth and TikTok (67.1) fifth.
The gap between YouTube's app engagement and Facebook's is notable given that Facebook leads in self-reported use. In practice, teams working on digital strategy commonly observe that self-reported behavior and observed behavior diverge in ways that matter for planning particularly when the goal is active engagement rather than passive brand recall.
This divergence also affects how advertising reach figures are interpreted across platforms, since ad reach estimates are built on different underlying data depending on the platform.
Social Media Usage Statistics in the United States
Most Used Platforms Among U.S. Adults
YouTube and Facebook sit clearly at the top of U.S. platform usage, and have for several years running. Instagram is the only other platform that reaches at least half of American adults.
Table 6: U.S. Adult Social Media Platform Usage Ranked (2025)
|
Platform |
% of U.S. Adults Who Use It |
|
YouTube |
84% |
|
|
71% |
|
|
50% |
|
TikTok |
37% |
|
|
32% |
|
|
26% |
|
Snapchat |
~27% |
|
X (formerly Twitter) |
~22% |
|
Threads |
~9% |
|
Bluesky |
~4% |
|
Truth Social |
~3% |
Source: Pew Research Center survey of 5,022 U.S. adults, Feb–June 2025.
How U.S. Platform Use Has Changed Since 2021
The most notable growth story in the U.S. over the past four years belongs to TikTok usage has nearly doubled from 21% to 37% among adults.
Instagram, WhatsApp, and Reddit have all grown meaningfully too, while Facebook and YouTube have largely held steady.
As reported by TechCrunch, newer entrants like Threads and Bluesky are still a long way from threatening X's grip on the real-time text-post market in the U.S., despite growing competition.
Table 7: U.S. Platform Usage Growth — 2021 vs. 2025
|
Platform |
2021 Usage |
2025 Usage |
Change |
|
TikTok |
21% |
37% |
+16 pts |
|
|
40% |
50% |
+10 pts |
|
|
23% |
32% |
+9 pts |
|
|
18% |
26% |
+8 pts |
|
YouTube |
~81% |
84% |
+3 pts |
|
|
~69% |
71% |
+2 pts |
Source: Pew Research Center, 2021 and 2025.
How Often Do Americans Actually Use These Platforms?
Usage frequency tells a different story than reach. About half of U.S. adults say they visit Facebook and YouTube at least once a day with 37% checking Facebook several times daily and 33% doing the same on YouTube.
TikTok has roughly 24% of U.S. adults as daily users. X sits at around 10%. These daily use figures are meaningful because they reflect habitual engagement, not just occasional visits and habitual engagement is what drives advertising value and platform stickiness.
Social Media Demographics: Who Uses What
Usage by Age Group
Age is the single strongest predictor of which platforms people use. Younger adults dominate most platforms, but the degree of that dominance varies considerably.
Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Reddit are heavily skewed toward users under 30. YouTube and Facebook are the only two platforms where a majority of every age group reports using them though even there, younger adults are the most active.
Table 8: U.S. Social Media Usage by Age Group (2025)
|
Platform |
Ages 18–29 |
Ages 30–49 |
Ages 50–64 |
Ages 65+ |
|
YouTube |
95% |
92% |
85% |
64% |
|
|
68% |
80% |
74% |
57% |
|
|
80% |
62% |
40% |
19% |
|
TikTok |
63% |
44% |
30% |
12% |
|
|
48% |
35% |
16% |
6% |
|
Snapchat |
58% |
31% |
13% |
4% |
|
|
37% |
40% |
30% |
20% |
|
X |
33% |
25% |
16% |
10% |
Source: Pew Research Center, Feb–June 2025.
What stands out here is Facebook's unusual age curve it actually peaks among 30–49-year-olds (80%), not the youngest group. That's uncommon.
Most platforms follow a straightforward downward slope as age increases. Facebook's relatively strong showing among older adults reflects its longer tenure and the network effects built over nearly two decades.
Usage by Gender
Women are meaningfully more likely to use Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok than men. Instagram shows the clearest gap 55% of women report using it, compared with 44% of men.
Men, by contrast, are more likely to use X and Reddit both platforms historically associated with news, debate, and topic-based communities rather than social connection.
Usage by Race and Ethnicity
White adults are less likely than Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults to use Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp.
Instagram provides a clear illustration of this: 45% of White adults use it, compared with 62% of Hispanic adults, 58% of Asian adults, and 54% of Black adults.
WhatsApp's higher use among Hispanic and Asian adults likely reflects its role as a cross-border messaging tool it remains a primary communication channel in many countries these communities maintain close ties with.
Usage by Education Level
Higher formal education correlates with more use of Reddit, Instagram, and WhatsApp. About 40% of college graduates use Reddit, compared with just 15% of those with a high school diploma or less.
The opposite holds for TikTok it sees higher adoption among adults with some college or less education compared with college graduates. This isn't a value judgment; it likely reflects content format preferences and discovery behavior rather than anything more significant.
Usage by Political Affiliation
Platform choice now maps more closely to political identity than it once did. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are more likely to use WhatsApp, Reddit, TikTok, Bluesky, and Threads.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more likely to use X and Truth Social.
Interestingly, the X affiliation has flipped since 2023.
Two years ago, Democrats were more likely to report using the platform (26% vs. 20%). Now Republicans lead (24% vs. 19%). That's a meaningful shift in a short period and it coincides with the platform's ownership change and subsequent content policy decisions.
Why Do People Use Social Media? Platform-by-Platform Motivations
People don't use all platforms for the same reasons. This seems obvious, but it has practical implications for anyone trying to understand where attention actually goes.
Table 9: Primary User Motivations by Platform
|
Platform |
Primary User Motivation |
Secondary Activity |
|
|
Messaging friends and family |
News and community groups |
|
TikTok |
Entertainment and funny videos |
Discovering new content |
|
|
Publishing personal content |
Following others' content |
|
Snapchat |
Publishing personal content |
Private messaging |
|
|
Brand and product research |
Inspiration browsing |
|
|
Information-seeking and discussion |
Community participation |
|
|
Professional networking |
Industry news |
|
YouTube |
Video consumption |
How-to and learning content |
GWI's research finds that messaging friends and family is a distinctly Facebook behavior users on TikTok, for example, aren't particularly interested in that functionality.
TikTok users come almost exclusively for entertainment content. Reddit and LinkedIn users lean toward information-seeking rather than content publishing.
These differences matter more than raw platform size for anyone trying to understand where genuine engagement happens.
A platform with 3 billion users where most are passively scrolling entertainment is a different environment than a smaller platform where users are actively researching or discussing.
How Motivations Shift by Age
Younger users tend to use social media for entertainment, self-expression, and content creation. Older users lean toward news, community, and keeping in touch with people they already know.
This split is consistent across most platforms and most markets. It's also worth noting that GWI's motivation data covers users up to age 64 reliable representative samples of users over 65 are harder to gather in global studies, so the data skews younger by design.
Platform Audience Overlaps
Here's something the raw user numbers don't tell you: most people use multiple platforms. The average internet user actively uses or visits 6.75 different social platforms per month.
That means the user bases of major platforms aren't separate populations they overlap significantly. A person counted in Facebook's 3.07 billion MAUs is very likely also counted in YouTube's figures, Instagram's figures, and possibly several others.
Table 10: Social Media Platform Audience Overlap — Key Insights
|
Observation |
Detail |
|
Average platforms used per user/month |
6.75 (GWI, 2025) |
|
Overlap between top 2 platforms |
Significant — most users of one are users of the other |
|
Practical implication |
Marketers don't need to be on every platform to reach most users |
|
Single-platform reach sufficiency |
Focusing on 1–2 large platforms can reach the majority of social media audiences |
What this tells us, practically, is that platform numbers can't be simply added together to get a picture of total reach. The world doesn't have 5+ billion distinct audiences across platforms it has roughly 5.24 billion people cycling across multiple platforms throughout the week.
Conclusion
Social media usage statistics for 2025 paint a picture of near-universal adoption in connected markets, continued growth in emerging ones, and increasingly fragmented attention across platforms.
The numbers are large, but what matters more is which platform people use, why they use it, and how often because those details vary considerably by age, region, and purpose.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people use social media in 2025?
There are approximately 5.24 billion social media user identities globally as of October 2025, according to Kepios and DataReportal. This represents more than two in three people on Earth.
What is the most used social media platform in the world?
It depends on the metric. Facebook leads in MAUs (3.07B) and self-reported use. YouTube leads in active app engagement. There is no single definitive answer the metric used changes the ranking.
How much time does the average person spend on social media daily?
Globally, the average is approximately 2 hours and 19 minutes per day, based on GWI data for 2025. This varies significantly by region and age group.
Which platform is growing fastest in the U.S.?
TikTok has shown the steepest growth among tracked platforms from 21% of U.S. adults in 2021 to 37% in 2025, per Pew Research Center.
What percentage of Americans use social media?
It varies by platform. YouTube reaches 84% of U.S. adults, Facebook 71%, and Instagram 50%. These are the only three platforms used by at least half of American adults.
