Global social media Stats

Kepios analysis shows that there are more than 4.62 billion social media users around the world in January 2022, equating to 58.4 percent of the total global population.

Social media user numbers have seen strong growth over the past 12 months too, with 424 million new users joining social media since this time last year.

The latest figures indicate that well over 9 in 10 internet users now use social media each month (learn more about people’s broader internet behaviours on our Global Digital Overview page).

That equates to annualised growth of 10.1 percent, or an average of more than 13 new users every single second.

However, note that figures for social media users may not represent unique individuals, and due to issues like duplicate accounts, social media user figures may exceed the figures that we publish for internet users – or even total population.

On the other hand though, it’s also worth noting that comparing social media users with figures for total population may under-represent the full extent of social media use, because most social media companies restrict use of their platforms to people aged 13 and above.

For context, the latest data suggest that the number of social media users around the world now equates to almost 75 percent of the eligible global population.

Data from GWI reveals that the typical social media user actively uses or visits an average of 7.5 different social platforms each month, and spends an average of close to 2½ hours per day using social media. 

Assuming that people sleep for between 7 and 8 hours per day, these latest figures suggest that people spend roughly 15 percent of their waking lives using social media.

Added together, the world spends more than 10 billion hours using social platforms each day, which is the equivalent of nearly 1.2 million years of human existence.

Facebook remains the world’s most widely used social media platform, but there are now six social media platforms that claim more than one billion monthly active users each. Half of these platforms are owned by Meta.

Furthermore, 17 social media platforms have at least 300 million active users in January 2022:

Note that LinkedIn doesn’t publish monthly active user data, so we can’t include it in this list. However, you can find in-depth data for LinkedIn use around the world here.

Audience overlaps

These individual platform user numbers tell a compelling story about the rise of social media around the world, but – on their own – they don’t tell the whole story.

Critically, the world’s connected population makes use of a variety of different social platforms each month, which means that there will be considerable overlaps between the user bases and advertising audiences of each of these platforms.

The chart below shows the extent of these overlaps, with fresh data from GWI providing valuable insights for anyone looking to build a social media ‘mix’ or digital marketing plan.

The key takeaway from this great data is that marketers don’t need to be on all platforms at the same time in order to reach the majority of their audiences.

Indeed, if reach is your primary objective, you can focus on just one or two of the larger platforms, safe in the knowledge that you have the potential to reach 99 percent of social media users.

Reach isn’t the only thing you should factor when building a marketing plan of course, but this data also allows us to think differently about how we construct a social media platform mix.

For example, different people will use different platforms for different needs, and it’s well worth marketers exploring these needs to identify which platforms are best suited to individual campaign and activity objectives.

The chart below offers some great insight into the reasons why people use social media today, but remember that these motivations will differ by country, by age group, and by platform, so be sure to dig into our local market data too.

Social media preferences

It’s also worth noting that high user numbers don’t necessarily translate into preference.

Once again, data from GWI can help us make sense of which platforms people have the greatest affinity for, with the chart below showing overall social media platform preferences at a global level.

As you might expect though, these preferences vary considerably by age and by gender.

As you can see in the chart below, GWI’s research finds that younger people are more likely to say that Instagram is their “favourite” social media platform (at least in most Western markets), whereas older generations tend to prefer Facebook and WhatsApp.

However, there are important differences in these preferences at a country level, and those local nuances are particularly important for marketers who are hoping to reach the right audience in the right place at just the right time.

Social media behaviours by country

As you’ll have seen by now, social media platform preferences vary from one country to another, so it’s important to dig deeper into the data to understand what’s happening at a local level.

If you’d like to know more about social media use in individual countries, including local social media platform rankings and audience profiles by age and gender, take a look at our complete collection of local reports.

We also have dedicated pages exploring the latest stats for a number of the world’s top social platforms, which you can explore via the links below:

• Facebook: click here

• Instagram: click here

• TikTok: click here

• Facebook Messenger: click here

• LinkedIn: click here

• Snapchat: click here

• Twitter: click here

• Pinterest: click here

And if you’d like to stay up to date with all the latest developments in social media use around the world, sign up for our newsletter using the form below to receive notifications whenever we publish new reports.