Global social media StatISTICs

Detailed analysis by the team at Manochi shows that there were 5.79 billion social media “user identities” around the world at the start of April 2026. 

This impressive figure indicates that more than 2 in 3 people on Earth now use social media each month, and means that social media users are now a “supermajority”, with users now outnumbering non-users by more than two to one.

Social media user numbers continue to grow too, with 294 million new user identities starting to use social media since this time last year.

That equates to annualised growth of 5.4 percent, at an average rate of 9.3 new users every single second.

The latest figures indicate that 94.7 percent of the world’s internet users regardless of age now use social media each month (learn more about people’s broader internet behaviours on our Global Digital Overview page).

However, note that figures for social media users may not represent unique individuals, and due to issues such as duplicate accounts, social media user figures may exceed the figures that we publish for internet users – or even for the total population. This is why we refer to social media user “identities”.

On the other hand, 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.

And for additional context, the latest data suggest that the number of “adult” social media user identities around the world (i.e. those aged 18 and above) now equates to 94.5 percent of the global adult population aged 18+.

Meanwhile, data from GWI indicates that 96.7 percent of internet users aged 16 and above in 54 of the world’s largest economies already use at least one social network or messaging platform each month.

GWI’s data also reveals that the typical social media user actively uses or visits an average of 6.5 different social platforms each month, and spends an average of 18 hours and 36 minutes using social media each week, which includes browsing social networks and watching online videos on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

On the basis that most people sleep for between 7 and 8 hours per day, these latest figures suggest that the typical internet user spends more than 1 full waking day each week using social media.

And added together, the world spends over 15 billion hours consuming content on social platforms each day, which is the equivalent of more than 1.75 million years of human existence.

The world’s biggest social media platforms

Different data sources offer different perspectives on social media use, so there is currently no definitive answer to the question, “what’s the most used social media platform in the world?”

Each of these different perspectives is still valuable though, so let’s take a closer look at what the data tells us.

Self-declared social media platform use

When it comes to the platforms that people say they use, the latest research from GWI finds that Facebook is the world’s most widely used social media platform.

In GWI’s Q4 2025 survey, 56.3 percent of adult internet users aged 16 and above reported using Facebook within the past month, which puts the platform just 1 percentage point ahead of its nearest rival.

YouTube ranks second, with 55.3 percent of GWI’s survey respondents saying that they used Google’s video platform within the past month, while Instagram ranks third, with 54.6 percent.

And Meta platforms claim the remaining places in the top 5 too, with 54.4 percent of online adults saying they use WhatsApp each month, and 36.9 percent saying they used Messenger at least once in the past 30 days.

Social media app use

However, opt-in research that logs the apps that people actually open on their smartphones offers different perspectives.

For example, App Intelligence data from Similarweb suggests that YouTube has the greatest number of monthly active users today, giving the platform an index of 100 [note that the top platform in this particular ranking will always have an index of 100].

WhatsApp (87.4) and Instagram (80.5) rank second and third (respectively), with this data suggesting that Meta’s top messaging platform has a greater number of active app users than all of its social networks.

Moreover, Similarweb’s figures indicate that YouTube’s audience is still meaningfully larger than the audiences of both these Meta platforms.

Facebook ranks fourth, with the platform’s active app users equating to 75.7 percent of YouTube’s active app user base.

TikTok ranks fifth with an index score of 67.4, and TikTok is the last platform in this Similarweb ranking that has an active user base that is at least half the size of YouTube’s.

Reported social media ad reach

Meanwhile, Manochi analysis of data published in the advertising resources of the world’s top platforms reveals that YouTube has the largest social media advertising audience.

The company’s latest data indicates that YouTube ads reach 2.65 billion users each month, which is roughly almost 10 percent greater than the 2.39 billion figure that Meta reports for Facebook.

Based on these figures published in the platforms’ own tools, TikTok ranks third, with reported reach of 2.21 billion, while Instagram ranks fourth at a worldwide level, with 1.99 billion.

LinkedIn ranks fifth with a reported global ad reach figure of 1.43 billion, but it’s important to highlight that this figure is based on the platform’s total registered members, and is not representative of the platform’s monthly active users.

Social media 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’ll already have the potential to reach the majority of social media users.

Reasons for using social media

Reach isn’t the only thing you should consider 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 differ by country and by platform, so be sure to dig into our local market data too.

GWI’s data also allows us to explore these motivations by age group.

Note that it’s particularly difficult to identify a representative sample of internet users over the age of 65 once we look beyond the world’s richer countries, which is why the dataset only includes people up to the age of 64.

However, this data still provides rich insights into how people’s reasons for using social media differ by age.

Favourite social media platforms

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.

Activities by social media platform

Research also reveals that people visit different social media platforms to achieve different things.

GWI’s survey reveals that messaging friends and family is a particularly popular topic on Facebook, but that TikTok users aren’t really all that interested in this functionality.

Instead, TikTok users primarily visit the platform to look for funny and entertaining videos.

Meanwhile, users on Instagram and Snapchat are particularly interested in publishing their own content, but this activity is significantly less popular on TikTok, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

And marketers may like to know that Pinterest users are particularly interested in following or researching brand-related content on the world’s most popular online pinboard.

Social media behaviours by country

Social media preferences and behaviours also vary meaningfully 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 statistics for a number of the world’s top social platforms, which you can explore via the links below:

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.