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Written by Backlinko Team
Since its inception in 1996, social media has reached more than half of the world population.
Social network platforms’ total user base in the last decade grew from 970 million in 2010 to 5.24 billion users in January 2025.
The spectacular year-on-year adoption of new users on the platforms is, however, slowing down. It now relies on the continuous growth in the number of people with internet access and smartphones, particularly in developing regions.
So, how big is social media and how has it evolved today?
Let’s dive right in:
As of January 2025, there are over 5.24 billion people using social media worldwide, and the average user accesses 6.83 social media platforms monthly.
All social networks report growth data on the number of monthly active users (MAU’s) rather than the number of accounts, as this data is more accurate for measuring actual use and territory penetration.
The current percentage of people using social media is 63.9% of the world’s total population.
However, when we look into platform penetration rates from people in eligible audiences, 94.24% of 5.56 billion global internet users.
Key Statistics:
According to the Global Web Index, the average number of social media platforms users aged 16+ access regularly on a monthly basis is 6.83 worldwide.
That rises up to 7.71 platforms among audiences aged 16-24 years old. The study of 53 countries with internet users aged 16+ shows Japan had the lowest average number of social platforms used at 2.49, comparably the UAE had the highest with 8.62 per internet user.
5 Highlights for Backlinko’s audience:
38.3% of all internet users worldwide use social media for work purposes.
In the U.S., only 25.4% of people actively use social media in their jobs, compared with the highest by country in Nigeria at 65.2%, or the lowest at 8.3% in Japan.
5 Highlights for Backlinko’s audience:
The current global average gender split of social media users is 54.6% men versus 45.4% women.
Which gender uses social media more by region?
Which gender uses social media more by platform?
As you can see from the data above, social network usage is different for men and women globally when examining location. Perhaps the most notable gap in gender differences is where we look at the use by platform.
When looking at the top 8 social platforms, most index higher in male users. Pinterest dominates with female audiences.
Source: DataReportal
In 2025, there are 5.24 billion people actively using social media in the world, and this is an increase of 4.1% year-on-year from 5.04 billion in 2023.
Back in 2015, there were only 2.08 billion users – that’s a 2.52x increase in users in just ten years.
10 Year Social Media Growth Statistics:
The rise of social media began back in 1996 with the release of the networking site Bolt (now closed). Shortly after, in 1997, Six Degrees was released where users could add friends and make profiles. Following that, services like AOL Instant Messenger, Live Journal, and Friendster launched all paving the way for the leader, Facebook, in 2004.
Timeline: Early days of social media
Sources: DataReportal, Wikipedia
Social media penetration = active users vs. total population.
According to Kepios analysis from 2025, the most active country is the U.A.E., with 100.3% of its population using social media (due to duplicates and “fake users”, the number of social media users may be overcounted and not represent unique individuals). The average adoption rate globally is 63.9%.
Key Statistics by the total population
According to recent estimates, the number of active social media users in the US is 253 million in 2025, meaning 73% of Americans are on social media.
The US social media penetration is calculated by the total number of active social network users versus the total population.
In America, social media is more prevalent among women, in particular, Snapchat and Pinterest, whereas men are using sites like YouTube and X (Twitter) more.
The percentage of social media use versus the total population by race for the entire US population is:
Unsurprisingly, the percentage of Americans using social media by age is primarily Gen Z and Millennials.
Sources: Pew Research, DataReportal
In 2024, Facebook is the leading social network with 3,065 billion active social media users worldwide.
YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram follow this with over 2 billion, then, WeChat, TikTok, and Facebook Messenger all having 1 billion or more users.
Similar to the global ranking, Meta-owned social networks – Facebook and Instagram lead the ranking with the highest number of monthly active users in the US, at 177.5 and 138.5 million, respectively.
Sources: DataReportal, eMarketer
In Q3 2024, the average time spent on social media per day is 2 hours 21 minutes globally for users aged 16+ on any device.
In comparison, the time spent on networks by the average person in the US is 2 hours and 9 minutes, 12 minutes less than the global average.
Key Statistics:
Below, we have the average daily time spent on social media in hours and minutes in select 10 countries; the data source is the Global Web Index.
5 Highlights for Backlinko’s audience:
Below, we have the growth in time spent on social media in minutes; the data source is from all internet users from 53 countries, aged 16 and over, and on any device.
Source: DataReportal
Conclusion
There you have it for my rise of social media statistics roundup.
In terms of technology adoption, it’s mind-blowing to see how quickly social media adoption rate grew across the world.
Furthermore, there’s a growing number of new social media networks adding more users.
Backlinko is owned by Semrush. We’re still obsessed with bringing you world-class SEO insights, backed by hands-on experience. Unless otherwise noted, this content was written by either an employee or paid contractor of Semrush Inc.
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