174 Social Media Statistics & Facts That Just Might Blow Your Mind

When you really think about it, social media plays a big role in our lives. It’s a central part of many of our routines—wake up, check your social media site of preference, get out of bed, and start your day. Only to check said social media site (or sites) multiple times throughout the day. In fact, the average US adult spends almost two and a half hours on social media PER DAY.

I don’t know about you, but I dread my weekly screen time report which informs me that, yes, I have spent actual hours of my day scrolling through various feeds on my social media apps.

But thankfully, I know I’m not alone—and I have the stats to prove it!

Here, you’ll find the only list of social media statistics you’ll ever need, including:

• General social media statistics
• Facebook statistics
• Instagram statistics
• Twitter statistics
• LinkedIn statistics
• TikTok statistics
• Snapchat statistics

Plus, we’re sharing some fun facts along the way. Because we can’t talk about social media without at least having a little fun!

 

Striking social media statistics

It’s hard to imagine a time before social media, but the reality is that it’s still fairly new. Here are some general social media stats that show just how integral it has become to our lives in a short(ish) amount of time.

• There are 3.78 billion social media users (almost half of the world’s population!).
• Social media platforms gained 490 million users in 2020.
• 84% of 18-to-29-year-olds in the US are active social media users.
• People spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes per day on social media.
• 54% of people use social media to research products.
• Over 70% of people who have a positive experience with a business on social media will recommend that business to their networks.
• Nearly half of people rely on recommendations from social media influencers.
• 91% of users access social media channels on their mobile devices.
• 80% of all time spent on social media sites happens on mobile devices.

Fun social media fact: 40% of internet users are on social media for work purposes (or at least that’s what they tell their bosses….).

 

Fascinating Facebook statistics

Facebook was launched February 4, 2004, as The Facebook–a social network built specifically for Harvard students to connect with each other. Now, Facebook is the top social media site in the world. Here are some fascinating Facebook statistics that show just how many people are using Facebook (spoiler alert: A LOT), how often, how they engage on the site, and more.

• Facebook is the world’s third most-visited site.
• Facebook is the top social media platform, reaching nearly 60% of all social media users.
• Facebook has 2.74 billion daily active users.
• 68% of US adults use Facebook.
• 73% of US users visit Facebook every single day.
• 93% of US users visit Facebook weekly.
• 61% of Facebook users are under 35-years-old.
• 5% of Facebook users are over 65-years-old.
• Over 56% of Facebook users identify as male.
• 98% of Facebook users access the app on their mobile devices. While 82% of Facebook users access the app only on their mobile devices.
• 510,000 comments are posted on Facebook every minute.
• Facebook users spend 34 minutes on average on the platform every day (almost 20 hours every month!).
• 56% of people visit Facebook to get information.
• 36% of people use Facebook as a news source.
• Native videos on Facebook have a 10X higher reach than YouTube links.
• Over 500 million people watch videos on Facebook every day.
• Posts with links get 73% less engagement than posts with videos.
• Over 35% of posts from Facebook pages are images.

Facebook marketing and advertising stats

• 93% of US businesses use and are active on Facebook.
• Searches for and clicks on local businesses increased by over 30% on Facebook in 2020.
• Facebook advertising yields the highest return on investment across all paid advertising channels.
• Facebook users click on 12 Facebook ads on average every month.
• Less than 5% of businesses use Facebook video ads (we smell an opportunity to stand out!).
• 86% of marketers in the US take advantage of Facebook advertising.
• The best time for businesses to post on Facebook is Wednesday at 11 a.m. or between 1 and 2 p.m.

Fun Facebook fact: In 2012, Facebook became the first social media network to pass one billion active users.

 

Interesting Instagram statistics

Instagram was launched on October 6, 2010, as an iOS app. In its first week, the Instagram app was downloaded 100,000 times, and it hasn’t slowed down much since then. Here are some interesting Instagram stats that show how this (now) Facebook-owned property has grown and evolved in the last 10+ years.

• Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users.
• 51% of Instagram users identify as female.
• 71% of Instagram users are under 35-years-old.
• Over 69,000 photos and videos are shared on Instagram every minute.
• 500 million Instagram users view Instagram Stories daily.
• The average user spends 30 minutes per day on Instagram.
• India has the largest audience size on Instagram with 180 million in 2021, followed by the US with 170 million.
• 11% of people use Instagram as a news source.
• The average Instagram post has 7 hashtags. (Get some hashtag ideas to up your posts here!)

Instagram marketing and advertising stats

• Over 70% of businesses in the US use Instagram.
• 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile every day.
• 81% of people use Instagram to research products and services.
• Half of users have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing the business or product on Instagram.
• The average Instagram business account publishes one post per day.
• More than 80% of businesses say engagement is the most important metric to measure for Instagram marketing.
• The average engagement rate is 96%. (Get our tips to check and improve engagement rate!)
• 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business on the platform.
• Stories from brands have an 86% completion rate.
• One-third of the most viewed stories are from businesses.
• One in five stories gets a direct message from its viewers.
• 180 million people tap on Instagram shopping posts every month.
• Picture ads are the most popular type of sponsored ads on Instagram.
• Seven out of 10 hashtags on Instagram are branded hashtags.
• The best time to post on Instagram is 11 a.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.

Fun Instagram fact: The most-followed person on Instagram is Cristiano Ronaldo with over 315 million followers. The average media value for one of his posts is nearly $1 million!

 

Terrific X (formerly Twitter) statistics

Twitter was launched on July 15, 2006, as Twttr, a side project from podcasting company Odeo. But Twitter didn’t fully take off until nearly a year later in March 2007 when more than 60,000 tweets were sent per day during SXSW. Here are some interesting Twitters stats and facts.

• Twitter has 353 million monthly active users and is expected to grow 4% in 2021.
• There are 7 million Twitters users in the US.
• 22% of US adults use Twitter.
• Over half of Twitter users in the US access the site daily.
• Nearly 29% of Twitter users are 25 to 34-years old.
• 70% of Twitter users identify as male.
• 99% of Twitter users are also active on at least one other social media channel.
• 350,000 tweets are sent every minute.
• 7,000 of those tweets are about TV or movies.
• Cooking-related tweets increased 300% in 2020.
• 92% of tweets in the US come from only 10% of Twitter users.
• The median Twitter user only tweets once a month.
• Nearly 10% of Americans increased their time on Twitter in 2020.
• 17% of US Twitter users get their news from the platform.
• 82% of people on Twitter watch video content on the platform.
• Video views on Twitter increased 62% from 2019 to 2020.
• Twitter is the sixth-ranked mobile app.
• 83% of the world’s leaders are on Twitter.

X (formerly) Twitter marketing stats

• 53% of marketers plan to use Twitter more in 2021 to 2022.
• Over 80% of B2B content marketers use Twitter ads.
• There was a 35% increase in total ad engagements on Twitter in 2020.
• Tweets with images get 18% more click-throughs than those without.
• Nearly 80% of Twitter users feel more positive about a business when they get a response to their tweet.
• 80% of people on Twitter have mentioned a business or brand in a tweet.
• 76% of Twitter users are likely to recommend a business after friendly service on the channel.
• Over 80% of B2B businesses use Twitter for organic social media marketing.
• Engagement with Twitter ads increased nearly 30% in 2020.

Fun Twitter fact: A day’s worth of tweets would fill a 10 million page book.

 

Lovely LinkedIn statistics

Believe it or not, LinkedIn is actually older than Facebook. It was launched on May 5, 2003, a full nine months before Facebook. Here are some LinkedIn stats that show how many people use LinkedIn, how they’re engaging on the platform, and how businesses can take advantage of LinkedIn marketing.

Related: Get steps to create a LinkedIn Company Page + tips for how to use it!

• LinkedIn has 303 million monthly active users.
• LinkedIn is the most trusted social media network in the US.
• 40% of users visit LinkedIn daily.
• 57% of LinkedIn users identify as male.
• Nearly 60% of people using LinkedIn are between 25 and 34-years-old.
• 40 million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs every month.
• Three people get hired through LinkedIn every minute.
• From March to October 2020, remote jobs increased 5X on LinkedIn.
• LinkedIn Live launched in February 2019, and Live streams increased by 437% in 2020!
• 57% of users visit LinkedIn on their mobile devices.
• LinkedIn posts with images get 2X higher engagement than posts without images.
• People on LinkedIn are 20X more likely to reshare a post with a video.

LinkedIn marketing stats

• There are 55 million companies on LinkedIn.
• 96% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn for social media marketing.
• 80% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn Ads.
• 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn drive business decisions.
• Businesses that post on LinkedIn every week see twice the engagement of businesses that don’t.
• Businesses with an active and complete LinkedIn profile get 5X more page views.
• 30% of a business’s engagement on LinkedIn comes from its employees.
• People are 14X more likely to share content from their employers on LinkedIn than other types of content.
• LinkedIn ads have more than 200 targeting characteristics so you can get as fine-tuned as you’d like in your ads!

Fun LinkedIn fact: 41% of millionaires use LinkedIn, so if you’re using the platform, you’re in good company.

 

Towering TikTok statistics

TikTok’s launch history is a little less straightforward than the others on this list. Here it goes: In September 2016, a Chinese company called ByteDance launched Duoyin, a lip-syncing app. In 2018, ByteDance bought and merged with a similar app called Musical.ly and rebranded as TikTok. TikTok expanded widely across the world–and viral history was made. Here are some TikTok stats that show how this new kid on the block is making a name for itself among the other social media giants.

• TikTok now has 1 billion monthly active users.
• 100 million of those monthly active users are in the US.
• More than 1 billion videos are viewed on TikTok every day.
• TikTok was the #1 downloaded app in 2020 and has been downloaded over 2 billion times.
• 90% of TikTok users open the app more than once a day—8 times a day on average!
• The average TikTok user spends 52 minutes per day on the app.
• Users 15 and under spend up to 80 minutes on TikTok per day.
• 10 to 19-year-olds make up the largest percentage of users (25%).
• 20% of TikTok users are 20 to 29-years old.
• 33% of TikTok users said they watch less TV after joining TikTok.

TikTok marketing stats

• TikTok has the highest engagement rate per post across social media sites.
• 37% of US TikTok users have a household income of over $100k.
• In one study, 72% of users found ads on TikTok “inspiring.”
• In that same study, 70% of users said they found TikTok ads enjoyable.
• 46% of TikTok users engage in the app without any other distractions–this is a marketer’s dream!
• 25% of TikTok users say they have purchased or researched a product after seeing a TikTok about it.

Related: How to Use TikTok Marketing for Your Business

Fun TikTok fact: Fleetwood Mac’s song “Dreams” returned to the Billboard charts and sales increased 3X after a video using the song went viral.

 

Snappy Snapchat statistics

Snapchat was launched on July 8, 2011, (originally as Picaboo but was relaunched as Snapchat just a couple of months later in September 2011). The app was first used mainly by college students to send pictures and messages that would disappear after being viewed. 10 years later, the app is now used by people of all ages–plus businesses. Here are some Snapchat stats that show just who uses Snapchat and how.

• There are 265 million daily active users on Snapchat.
• 101 million users are in the US.
• 63% of Snapchatters use the app every day.
• 61% of Snapchat users identify as female.
• 3 billion snaps are created every day.
• Snapchat can reach 90% of 13 to 24-year-olds.
• Snapchat is the second-most visited social platform in the US.
• The average Snapchatter uses the app for 30 minutes a day.
• The average Snapchat user opens the app more than 30 times per day.

Snapchat marketing stats

• Snapchat users are more likely to make purchases from their mobile devices than non-Snapchat users.
• Snapchatters are 60% more likely to make impulse purchases.
• 35% of Snapchat users send snaps to their friends about products they want to buy.
• The average swipe-up rate for Snapchat ads is 50%.
• The average cost per swipe is $0.30-1.00.

Fun Snapchat fact: In 2016, Taco Bell paid a whopping $75,000 for a filter ad to show for 24 hours. The filter made your head look like a taco. Money well spent!

 

Perfect Pinterest statistics

Pinterest was launched in March 2010 to the founders’ families and friends. It’s grown from 5,000 users in August 2010 to over 450 million in 2020. Here are some Pinterest statistics that show its power.

• Pinterest has 459 million monthly active users.
• Pinterest gained more than 100 million monthly active users in 2020.
• More than 60% of Pinterest users identify as female, but male users increased by almost 50% in 2020.
• 85% of Pinterest users access the site from their mobile devices.
• People watch almost 1 billion videos every day on Pinterest.
• Pinterest sees more than 2 billion monthly searches.
• 85% of Pinterest users say they use Pinterest to plan new projects.
• 8 in 10 Pinterest users say the platform makes them feel positive—90% even said it was “an online oasis.”

Pinterest marketing stats

• 95% of Pinners have used Pinterest to plan for or make a purchase.
• 52% of Pinterest users have seen something on Pinterest and then made a purchase online.
• 2 million people pin product-rich pins every day.
• Seasonal content drives 10X higher awareness and 22% higher online sales.
• Pinterest users are 70% more likely to engage with product tags when your product is shown in action.

Fun Pinterest fact: Holiday planning on Pinterest starts as early as April—nine months ahead of time! (Speaking of, is your holiday marketing ready?)

 

What to do with these social media stats

Understanding how people use social media is valuable for your business—it gives you the inside scoop into how you might be able to use these sites to connect with your audience, get more customers, and build your brand.

Check out our resources for your social media marketing strategy:

• The 10 Best Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
• How to Increase Your Social Media Presence Fast: 10 Easy Ideas
• 10 Time-Saving Social Media Tips to Increase Engagement (& Make Your Life Easier)
• 13 Social Media Hacks Every Small Business Should Try
• Your Guide to Building Your Social Media Presence
• 16 Ways to Make Your Social Media Accessible & Inclusive