In this article, we list and discuss the 20 Countries with the Most Social Media Users. If you would like to skip our detailed discussion of the use of social media over the years, you can go directly to the top 5 Countries with the Most Social Media Users.
Over two and a half decades ago, in 1997, during the hot and drizzly month of May, the world changed forever. And hardly anyone realized it at all. It all began when a man based in New York City – Andrew Weinreich – conceived the idea of a connected world, where anyone could connect with anyone. In May 1997, he put that idea to test and introduced the world: the world’s first-ever social media site, SixDegrees.com.
Perhaps, the site was a bit too ahead of its time, and the world was just not prepared to embrace an idea that held such enormity. Soon after, in 1999, the platform was acquired by YouthStream Media Networks, and in 2001, the platform shut down for good.
We say that the world wasn’t prepared for a true social media platform, because during the same month in which SixDegrees was launched, America Online had also launched its AOL instant messaging platform. While Andrew was only able to expand his to around 3,500,000 fully registered members throughout his platform’s life, AOL’s Instant Messenger attracted more than 61 million registered users by 2001.
In between these formative years, the world was also introduced to the first ever social blogging network: Open Diary, a game-based social networking site: Habbo, and two new messenger platforms: Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. In the years that followed, by 2003, more and more social networking platforms were launched including Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Skype.
In 2004, the world changed forever again. The only difference was that by this time, the world had been prepared for change, and the realization of change was also there, although not as profound as it can be today. During this year, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)’s Facebook was launched. By this time, over 899 million people were using the Internet worldwide. Compared to 1997, this was an increase of 782 million people.
Six years later, in 2011, the number of social media platforms and the number of Internet users had only gone up — Pinterest Inc (NYSE:PINS), Instagram, Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP), Google+, Tumblr, Twitter, and Quora had made their debuts and the internet now had over 2,135 million users.
Fast forward to today, in 2024, there are now over 5.4 billion Internet users (See: 25 Countries With The Highest Number of Internet Users in 2024) and 5.04 billion social media users worldwide. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) has not only acquired WhatsApp and Instagram but has rebranded itself and has continued to maintain Facebook as the most used social media platform in the world, with nearly 3.05 billion users today. Interestingly, all three of these apps are also the world’s top 3 favorite apps, according to data published by GWI.
Pinterest Inc (NYSE:PINS), on the other hand, is not as famous amongst social media users as its peers despite its growing fame in recent years. However, it’s still the 15th most active social media platform with 463 million monthly active users around the world; 90.1 million out of these are users from the United States of America. It is also interesting to note that compared to Facebook, Pinterest Inc (NYSE:PINS)’s advertising reach grew much more rapidly in 2023. While Facebook’s global advertising reach increased by only 5.0% (+108 million new users), Pinterest’s reach grew by 20.2%.
If we bring in another competitor in the frame, Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP)’s advertising audience reach grew by 11.0% in the same year. Note that Snapchat is the 10th most active social media platform as of 2024, with the majority of its user base being in India, the USA, and Pakistan. Although Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) is growing rapidly, it still has a long way to go if it wants to increase its user base as high as Facebook.
Furthermore, if we look at the use of social media platforms by country, and social media in general, South Africa, Brazil, Philippines, Colombia, and Argentina are the top 5 countries by average hours spent on social media. While only about 239.0 million Americans use social media, India has the largest user base for some of the most used social platforms — it has the most Facebook users, most Instagram users, and most YouTube users. Note that despite having high numbers of social media users, neither the US nor India nor any of the top 5 countries who spend the most hours on social media make it to the list of countries with the most social media users.
Meanwhile, the country that uses the least social media is Nigeria, with only 36.75 social media users as of 2024. Furthermore, according to a recent research published by GWI, a “typical” social media user now spends an average of 2 hours and 23 minutes daily on social media. If we look at the cumulative figure for all 195 countries in the world, this means that in 2024 alone, we will be using 500 million years’ worth of social media!
Below, we list the 20 Countries with the Most Social Media Users.
20 Countries with the Most Social Media Users
Our Methodology
For our list of most social media users by country, we’ve obtained data from DataReportal’s Digital 2024 Global Overview report. Note that this data is inclusive of duplicate and “non-human” social media accounts like businesses, pets, brands, etc. Therefore, the figures do not equate to or represent the unique and individual human users.
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20 Countries with the Most Social Media Users
20. Belgium
Social Media Users (% of total population): 78.4%
First on the list of 20 countries with the most social media users worldwide, Belgium has a total population of 11.70 million. In comparison, the total number of social media users in the country stands at 9.17 million today.
19. Switzerland
Social Media Users (% of total population): 78.4%
Switzerland, a mountainous country in Central Europe, has 6.92 million active social media users as of 2024. According to data published by Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)’s advertising resources, 3.05 million social media users in Switzerland were active on Facebook in early 2024.
18. New Zealand
Social Media Users (% of total population): 78.7%
New Zealand is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world today. As of 2024, there are 4.13 million social media users in the country.
17. Ireland
Social Media Users (% of total population): 79.0%
Ireland has a population of about 5.07 million people. Out of these, 5.02 million are internet users, and 4.01 million are social media users. According to DataReportal, YouTube is the most used social platform in Ireland, with 4.01 million users in early 2024.
16. Denmark
Social Media Users (% of total population): 79.7%
Ranked 16th, Denmark’s Internet penetration stands at 99% as of 2024, according to DataReportal’s report. The country is home to 5.93 million, of which 4.72 million are social media users.
15. Sweden
Social Media Users (% of total population): 80.1%
Sweden is a Scandinavian nation with a population of 10.64 million people, of which 10.44 million are internet users, and 8.53 million are social media users. The median mobile internet connection speed via cellular networks in Sweden is 98.22 Mbps, while the median fixed internet connection speed is 139.38 Mbps.
14. Taiwan
Social Media Users (% of total population): 80.2%
One of the top 5 most advanced nations in computer technology, Taiwan is home to over 19.20 million social media users as of 2024. There are over 16.95 million Facebook users, 19.20 million YouTube users, 11.35 million Instagram users, 5.65 million TikTok, 10.45 million Facebook Messenger users, 3.30 million LinkedIn members, and 4.64 million X users in Taiwan as of early 2024 data.
13. Germany
Social Media Users (% of total population): 81.4%
Germany is also a technologically advanced country, with an Internet penetration percentage of 93.3%. It has over 67.80 million social media users, which accounts for 81.4% of its total population of 83.28 million people as of 2024.
12. Austria
Social Media Users (% of total population): 81.6%
12th on the list, Austria has over 7.32 million social media users. Interestingly, the same figure stands in place for the number of people who use YouTube in Austria, according to Google’s advertising resources from earlier this year (2024).
11. Norway
Social Media Users (% of total population): 81.7%
Norway, a Scandinavian country surrounded by scenic mountains, glaciers, and deep coastal fjords, has a total population of 5.49 million as of 2024 data. The country is also home to 4.49 million people who use social media platforms in 2024.
10. Canada
Social Media Users (% of total population): 81.9%
Heading into the top 10 countries with the most social media users, we have Canada ranked 10th. The country has over 31.90 million active social media user identities as of 2024. According to data, YouTube is the most used social media platform in Canada.
9. United Kingdom
Social Media Users (% of total population): 82.8%
The United Kingdom, one of the most powerful and advanced countries in the world today, has a population of 67.85 million. As per the early 2024 data, the country has 56.20 million social media users and 66.33 million internet users overall. Out of these 66.33 million internet users, 84.7% of the people use at least one social media platform every month.
8. Malaysia
Social Media Users (% of total population): 83.1%
Malaysia, a South Asian country known for its beaches and rainforests, has the eighth highest social media users by country as of 2024. More precisely, the number of active social media users in Malaysia stands at 28.68 million.
7. Spain
Social Media Users (% of total population): 83.6%
Located in Southwestern Europe, Spain has around 39.70 million social media users and an overall population of 47.50 million as of 2024. The country has 19.05 million Facebook users, 23.95 million Instagram users, 3.78 million Snapchat users, and 9.31 million Pinterest users.
6. Netherlands
Social Media Users (% of total population): 85.0%
Coming sixth, the Netherlands has 15.00 million social media users. On average, each active social media user in the Netherlands spends about 1 hour and 30 minutes on social media platforms daily.
Click to continue reading and see the top 5 Countries with the Most Social Media Users.
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Disclosure: None. 20 Countries with the Most Social Media Users is originally published on Insider Monkey.