25+ Social Media Statistics & Trends [2024 Update]

Social media has changed lives and transformed how we interact with our friends, family, community, and businesses. It’s also introduced faster, more efficient ways of consuming news and other types of information. Here’s what you should know about the latest social media statistics for 2024 ⇣.

Here’s a summary of some of the most interesting facts about social media:

• There are approximately 4.74 billion active social media users globally.
• Nearly 59.3% of the global population uses at least one social media platform.
• Social media has gained 190 million new users in the last year.
• The average person spends 2 hours and 27 minutes on social media daily.
• Facebook is the most widely used social channel used, with 2.96 billion active users.
• 52 million people use LinkedIn for job searches.
• 47% of global internet users say that staying in touch with family and friends is the top reason why people use social media.
• The influencer marketing market size is expected to grow to $17.4 billion in 2023.
• 46% of social media users are female, while 54% are male.
• Threads from Meta was the fastest-growing social media app in 2023 (100 million users in just 5 days).

Social media is changing lives and transforming how we interact with our family, friends, community, and businesses

The impact is evident by the fact that more than 59% of the world’s population is using social media. If Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Whatsapp were countries, they’d each have more people than China, the world’s current most populous country (1.4 billion people).

It’s not just the young folk. Older generations are catching on, too, and those aged 50+ are the fastest-growing users on Twitter. 

From performing customer service and making virtual appointments with doctors to opening a bank account and responding to natural disasters, social media is transforming our lives.

Here is an overview of the changing landscape and how our communities feel social media’s impact.

2024 Social Media Statistics & Trends

Here is a collection of the most up-to-date facts about media and social media statistics to give you the current state of what’s happening in 2024 and beyond.

Recent data suggest that nearly 59.3% of the global population uses at least one social media platform.

Social media has gained 190 million new users in the last year, equating to an annual growth rate of 4.2%

Experts attribute the surge in the popularity of social media to the widespread use of mobile phones because nearly 4.08 billion users use mobile phones to access their favorite social media platforms.

Every year, we spend more time on social media. In 2015, the average user spent 1 hour and 51 minutes on social platforms. The duration has increased by 50.33% to 2 hours and 27 minutes in 2023.

The time spent by users in different countries varies significantly, with the trend being more visible in developing countries. For instance, an average user in Nigeria spends four hours and seven minutes on social media channels. 

This is the longest average time per day out of all the countries. In contrast, the average Japanese user spends only 51 minutes on social media daily.

Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp are the world’s top three most widely used social media platforms. YouTube has 2.5 billion users, and WhatsApp has almost 2 billion users. WeChat is the most popular non-US-based brand that has 1.29 billion active users.

TikTok, Douyln, Kuaishou and Sina Weibo are other non-US-based brands that make up the top 10 list. Not every company reveals its numbers. Therefore, experts rely on the active user base and addressable advertising audiences to get measurable statistics.

Predicted trends for 2023 see a drift away from huge social media networks and smaller, independently run networks gaining in popularity. 

It is also predicted that despite its rocky start, the Metaverse is gaining traction and is set to become the next big thing. Experts have identified a potential market of $800 billion waiting to be uncovered within the Metaverse.

Additionally, the customer experience is expected to become even more social. 75% of consumers say that the COVID-19 pandemic has driven long-term behavioral change, of which one factor is urgency.

In 2023, brands are expected to create dedicated in-channel social media support networks providing ultra-fast responses no matter how consumers get in touch.

According to Data Reportal, the survey conducted for global internet users aged 16 to 64 shows that the main reason why people use social media is to stay in touch with family and friends. This accounts for 47% of global internet users.

Other top reasons include filling up spare time (35.4%), reading news stories (34.6%), finding content (30%), seeing what’s being talked about (28.7%), and finding inspiration (27%).

According to The Social Shepherd and based on LinkedIn news, 52 million people use LinkedIn for job searches on a weekly basis, with 101 job applications submitted to the platform every second and eight people being hired every minute.

LinkedIn news further reports that over eight million job applications are submitted daily. Data suggests that using the #OpenToWork photo frame increases the likelihood of receiving recruitment messages by over 2X.

Brands increasingly use social media channels to engage their audience and to communicate with customers. Research suggests that Instagram can offer advertisers more opportunities to engage their clients.

Instead of liking the post and sharing content, the Instagram platform quickly delivers a compelling message, resulting in effective communication. Furthermore, 44% of Instagram users shop for products weekly, with 28% of those shopping activities being preplanned.

93% of US marketers plan to use Instagram for influencer marketing, 68% will use TikTok and Facebook, and only 26% will use Snapchat.

With the influencer marketing market expected to grow 14.47% in 2023, we can expect to see a lot of activity from big influencers and micro-influencers (those with less than 50,000 followers).

TikTok is expected to dominate the influencer sphere, with over 45% of paid collaborations taking place on the platform. Instagram comes in second with 39%. YouTube limps last with only 2%. On average, brands will spend $257 to work with an influencer.

The top five countries for receiving influencer brand deals are the USA. Canada, the UK, Australia, and Germany. Los Angeles is the city with the largest number of influencers.

According to Datareportal, despite dropping from 454 million monthly active users in July 2021 to 433 million in July 2022, Pinterest is still used by 5.4% of all people globally.

Currently, the platform ranks 15th among the world’s most active social media platforms. In 2021, the platform was ranked 14th most active. Self-service advertising tools indicate that marketers could reach 251.8 million users, or 5% of internet users, in 2022.

The USA has the most Pinterest users (88.6 million), followed by Brasil (32.1 million), Mexico (20.6 million), Germany (15.1 million), and France (10.4 million)

According to Statista, the number is based on 2020’s result of over 3.6 billion social media users worldwide. It is projected to grow to almost 6 billion active social media users in 2027.

This anticipation is based on cheap mobile device availability and infrastructure development. The increasing usage of mobile devices positively impacts social media’s global growth.

There is a shift occurring. Over 50 million people globally consider themselves content creators, and consumers are moving away from huge mega influencers in favor of smaller and more authentic communities.

Larger brands have spotted this trend and are strategically partnering with this type of creator, and the market now stands at around $100 billion. The whole influencer market is less than a decade old, so this is an impressive figure for such a short space of time.

Almost 56% of consumers on social media suggest that they will unfollow a brand if they don’t get good customer service. For example, the average response time on Facebook is almost two hours, which is unacceptable.

The extended response time on social media is not practical because most users expect brands to respond within 30 minutes. In comparison, the response time on Twitter is only 33 minutes, closer to consumers’ expectations.

The importance of answering customer inquiries over social media is becoming increasingly important. Only 23% of customers prefer face-to-face interactions when seeking complicated customer service issues.

Therefore, advanced technologies can help handle 67% of social media inquiries without using other customer service channels. A mobile-friendly website can help because almost one-third of consumers use their mobile phones to resolve problems.

Young people are using social media to shop. 50% of people aged 24 or under use social media to conduct brand research, compare prices, and decide where to spend their money. This is compared with 46% that use search engines. Those aged 25 and upwards still prefer using search engines over social media, but the gap is closing quickly. 

Overall, however, search engines account for 32% of all brand research carried out by consumers. TV ads account for 31%, and word of mouth/recommendations is 28%. Social media ads also come in at 28%.

Overall, men are on social media more than women and make up the majority for every platform except for Snapchat, where women account for 53.8% of users. Women are likely to use LinkedIn the least and account for only 42.8% of users. Instagram’s users are split almost 50/50.

Over in the USA, men are likely to use social media less, making up for 45.3% of all users, with 54.7% women.

The slow adoption of social commerce is largely attributed to the lack of trust. According to a survey conducted by Accenture, the top three concerns are that purchases won’t be refunded or protected if they’re faulty (48%), poor policies on returns and refunds (37%), and waiting lengthy times for orders to arrive (32%). Consumers also worry about the authenticity of the product and its quality.

To improve in the area, Accenture says that brands must have easy return and refund processes (41%) along with clear descriptions and images (29%). Loyalty rewards (25%) and customer reviews (21%) also rank highly. 

One more interesting fact about social media is that YouTube is the go-to social media platform for 95% of people aged 13 – 17. TikTok comes in second at 67%, and Instagram is third with 62%. Facebook is only used by 32% of teens compared with a 71% high in 2015.

When it comes to usage, 55% of US teens claim they spend the right amount of time on social media, while 36% say they’re spending too long on the platforms. Only 8% of teens say they’re not using them enough.

Based on 2021 figures, Facebook is still the winner when it comes to marketing effectiveness. 62% of marketers believe the platform is best for achieving business goals. Instagram follows this at 49%, and LinkedIn at 40%. 

However, all is not rosy. Facebook’s figures have dropped from 78% in 2020. Instagram has dropped from 70%, and LinkedIn dropped from 42%. On the other hand, TikTok went from 3% in 2020 to a whopping 24% in 2021.

Social media advertising is still the most cost-effective way to reach new audiences. When looking at traditional methods, to reach 2,000 people, it costs $150 for a radio broadcast, $500 for a magazine article, and $900 for a direct mail campaign.

However, social media marketing only costs $75 to reach the same number of people. That’s 50% less than the cheapest traditional method.

A social media ad’s average cost per click can range from $0.38 to $5.26. LinkedIn’s average cost per click is the most expensive at $5.26, while Twitter is the cheapest costing only 38 cents. Facebook is around 97 cents, and Instagram is $3.56.

TikTok has only been around for seven years and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. On the contrary. If the platform continues growing at its current rate, it will surpass Facebook’s user base by 2026.

See more TikTok statistics for 2024 here.

Popular Questions Answered

Wrap Up

According to the latest social media facts and statistics, the use of social media platforms continues to grow at a rapid pace. There are currently over 4.74 billion people using social media worldwide, with the majority of users accessing their accounts on a daily basis.

The most popular social media platforms are Facebook, with over 2.7 billion monthly active users, followed by YouTube with 2 billion monthly active users and Instagram with 1 billion monthly active users.

In terms of engagement, Instagram has the highest rate of interaction with its users, with 50% of Instagram users reporting that they check the platform multiple times per day.

Additionally, social media has become an important marketing tool for businesses, with over 80% of companies using social media to reach and engage with their customers.

If you are interested in more statistics, check out our Internet statistics page here.

Sources:

• https://datareportal.com/social-media-users.
• https://www.statista.com/topics/2478/mobile-social-networks/#topicHeader__wrapper
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
• https://www.talkwalker.com/social-media-trends#
• https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/linkedin-statistics.
• https://blog.linkboost.co/is-the-open-to-work-linkedin-feature-working-against-you-opentowork/
• https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics/
• https://collabstr.com/2023-influencer-marketing-report
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2018/11/30/how-social-media-has-changed-how-we-consume-news/
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/04/social-media-internet-connectivity.
• https://datareportal.com/essential-pinterest-stats
• https://hootsuite.postclickmarketing.com/blog/research/social-trends/customer-care-20VI
• https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/software-platforms/social-commerce-experience
• https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/274828/gender-distribution-of-active-social-media-users-worldwide-by-platform
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/1319300/us-social-media-audience-by-gender
• https://www.wordstream.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cost-effective-ad-types-digital-vs-traditional.jpg
• https://www.peppercontent.io/blog/traditional-vs-digital-advertising-cost/
• https://www.webfx.com/social-media/pricing/how-much-does-social-media-advertising-cost/