How fast social media is growing

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Single Accounts Corporate Solutions Universities. Premium statistics. Read more. How many people use social media? Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities.

In , over 3. Who uses social media? Social networking is one of the most popular digital activities worldwide and it is no surprise that social networking penetration across all regions is constantly increasing. As of January , the global social media usage rate stood at 49 percent. This figure is anticipated to grow as lesser developed digital markets catch up with other regions when it comes to infrastructure development and the availability of cheap mobile devices.

Mobile-first market Eastern Asia topped the global ranking of mobile social networking penetration , followed by established digital powerhouses such as the Americas and Northern Europe.

The bar chart below shows a ranking of the top social media platforms, year by year. You can drag the slider in this chart to see the ranking for other years. The aggregate numbers mask a great deal of heterogeneity across platforms — some social media sites are much more popular than others among specific population groups. In general, young people are more likely to use social media than older people. But some platforms are much more popular among younger people.

This is shown in the chart where we plot the breakdown of social media use by age groups in the US. If they do, the age gradient would narrow. In this other chart we show the percentage of men and women who use different platforms in the US. The diagonal line marks parity; so sites above the diagonal line are those more popular among men and sites below are those more popular among women.

Bubble sizes are proportional to the total number of users of each platform. For some platforms the gender differences are very large. The share of women who use Pinterest is more than twice as high as the share of men using this platform.

For Reddit it is the other way around, the share of men is almost twice as high. From a back-of-the-envelope calculation we know that, if Facebook has 2. Young people tend to use social media more frequently.

In fact, in rich countries, where access to the internet is nearly universal , the vast majority of young adults use it. Our chart here shows the proportion of people aged 16 to 24 who use social networks across a selection of countries. The increase in social media use over the last decade has, of course, come together with a large increase in the amount of time that people spend online. In the US, adults spend more than 6 hours per day on digital media apps and websites accessed through mobile phones, tablets, computers and other connected devices such as game consoles.

As the chart shows, this growth has been driven almost entirely by additional time spent on smartphones and tablets.

There is evidence that in other rich countries people also spend many hours per day online. All reports and blog posts related to social media. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.

It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Newsletters Donate My Account. Research Topics. Home Research Topics. Feature April 7,