Social media: global penetration rate 2024, by region
As of April 2024, Northern and Western Europe were the regions with the highest social network penetration rates globally, reaching 80.2 and 78.2 percent, respectively. Eastern Asia ranked third with a penetration rate of 74.9 percent, followed by Southern Europe with 73.5 percent. In contrast, Eastern and Middle Africa were the regions with the lowest reach, with 10.5 and 9.9 percent. Overall, the global average was 62.2 percent, which translates to almost six out of every ten people around the world using social networks. The regions below the global average were located in Africa and Asia, as well as Oceania and the Caribbean.
Global social media use
In 2023, 4.89 billion people around the world were using social media, and the number of users is projected to continue rising to almost six billion by 2027. Meta’s Facebook is the most popular social media network globally, with more than three billion monthly active users (MAU). Meta Platforms owns four of the ten leading social media networks globally, each with more than one billion MAU: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.
Social Media Usage, by country
As of January 2024, the UAE had the highest social media penetration rate out of selected countries and territories. Brazil and Morocco were close to the global average of 62.3 percent, with 66.3 and 55.7 percent, respectively, while Kenya reached only 23.5 percent. Although India’s active social media penetration rate was below average at 32.2 percent, the country had the second largest social media audience in the world, with 755 million social media users in 2022.
