Share of U.S. population who use social media 2008-2021

How many people are on social media?

Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities and in 2021, 82 percent of the population in the United States had a social networking profile, representing a two percent increase from the 80 percent usage reach in the previous year. This equals approximately 223 million U.S. social media users as of 2020.

Global social media access

According to estimates, the number of worldwide social media users reached 4.2 billion in January 2021. The overall most popular social network based on active users is the American market leader Facebook. In January 2021, Facebook had some 2.74 billion accounts, followed by YouTube and WhatsApp with roughly 2.3 billion and two billion users respectively. The regions with the highest penetration of social media users are Western and Northern Europe.

Social media audiences in the United States

Although knowing how many people use social media is a powerful indicator of the tremendous influence such websites and apps have in our day to day life, how people are using them and who these users are is also telling. A report on social media usage released in 2019 shows that among Americans, younger online audiences were more likely to use social networks than older generations. Social media users in the United States use different social networks for a wide range of purposes. In a February 2019 survey, Instagram was the top social network for viewing photos whereas Facebook was more popular for sharing content.