Social Network Users Worldwide: 2015 to 2026 Data

Counting the world on social media

No single organisation counts every social media user in the world. The figure used most widely comes from Kepios, a research company whose analysts compile platform advertising audiences, company disclosures, surveys and national statistics into an estimate of active social media user identities in every country. Kepios publishes these estimates through DataReportal, in an annual global overview report and in shorter updates during the year.

This report traces that series over more than a decade and explains what it does and does not measure. It looks at how fast the total has grown, how close it is to the number of people online, which countries have the largest audiences and who is still left out. Rankings of individual platforms are covered separately in our league table of networks by users, and the industry as a whole in our report on social networks.

Social media users from 2015 to 2026

The series starts in January 2015, when DataReportal estimated almost 2.08 billion active social media users, about 29 percent of the world population. That early figure was built differently, by adding up the users of the most active platform in each country, so it is not strictly comparable with later years. From 2017 onward the numbers grew steadily: 2.80 billion in January 2017, 3.48 billion in January 2019, 4.20 billion in January 2021 and 5.04 billion in January 2024.

Almost tripled in eleven years: the published count rose from 2.08 billion in January 2015 to 5.79 billion in April 2026.

After 2024 the reporting schedule changed. Kepios published quarterly updates in April and July 2025 (5.31 billion and 5.41 billion), then brought forward its annual report, Digital 2026, to October 2025, when it put the total at 5.66 billion. The Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update in April 2026 raised it to 5.79 billion.

How many users were added each year

The annual increase reported by Kepios has ranged widely. The biggest jumps came in January 2017, with 482 million new user identities, and January 2021, with 490 million, when lockdowns pushed more people online. Growth slowed sharply in January 2023, to 137 million, partly because several platforms revised their own audience figures downward. Since then the reported increase has been between 206 million and 294 million a year.

Two booms and a reset: the 2017 and 2021 surges were followed by a slowdown in 2023, after which growth settled at 200 to 300 million a year.

The reported change and the difference between two published totals are not the same thing. Between January 2025 (5.24 billion) and January 2026 there was no January report, and the change from July to October 2025 (5.41 billion to 5.66 billion) includes a revision rather than a quarter of new users. Kepios therefore reports each change against a restated earlier figure, which is why its April 2026 increase of 294 million is smaller than the 550 million difference from January 2025.

From 29 percent to more than two thirds of the world

Measured against the world population, social media use has more than doubled in a decade. The equivalent share rose from about 29 percent in January 2015 to 45 percent in 2019, crossed half in 2020 and reached 63.9 percent in January 2025 and 68.7 percent in October 2025. In April 2026 Kepios described it as over two thirds of people.

Two in three people: the equivalent share of the world population on social media has risen by about 40 points since 2015.

Against narrower groups, the figure is close to saturation. In October 2025 user identities equalled 93.8 percent of the 6.04 billion internet users counted by Kepios, and by April 2026 the equivalent was 94.7 percent of internet users and 94.5 percent of the adult (18+) population. Survey data from GWI, quoted in the same reports, show that 96.9 percent of internet users aged 16 and over use at least one social platform each month.

Why user identities are not the same as people

Kepios is careful to call its numbers social media user identities, not users. One person can have several accounts, some accounts are run by businesses or bots, and some people give a false age when they sign up. Kepios notes that its figures may not represent unique human individuals, and that in some countries the count can exceed the population.

Saudi Arabia shows the effect clearly. Kepios counted 38.6 million social media user identities there in October 2025, equal to 111 percent of the population. Duplicated accounts, accounts held by temporary residents and visitors, and platform reporting methods can all push figures above 100 percent. The equivalent shares for adults and internet users should therefore be read as upper limits, not as exact counts of people.

Another check comes from survey data. Kepios reports, from GWI research, that internet users use an average of 6.75 different social platforms each month, with almost no difference between men (6.81) and women (6.73). That overlap is why platform user numbers cannot be added up to estimate the total. Time spent on these platforms is analysed in our report on how long people spend on social media each day.

Revisions: why the series has breaks

The Kepios series has been revised several times, and the breaks matter when reading year-on-year changes. In January 2023, several platforms revised their reported audiences, and Kepios warned that the figures were not directly comparable with earlier reports and did not mean that social media use had fallen. In October 2025, the jump from 5.41 billion to 5.66 billion was largely due to revised internet user numbers for China, which raised the estimate of Chinese social media users.

For readers, the safest approach is to use the published totals to describe the scale of social media and the reported year-on-year changes to describe growth, rather than subtracting totals from different reports. Social network reach by country is compared in our data on social networking penetration by country.

The countries with the most social media users

China has by far the largest social media audience, with 1.28 billion user identities in October 2025, equal to 90.3 percent of its population. Its users are concentrated on domestic platforms such as Weixin, Douyin and Weibo. India is second with 500 million, but that equals only 34.1 percent of its population, showing how much room remains. The United States has 254 million, 73.0 percent of its population.

China alone has more than India, the US and Indonesia combined: 1.28 billion user identities against 934 million.

Indonesia, with 180 million user identities, recorded the fastest growth among the large countries, adding 37 million in a year, an increase of 26.0 percent. Brazil has 150 million, 70.4 percent of its population. In Nigeria, the most populous African country, the figure is 47.8 million, only 20.0 percent of the population. Penetration differences between countries are covered in our report on social network penetration worldwide.

At the other extreme, Kepios gives no social media figure for North Korea, where the internet is not available to ordinary citizens and fewer than 100,000 people can reach international websites. TikTok audiences by country are compared in our ranking of the largest TikTok audiences by country.

Men and women on social media

Men make up a larger share of the social media audience than women. In the Digital 2026 report, Kepios put the male share of social media users at 54.4 percent and the female share at 45.6 percent. The gap is consistent with lower internet access among women, which the ITU data below also show, rather than lower use among women who are already online.

More men overall, equal use once online: men account for 54.4 percent of users, but almost all internet users of both sexes use social media.

Among people who are already online, the difference disappears. GWI survey data quoted by Kepios show that 97.3 percent of women and 96.6 percent of men aged 16 and over who use the internet use at least one social platform each month. Platform-level gender splits are in our gender distribution by platform data.

Who is still offline: 2.2 billion people

Because almost every internet user is already on social media, the number of social media users can only keep growing as more people get online. The International Telecommunication Union estimates that about 6 billion people used the internet in 2025, roughly three quarters of the world population, an increase of more than 240 million in a year. About 2.2 billion people remained offline.

The divide is about income: 94 percent of people in high-income countries use the internet, against 23 percent in low-income countries.

The gaps are widest between rich and poor countries: 94 percent of people in high-income countries use the internet, against 23 percent in low-income countries. Urban residents (85 percent) are much more likely to be online than rural residents (58 percent), men slightly more than women (77 against 71 percent), and young people aged 15 to 24 more than the rest of the population (82 against 72 percent). These offline groups are where the next billion social media users would come from.

Mobile access: the route to social media

For most new users, social media starts on a mobile phone. The GSMA estimates that there were 5.8 billion unique mobile subscribers in 2025, about 70 percent of the world population, and about 4.7 billion mobile internet users, 58 percent of the population, across 8.8 billion mobile connections. Kepios counted 5.78 billion unique mobile users in October 2025, up 108 million in a year.

The difference between unique mobile subscribers and mobile internet users, about 1.1 billion people on GSMA figures, is the group that already has a phone but does not use mobile internet, often because of the cost of smartphones and data or a lack of digital skills. Bringing even part of that group online would add hundreds of millions of social media users. Mobile app downloads give a further view of this demand in our TikTok quarterly downloads data.

Outlook: growth now depends on internet access

Kepios does not publish forecasts of social media users, and this report does not use third-party projections. The data do, however, point to a clear pattern. With about 95 percent of internet users already counted, social media growth is now tied to internet growth, which the ITU put at more than 240 million new users in 2025. The largest potential lies in India, where user identities equal only about a third of the population, and in sub-Saharan Africa.

Revisions will continue to affect the headline figure, especially as statistics offices and the ITU update internet use estimates for China and India. For readers comparing years, the reported annual change remains the better guide to growth. Spending that follows this audience is tracked in our report on global social media advertising spend.

Social media users worldwide in eight numbers

Questions about how many people use social media