Digital 2025: the state of social media in 2025
Analysis by the Kepios team that researches our Global Digital Reports series indicates that social media adoption continues to increase.
The latest data indicate that there are now 5.24 billion active social media user identities around the world, with that total increasing by 4.1 percent over the past 12 months.
That’s slightly slower than the typical growth rates we’ve seen over the past decade, but we can expect growth to slow from hereon, especially now that user identities equate to more than 60 percent of the global population.
Social media adoption rates in context
As always, it’s important to remember that our “user identities” figures are based on active user accounts, and while our methodology strives to remove duplicates across platforms, these figures may not be perfectly representative of unique individuals.
Having said that, our analysis of reputable third-party data from companies like GWI, data.ai, Similarweb, and Semrush suggests that the margin of error between our global “user identities” total and the “real” human user total is likely within 1 or 2 percentage points.
In particular, GWI’s research finds that 97.3 percent of connected adults use at least one social network or messaging platform each month.
However, we cannot apply this figure to the total internet user base, because of the minimum age thresholds imposed by most social platforms.
As a result, we can expect the share of all internet users (regardless of age) who do use social media to be slightly lower than that GWI figure for adult adoption.
And that aligns neatly with our own research, which points to a social media adoption rate of 94.2 percent of all internet users.
However, adoption rates vary meaningfully around the world.
For example, data suggest that barely 3 in 10 internet users in Middle Africa use social media today, with well under half of the connected population in Sub-Saharan Africa using social media at the start of 2025.
It’s important to highlight that very few “commercial” figures are available for the use of messaging platforms like WhatsApp across these regions though, and we suspect that the data we do have for much of Sub-Saharan Africa significantly underrepresents actual social media adoption.
At the other end of the scale, almost 97 percent of the connected population in Eastern Asia uses social media today, thanks to the near ubiquitous use of WeChat amongst internet users in China.
Countries in Central and Southern America also see strong rates of social media adoption, as do countries across the EU and the UK.
Reasons for using social media
But why have social media platforms become so popular?
Part of the answer may lie in the reasons why people turn to social platforms in the first place.
The latest research from GWI indicates that “keeping in touch with friends and family” remains the primary reason for using social media today, but it’s perhaps surprising to learn that barely half of active social media users (50.8 percent) cite this as a relevant motivation.
“Filling spare time” ranks second at a global level, which may help to explain why “endless feeds” have become such a common feature of social media apps.
And despite regular assertions to the contrary by the platforms, news retains considerable appeal on social media.
Indeed, more than 1 in 3 active social users (34.5 percent) say that “reading news stories” is one of the main reasons why they visit social platforms (more on this later).
On average, the world’s adults cite 4.66 “primary” reasons for using social media today, with that figure remaining largely stable over the past two years.
However, the data does suggest a slight increase over recent quarters, which may suggest that social media’s role in our daily lives continues to expand.
Reasons for using social media by age
Interestingly, “keeping in touch with friends and family” is the top social motivation across all age groups in GWI’s survey.
Its relative importance does change across the generations though.
For example, just 48.3 percent of active social media users between the ages of 16 and 24 choose this answer option in GWI’s latest wave of research, whereas that figure climbs to 58.1 percent for users over the age of 65.
Meanwhile, younger people are more likely to be interested in staying up to date with “trending topics”, whereas older users tend to place more emphasis on reading news stories.
Who we follow on social media
Despite the fact that “keeping in touch with friends and family” remains the primary reason for using social media, fewer than half of adult social media users say that they follow friends, family, or other people that they know “IRL” on social platforms.
Actors, comedians, and other performers rank second at an overall level, while entertainment, meme, and parody accounts rank third.
However, there are some interesting variations in this data by age.
For example, people in older generations are more likely to say that they follow loved ones and acquaintances on social media, with more than half of active social users over the age of 55 answering in the affirmative.
The appeal of entertainment, meme, and parody accounts drops off quite quickly as people get older though, and this category doesn’t even appear in the top ten amongst social media users aged 55 and above.
Conversely, TV shows and channels are relatively more popular amongst older age groups, ranking second for all age groups aged 35 and above.
It’s also interesting to note that older generations are relatively more likely to follow companies and brands that they’re considering purchasing from, with this category ranking fifth amongst retirees.
However, the biggest takeaway from this age-specific data is that older people are significantly less likely to follow any accounts beyond people they know in real life.
For example, on average, social media users aged 16 to 24 follow accounts in 4.87 categories, but that figure falls to 4.28 for users aged 45 to 54, and just 2.21 for users aged 65 and above.
The role of influencers
It’s also interesting – but perhaps not surprising – to note that the appeal of influencers is largely restricted to younger age groups.
Overall, GWI’s latest data shows that 22 percent of active social media users follow influencers or other experts on social channels.
That figure matches the figure that we reported this time two years ago, but there has been a gentle decline in the percentage of users following these types of accounts over the past year.
However, there are significant variations by age and gender.
At the top end of the scale, more than three in ten women aged 16 to 24 – 30.8 percent – say that follow influencers and other experts on social platforms.
But at the other end of the spectrum, barely 1 in 25 men aged 65 and above – just 4 percent – say that they follow these types of accounts.
And it’s worth highlighting that men of all ages are meaningfully less likely than their female peers to follow influencers and other experts on social media.
But influencers’ appeal also varies significantly by geography.
For example, Filipinos are the most likely to follow these types of social accounts, with almost 45 percent of the country’s adult social media users saying that they follow influencers or other experts.
Influencer accounts are also popular in Brazil, where 41.8 percent of active social adults answered in the affirmative.
At the other end of the scale, Russians appear to be largely disinterested in influencers, with just 6.7 percent of the country’s adult social media users saying that they follow at least one influencer or expert on social platforms.
Turkey and Japan also see low figures for this category, while the relatively low ranking of China may also be worthy of note.
But if we dig a bit deeper into GWI’s social media motivations data, some even more interesting insights emerge.
The next few sections explore some of the trends that caught our attention in this latest round of data.
Brands and social media
Half of all adult users now visit social platforms with the intention of learning more about brands, and to see the content that they publish.
That figure has been creeping up over recent months too, from 47.7 percent in Q4 2022 (just after a revision in GWI’s research methodology) to the 50.0 percent that we see in the most recent survey.
Internet users in less developed economies are particularly likely to visit social platforms to learn more about brands, with almost 70 percent of respondents in Nigeria citing this as a primary reason for using social media.
Indonesia and Brazil rank highly too, with 66.7 percent and 64.6 percent respectively.
However, figures are markedly lower in South Korea and Japan, where fewer than 3 in 10 adult social media users say that they use social media to learn about brands.
The data also shows that women are considerably more likely than men to seek out brands on social media.
Young women are particularly likely to cite brand content as a primary reason for visiting social platforms, with 57 percent of active users age 16 to 24 citing this as a top social motivation.
Conversely, older men show considerably less interest, with barely 1 in 5 men aged 65 and above saying that they actively seek out brands’ content on social platforms.
Top social platforms for brand research
Instagram remains the “top” social channel for brand research, with 62.3 percent of the platform’s active adult users saying that they use the platform to research brands and products.
Facebook ranks second, with 52.5 percent, while TikTok ranks third, with 51.5 percent.
And it’s particularly interesting to note that the figure for TikTok has jumped over the past 2 years, increasing by a relative 36 percent compared with the 37.9 percent that we reported at the start of 2023.
Similarly, the relative importance of brand research for users of X and Pinterest may be of interest to marketers, especially when we consider the demographic nuances of each platform’s audience [note that you’ll find rich details of platform use by age gender in our complete Digital 2025 Global Overview Report].
Social media for news
As we saw earlier, finding and accessing news content retains significant appeal for the world’s social media users.
And this finding has particular significance, because social platforms frequently assert that news content isn’t important to their users.
For example, in a statement last year, Facebook claimed that:
“We know that people don’t come to Facebook for news and political content… news makes up less than 3 percent of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed.”
However, while the second half of that statement may well be accurate, there’s strong evidence to suggest that people do – in fact – visit Facebook specifically to look for content relating to news and current affairs.
For example, in its excellent Digital News Report 2024, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) found that a hefty 37 percent of online adults across many of the world’s largest economies use Facebook for news.
Moreover, the RISJ reports that Facebook comes out top amongst a large selection of the world’s larger social platforms in terms of its role in helping people find and access news.
[Note that the chart below is taken from our Digital 2024 Global News Report].
Meanwhile, GWI’s latest survey finds that 57.3 percent of active adult Facebook users visit the platform with the intention of keeping up to date with news and current affairs.
And while this figure does vary with age, GWI’s data suggests that more than half of active Facebook users aged 16 to 24 still say that they use the platform to keep up to date with news and current events.
Looking beyond individual platforms, more than 1 in 3 adult social media users (34.5 percent) say that reading news stories is one of the main reasons why they use social platforms.
And interestingly, that figure has remained remarkably consistent over the past two years.
Variance in online news audiences
However, it’s worth highlighting that interest in news increases with age.
Fewer than 3 in 10 social media users aged 16 to 24 (29.1percent) say that finding and consuming news content is one of the primary reasons why they visit social platforms, but that figure rises to more than 4 in 10 (40.6 percent) amongst users aged 55 to 64.
Men are also more likely than women to use social media for news, although this “gender gap” is relatively small.
Social media news activity also varies meaningfully by geography.
Once again, people in less developed economies are the most likely to visit social platforms to find news content, with 56.6 percent of active social media users in Nigeria saying that current affairs content is a top draw.
Similarly, more than half of adult users in Brazil, Turkey, and Greece agree.
Users across the Middle East are less likely to seek out news content on social media though, with less than a quarter of social media users in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt saying that news content has primary appeal.
And yet again, we find South Korea and Japan towards the bottom of these rankings.
If you’d like to dig deeper into trends relating to news and current affairs on social media, dig into our comprehensive (and free!) Digital 2024 Global News Report.
Social media for work
Meanwhile, more than 1 in 3 active social media users say that they use social platforms for work-related activities, with 38.3 percent of GWI’s global respondents answering in the affirmative in the company’s latest round of research.
That average has remained relatively stable over the past two years, although there are signs of a slight increase over the past 12 months.
However, it’s worth highlighting that just 1 in 5 active social media users say that they follow contacts relevant to their work on social channels, and this figure suggests that much of the world’s “professional” social media activity is either “task oriented” (e.g. creating and posting on a work account) or more ad hoc research.
Meanwhile, in something of a contradiction of stereotypes, the youngest generations are not the most likely to use social media for work.
Indeed, people aged 35 to 44 are the most likely to use social media in their professional activities, with more than 45 percent of male social media users in this age group saying that they use social media as part of their job.
And in fact, men of all ages are more likely than their female peers to say that they use social media for work-related activities.
From a geographic perspective, people in less developed economies are the most likely to use social media for work, with almost 2 in 3 active social media users in Nigeria saying that they use social platforms for professional activities.
South Africans and Brazilians also rank highly, with both countries seeing figures in excess of 50 percent.
But once again, we find Japan and South Korea at the other end of the rankings.
Indeed, just 1 in 12 social media users in Japan say that they use social channels for work-related activities, while that figure is just 13.5 percent in Korea.
Social media for sports
And lastly for this closer look at social media motivations, let’s turn our attention to sports.
GWI data suggests that “watching or following sports” isn’t one of the world’s top motivations for using social media, with news, entertainment, and shopping all bigger draws.
However, relative interest in sports content on social media has been growing over recent years, so this topic may still be worthy of a closer look.
Overall, 23.6 percent of adult social media users say that finding content related to sports is one of the main reasons why they visit social platforms.
And that average has increased steadily over the past two years, with the latest figure a relative 8.2 percent higher than the 21.8 percent figure we reported this time two years ago.
True to stereotypes though, men are significantly more likely than women to cite sports as a top draw.
Indeed, GWI’s latest data show that more than 3 in 10 male users – 30.1 percent – say that they visit social platforms to look for sports-related content, which is almost twice as many as the 16.7 percent of female users who agree.
Younger audiences are also more likely to seek out sports content on social media, with interest peaking at 31.6 percent amongst men aged 25 to 34.
Social media time declines
But despite the apparent expansion of social media’s role in our lives, the amount of time that we spend using social platforms has actually declined over the past two years.
GWI’s latest figures indicate that the typical internet user spends 2 hours and 21 minutes using social media each day, which is 10 minutes lower than the figure we reported this time two years ago.
A sustained downward trend finally reversed over the past three months, but only enough to recover two minutes per day, and current daily averages are still lower than the activity levels we saw in 2018, before TikTok and Reels came to dominate the social experience.
Social media activity by age and gender
Women continue to spend meaningfully more time on social media than men across all ages, with the gap most pronounced amongst younger age groups.
GWI reports that women aged 16 to 24 now spend an average of just under 3 hours per day using social platforms, with the current figure 12 minutes lower than the average that we reported for the same demographic this time two years ago.
Men in the same age group have also reduced their daily activity by 12 minutes over the past two years ago, meaning that the “gender gap” amongst these younger users remains at 25 minutes.
However, at the other end of the scale, women between the ages of 55 and 64 actually spend longer using social media today than they did this time two years ago.
GWI’s data shows that this demographic has added 6 minutes to its daily social media activity over the past 24 months, although it’s worth acknowledging that men in the same age group have seen their daily average decline by 4 minutes during the same period.
An expanding platform portfolio
But in something of a contrast to the decline in the time that we spend on social media, we’ve actually seen the number of platforms used by the world’s social audiences increase over the past 12 months.
GWI’s latest wave of research points to a global average of 6.83 platforms per month.
Changes in GWI’s methodology over the past couple of years mean it’s tricky to identify exactly how much change there has been in this figure, but the general trend is clearly one of users embracing a wider variety of platforms in their regular social media activities.
Interestingly, there hasn’t been much change in the overlaps of the audiences of the top platforms though – more on that in this detailed profile – which suggests that increases in the overall average are likely due to people integrating newer platforms into their “regular social repertoire”.
It’s also worth highlighting that averages vary meaningfully from country to country, with users in the UAE visiting an average of 8.62 social platforms each month.
Filipinos and Malaysians also tend to embrace a relatively expansive portfolio of social media apps, for an average of 8.36 and 8.12 platforms per user, per month (respectively).
But we see a very different picture in Japan, where users don’t even manage an average of 3.5 platforms per month.
And similarly, despite high levels of social media adoption in the country, South Korea also falls towards the bottom of this ranking.
When we break the global data down by demographic, young women once again top the rankings, with females aged 16 to 24 saying that they use an average of 7.76 platforms per month.
Their male peers aren’t far behind though, with men in this age group saying that they use an average of 7.71 platforms each month.
Averages are far more subdued at the other end of the generational spectrum though, with women over the age of 65 saying that they use just 3.64 platforms per month, and men in the same age group only averaging 3.28.
But which social media platform comes out on top in 2025?
Find out in this detailed analysis.
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This article is a sub-section of our Digital 2025 Global Overview Report.
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