We cannot imagine the world without social networks: a statement that gains strength every day thanks to the acceleration and continued use of various digital platforms. In this context of social media growth, Facebook has managed to remain the leader among social networks with the most users worldwide, according to the latest Digital 2025 report conducted by We Are Social in collaboration with Meltwater.
Currently, there are more than 5.240 billion active user identities on social networks. This figure has increased by 4.1% over the past year, with 206 million new users starting to use social networks for the first time during 2024.
At the same time, this figure represents 63.9% of the total global population, although it is important to note that a single person may have more than one social media user identity. Furthermore, the study allows us to apply this proportion to each specific country, enabling us to understand the percentage of active social media user identities of a country compared to the number of inhabitants of that territory.
In this regard, in Spain, this data is far above the world average, revealing that the number of social media profiles in Spain accounts for 82.9% of the Spanish population. Notably, in the case of the USA, the number of profiles represents 100.3% of the population. At the opposite end of the scale, the country with the lowest proportion is Nigeria with 16.4%.
It was not the first social network in history, but for the vast majority of people, it is the reference network. Once again, the social platform with the most users in the world is Facebook. If in 2024 the report indicated that Facebook had exceeded the threshold of 3 billion users by amassing 3.049 billion, 3.07% more than in 2023, in this 2025 edition, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network has reached 3.070 billion (+0.69%).
YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp once again accompany it on the podium. If we include Messenger (8th), Zuckerberg continues to gather most of the social networks with the most users in the world.
This year, YouTube manages to rebound after several editions of losing users, increasing from 2.491 billion to 2.530 billion (+1.56%), and remains in second place. Between 2023 and 2024, it lost 0.91% of users and between 2022 and 2023, 1.87%.
Despite the efforts of its CEO Adam Mosseri to drive its growth, Instagram remains somewhat stagnant at the 2 billion user mark.
While in the previous edition WhatsApp reached 2 billion users worldwide, reinforcing its image as the leading messaging app internationally, on this occasion, it neither grows nor decreases, remaining at this figure. Following the problems that Telegram is experiencing in various parts of the world, it seems complicated for WhatsApp to be replaced shortly. Its next significant challenge: establishing itself as an effective channel for online sales.
From its origins, TikTok has shown very notable growth, and this year the social network of Chinese origin shows a new increase in the number of users, rising from 1.562 billion to 1.590 billion (+1.79%), but much more moderate than the previous edition (+48.62%).
However, the excessive growth of TikTok in 2024 had to be taken with caution, as explained at the time by We Are Social: “We observe inconsistent trends in the data published in various social platforms’ advertising tools (…) We should be careful when analyzing trends in social media audience data, especially for X (Twitter) and TikTok. We have changed the way we collect data for TikTok, so our most recent global figures are not comparable to previous reports. However, the good news is that the data we can now report covers many more countries”.
Currently, the famous short video social network once again occupies the fifth position, surpassing other networks with strong implantation in specific geographic areas such as WeChat (a Chinese social network similar to YouTube), which is very prevalent in Asia.
In the ranking, there are also other Chinese social networks like Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, and QQ, which have been displaced to less prominent positions compared to the previous report.
Regarding Elon Musk’s social network, although in the previous edition X (formerly Twitter) seemed to have weathered all the controversies surrounding it by registering an 11.33% increase, this year it has not been that fortunate. X drops from 619 million users to 586 million (-5.33%).
Regarding users’ favorite social networks, Instagram retains the crown it earned last year as the preferred with a 16.6% market share worldwide. Closing the top 3, both WhatsApp (16%) and Facebook (13.1%) remain in the same positions.
WeChat, the “WhatsApp of China,” appears fourth with 12%, while this year, TikTok continues to surpass Douyin (its exclusive version for the Chinese market) in preference with 8.1% compared to 7.3%.
If we consider the classification by age, we can see that Instagram is the favorite app among women with ages between 16 and 24 years (24.8%), as well as those between 25 and 34 years (20.8%) and those between 35 and 44 (16%). On the other hand, women between 45 to 54 (17.3%) and those aged 55 to 64 (21.1%) prefer WhatsApp, and this last group also prefers Facebook (17.1%).
In the case of men, those aged 16 to 24 years (26.6%) and 25 to 34 years (18.4%) prefer Instagram; meanwhile, WhatsApp is the favorite among the male population aged 35 and 44 years (17.3%), 45 to 54 years (19.5%), and 55 to 64 years (21.9%).
During 2024, the daily time spent on social media saw a very slight decrease worldwide, reaching 2 hours and 21 minutes, losing two minutes.
In the same way, Spain falls below the global average, with an average daily social media usage of 1 hour and 55 minutes, and South Korea (1h 14 min) and Japan (46 min) are the countries where the least daily time is spent on social networks. Conversely, Kenya (4h 13min), Chile (3h 39min), South Africa (03h 36 min), and the Philippines (3h 32min) are at the other end.
Regarding average usage time, users spend more time on TikTok with an average usage time of 34 hours 56 min per month, with a clear advantage over YouTube which accumulates 27h 10min in usage time. The top 5 closes with Facebook (17h 17min), Instagram (16h 13min), and WhatsApp (16h 13min).
Staying in touch with family and friends (50.8%) was the main reason many turned to social networks in 2024, followed by spending free time (39%), reading new stories (34.5%) in third place, searching for content (30.5%) in fourth place, and seeing what is trending (29.2%) in fifth place.
This is not the first year we are sharing the data from this study. It is clear that Facebook reigns among the world’s social networks, but for how long? Is there any social platform capable of posing an immediate threat to Facebook?
Let’s see the results from previous years:
The Digital 2024 report revealed that Meta’s crown jewel, Facebook, had exceeded the 3 billion user barrier worldwide by achieving 3.049 billion (+3.07%). Meanwhile, YouTube lost users (-0.91%), dropping from 2.514 to 2.491 billion, and WhatsApp reached 2 billion, a figure at which Instagram stagnated.
The undisputed protagonist was, undoubtedly, TikTok which showed a meteoric increase in users (+48.62%). Although this had more to do with the fact that the study changed the method of data collection related to this platform than with a sudden boom.
Additionally, the daily time spent on social media decreased slightly, falling from 2 hours and 31 minutes to 2 hours and 23 minutes. Kenya (3h 43min), South Africa (03h 41 min), Brazil (3h 37min), and the Philippines (3h 25min) were the countries where people invested the most daily time on social media. While those with the least daily use were South Korea (1h 06 min) and Japan (53 min). In Spain, the figure was 1 hour and 54 minutes.
In the Digital 2023 report, Zuckerberg gathered most of the social networks with most users worldwide: Facebook (2.958 billion users), WhatsApp (2 billion users), Instagram (2 billion users), and Messenger (931 million users), all of which were in the top 7 of this ranking. In Instagram’s case, the rise was notable and it emerged as the major protagonist in terms of growth: the app had 522 million more users (+35.3%).
United Arab Emirates was the country with the most social media use relative to its population, registering 105.5% use of these platforms in the last year. Although it may seem overwhelming that more users than population exist in a country, it should not be forgotten that a person may have multiple profiles even on the same social network, so in the end, it is not so far-fetched. Spain was the sixth country with the most social network users, with 85.6% of its population.
In the 2022 study, Facebook maintained its crown as the social network with the most users worldwide, with 2.910 billion (6.2% more than in 2021). Completing the podium, and repeating positions, were YouTube and WhatsApp.
Despite the controversy over its security that had already been ongoing, the CEO of Meta continued to position its platforms among the social networks with the most users worldwide: WhatsApp (2 billion users), Messenger (988 million users), and Instagram (1.478 million users), all of which were in the top 7 of this ranking. In Instagram’s case, the growth is notable: 250 million more users (+21%).
TikTok was the major protagonist in terms of growth: the Chinese-origin social app reached 1 billion users, 45% more than in 2021. Meanwhile, after years of stagnation, Twitter registered significant growth (+23%), reaching 436 million users.
In the 2022 study, it was revealed that the United Arab Emirates was once again the country with the most social media use relative to its population, surpassing its total population with 106.1% use of these platforms in the last year, followed by Malaysia (91.7%), South Korea (91.2%), Sweden (90.8%), and the Netherlands (90.7%). Spain climbed in ranks from 30th place the previous year to become the eleventh country with the most social network users, with 87.1% of its population: 7 points more than in the 2021 edition.
In the 2021 report, Facebook secured 2.740 billion users in January 2021, 11.8% more than in 2020. Meanwhile, YouTube took the second place with 2.291 billion users, 14.5% more than the previous year. The pandemic boosted Instagram’s usage, which moved from sixth place in 2020 (1 billion users) to fourth place in 2021 with a total of 1.220 billion users (+22%). However, this was also because WeChat, the most popular instant messaging platform in China, which occupied the fifth position, showed only mild growth and moved from 1.151 billion users in 2020 to 1.213 in 2021.
The United Arab Emirates continued to lead in terms of social media user percentage relative to its total population, with 99%, followed closely by South Korea, which climbed one position this year, with 89.3% of its population connected to social media. Taiwan fell to third place with 88.1%. The Netherlands (88%) and Malaysia (86%) closed the top 5. Regarding Spain, it rapidly rose from rank 30 in 2020 to 14 with 80% of its users connected to at least one social network in 2021.
In the 2020 edition of the study, Facebook reached 2.449 billion users, 7.8% more than the previous year. As you can see, YouTube was in the second position with 2 billion users. In 2020, the United Arab Emirates maintained their leadership in the percentage of social media users relative to the total population, with 99%, followed by Taiwan, with 88%, South Korea (87%), Malaysia (81%), and Singapore (79%). In the case of Spain, it fell to rank 30: 62% of the population used social media, an increase of two points from the previous year’s figure. Among the countries with the lowest social media penetration rate are North Korea, Eritrea (0.6%), and Sudan (0.7%).
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