Data presented by OnlyAccount has shown that 4.95 billion people representing 61% of the global population are social media users.
According to the data, over the past five years, 1.8 billion people have started using social media, helping platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok reach more users than ever. Although the growth rates in the social media space have significantly slowed down compared to 2020 and 2021, the number of users continues to rise.
The data indicates COVID-19 undoubtedly had a massive role in that growth as two years after the lockdowns, hundreds of millions of people join social media platforms each year for entertainment and to connect with others.
“Data Reportal Digital 2023 Global Statshot Report, as of October 2023, there were 4.95 billion social media users worldwide, or 61.4% of the global population. That means around 215 million people joined the social media space in the past year, showing a 4.5% increase year-over-year,” the data revealed.
The Statista survey showed the following years will see similar growth rates. By 2025, more than half a billion people will join social media, pushing the total user count to a whopping 5.41 billion. Statista expects another 600 million people to start using social media platforms in the following years, with the total number of users climbing to over six billion by 2028. The user penetration rate will also significantly increase, rising from 63.7% in 2023 to over 75% in 2028.
Statistics show more than 60% of all social media users in 2028, or 3.6 billion, will come from Asia. Europe and North America will have a much smaller share in total user count, with 700 million and 500 million users in 2028, respectively.