UK Social Media Statistics and Facts [2024]
Last Updated: February 9, 2024
Did you know a person spends almost a year and 7 months of a lifetime on Facebook? What about all of social media usage in the UK? An average person in the UK spends one hour and fifty minutes a day on social media.
If you are eager to find more social media statistics UK, keep reading!
Top 10 Social Media Statistics UK in 2024
- There are 53 million active social media users in the UK, which is 77.9% of the UK population.
- 98% of UK users use social media on their mobile devices.
- The average UK user spends 110 minutes on social media per day.
- Social media penetration in the UK is 66%, while internet penetration in the UK is 94.9%.
- 80% of UK internet users were actively engaged in social media at least once per month in 2020.
- Out of 45 million UK social media users, 43 million use Facebook.
- 30% of Instagram users in the UK are aged 25 to 34.
- 57% of overall Instagram users in the UK are women.
- 87% of children aged 12-15 have a social media profile in the UK.
- TikTok has over 3.7m active users in the UK.
Now that we’ve seen some interesting numbers let’s dive into the details and see some UK social media statistics by user consumption.
Social Media Statistics UK: Reach and User Behaviour
There were 53 million social media users in the UK in 2021
39 million of these users use social media on their mobile devices
Interestingly, only 67% of the UK population is on social media, while more than 95% of the UK population use the internet. However, with 66%, the UK social media penetration is above the global average of 45%.
The average UK user spends 102 minutes (one hour and 42 minutes) on social media per day
The UK population’s percentage using social media grew by 4.4% between 2020 and 2021, while only 13% of social media users use it for work purposes.
77% of UK social media users have actively posted, or in some way contributed to social media in 2020
A fact that contributes to this is that on average, each of the 45 million social media users in the UK has 7 social media accounts.
Let’s take a look at how children are using social media in the UK.
18% of children aged between 8 and 11 have a social media profile in the UK
What’s interesting is that this number increases for kids aged 12 to 15, going up to 87%. Considering that they are still minors, and cyber predators lurk around every corner, we should take great care to monitor children’s social media usage.
Social media usage in the UK can be separated into several categories. The first one is usage by platform, where we will also cover social media usage statistics by age in the UK.
Now we can take a closer look into Facebook, Instagram and Twitter usage statistics and shed some light on other popular social media platforms in the United Kingdom.
Social Media Statistics UK: Platform
You can see some of the most used social media platforms in the UK in the picture below.
If you are interested to see some Facebook demographics for the UK and Facebook usage statistics, take a look at the following statistics:
- Fifty-one million people in the UK were Facebook users at the end of 2020.
- Facebook is the leading social network in the UK with a 54.19% share of visits.
- 74% of Facebook users check the site at least once a day.
- The average Facebook user in the UK leaves 7 comments on Facebook posts a month.
- Of the UK adults that go online, only 21% haven’t used Facebook at all.
- Around nine in ten internet users in the UK visit Facebook each month, spending an average of 23 minutes per day on the site.
You’d think 23 minutes per day is not that much, right? But if we consider the time spent on Facebook, Google, Instagram and other platforms that we visit daily, the number greatly increases.
Make sure to track your social media time daily and keep in mind that it can affect your personal life and mental health.
Here are some Facebook demographics that you might find interesting:
- 52% of Facebook users in the UK are female.
- The majority of UK Facebook users are aged 25 to 34.
- UK Users aged 65+ have increased from 4% in 2019 to 9% in 2020, with 52% being women.
- 43% of users considered leaving the platform in 2020.
- 69% of children aged 12 to 15 have reported using Facebook in the UK.
25 to 34 is the largest age group using Facebook in the UK, totalling 11.2 million users, while users aged between 18 and 24 have declined since 2012, from 24% to 16% in 2020.
The most popular video creator on Facebook in the UK is LADBible, with 1.6 billion views
The most popular Facebook group in the UK is Manchester United with 73m+ views
UK social media statistics reveal that Amazon UK was the most popular brand page on Facebook in the United Kingdom as of March 2020, attracting 5.73 million local fans. This was followed by UNREEL, with nearly 4.86 million fans.
If you are a Twitter user, you might find this interesting, so take a look at this breakdown of Twitter demographics and trends in the UK.
- Twitter penetration in the UK was 24% in 2019.
- Twitter users in the UK are spread evenly, with 56% being men and 44% women.
- The primary age group for Twitter users in the UK is 25 to 34 years.
- According to the SocialPilot survey, the average Twitter user is only on the platform for 2.7 minutes a day.
- 31% of UK Twitter users have considered leaving Twitter in 2020.
The most popular Twitter account in the UK is BBC news with around 37 million followers, closely followed by musician Harry Styles with 36 million followers on the platform.
Instagram is, for sure one of the most popular platforms in 2020, with more than 1 billion users worldwide. Let’s see how the UK ranks for Instagram usage and what are some key points in Instagram demographics in the UK.
- There were 27 million Instagram daily active users in the United Kingdom in November 2020, which accounted for 40.6% of its entire population.
- Most Instagram users in the UK are aged 25 to 34, making 30% of all Instagram users in the UK.
- Only 24% of Instagram users in the UK have considered leaving it in 2020.
- 56% of female social media users reported using Instagram in the UK in 2020.
According to Ofcom, the average time spent on Instagram daily in the UK is 6 minutes. If we were to include activities such as watching videos on Instagram, that number would go up to 15 minutes per day. The highest difference in age occurs within people aged 45+, where women Instagram users lead by 800.000.
The most popular Instagram accounts in the UK are Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Manchester United with 68.1M and 37.4M followers
The top 5 celebrities popular among UK Instagram users are Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Ed Sheeran, Eden Hazard, James Charles, and Avani.
We found out what the UK population likes on Instagram, but things are a bit different when it comes to YouTube. Let’s look at UK YouTube usage statistics and demographics.
Youtube
- In 2019 YouTube had 2 billion active users per month.
- In 2020, YouTube held a market share of 2.64 per cent among online social media platforms in the United Kingdom.
- In 2017, VAB reported that YouTube users spend 38 minutes per day on Youtube in the UK.
- According to Statista, in 2018, 14% of UK users reported using the platform at least once a day.
- YouTube penetration rate in the UK in 2019 was 78%.
- 85% of UK YouTube users have a household income of more than 48k GBP.
Interestingly enough, 33 per cent of UK users watch videos on YouTube once a day or more. Some of the most popular YouTube accounts in the UK are Ed Sheeran, One Direction and Adele. Another interesting fact is that YouTube is the second most popular social media platform for influencer marketing.
LinkedIn is an employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps, and it is used by a lot of people in the UK. Let’s see how social media users in the UK use LinkedIn and some interesting UK LinkedIn demographics.
- There were more than 30 million LinkedIn users in the United Kingdom in November 2020, which accounted for 45.7% of its entire population.
- The largest age group of UK LinkedIn users is from 25 to 34 years.
- 30% of UK LinkedIn users reported using the platform once a week.
LinkedIn is not considered a generic social media platform like the rest of them; however, these numbers show that it is actively used among the UK population, way more than TikTok.
As far as TikTok is concerned, here are some interesting stats about the usage of this platform in the UK.
TikTok
Even though TikTok is fairly new, it has a very high growth trend in the UK, especially among kids and people aged 18-24. According to Statista, TikTok is expected to reach 12.5 million users in the UK by 2024.
- In May 2020, there were 6 million active TikTok monthly users in the UK.
- TikTok is downloaded over 1 million times a month in the UK.
- The average daily time spent on TikTok is 41 minutes.
- The largest share of users (26%) in the UK is aged 18-24.
- The UK generated the third-highest income for app behind China and the US in 2019 at £1.95m.
- UK’s largest TikTok influencer Holly H has over 16.6m followers.
- TikTok had its biggest month in January with 420,091 downloads.
- TikTok is set to reach 10 million users in the UK by 2021.
Compared to social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, communication apps in the UK perform very differently among users.
Let’s take a closer look into some of the most popular communication apps in the UK, the usage statistics and some interesting facts about them.
Social Media Statistics UK: Communication Platforms
Facebook Messenger
- There were 35.62 million Messenger users in the United Kingdom in July 2021.
- 54.3% of UK Facebook Messenger users are women.
- People aged 25 to 34 make the largest user group.
- The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 65 and above, where women lead by 700.000.
Social Media Statistics UK shows that more than 20 billion messages are exchanged between Facebook Messenger users worldwide on an average day. Simultaneously, SMS still holds its place with more than 23 billion texts sent per day worldwide.
Another fast-rising messaging platform in the UK is WhatsApp, with more than 60 billion messages sent globally on the platform every day.
See how well WhatsApp performs in the UK in the following points.
- There are 30.1 million WhatsApp users in the UK.
- WhatsApp is the leading messaging app in the UK according to 80% of respondents in a 2021 survey.
- A study from Statista in 2016 showed that the average user spent 28.4 minutes per day on WhatsApp.
- WhatsApp has a 58% reach in the UK.
Social media statistics UK reveal that nearly 85% of WhatsApp users in the UK are aged 26-35 taking the largest user share, while people aged 75+ make only 13% of all UK WhatsApp users. Only 7% of UK social media users considered leaving the platform in 2020, according to research done by Statista.
Lastly, you are surely familiar with Snapchat, so here are some fun facts and stats about Snapchat and how it affects social media statistics UK.
Snapchat
- 63% of UK social media users reported using Snapchat several times a day.
- There were more than 10 million active Snapchat users in the UK in May 2020.
- Snapchat has a 30% penetration rate in the UK.
- 37% of people in the UK considered leaving the platform in 2020.
- Snapchat was down 14% of its total advertising audience in the UK in 2019.
In a research done by Statista in 2020, it was reported that 57% of UK Snapchat users are aged between 15 and 25, while the smallest share was among people older than 56, with only a 3% share in the usage of the platform. These social media statistics UK show us that Snapchat is most used among the UK’s younger population, same as TikTok.
The End Of This Article…
…but really just the beginning of social media statistics UK. We can all agree that social media usage can only continue to rise over the years to come, and if 2021 taught us anything, it’s that the safest thing you can do is sit at home and scroll through social media.
“Social media’s like a bakery. You can lose credibility, goodwill and fans by serving up stale and boring content.”
— Mike Houdeshell
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leadership skills
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Jovana Zivkovic
January 28, 2022 at 5:12 pm
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Carman Tsantakis
February 12, 2022 at 9:14 pm
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Samantha Millichap
February 16, 2022 at 1:00 pm
Hi, really interesting stats but where do you get your numbers from? I’m just wondering because I’d like to use them in some articles please?
Jovana Zivkovic
February 21, 2022 at 8:55 pm
Hi, thank you for your comment! You can find the source list at the end of the article 🙂
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Milica Strugar
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Hi Ines, you can find the source list at the end of the article
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