20 Social Media Statistics to Know in 2021
By Ben | Jun 24, 2021 (5 min read)
Today’s social media networks have expanded from simply connecting people to offering businesses a way to attract new customers and grow their brand loyalty.
Since 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world, all social media channels have experienced a significant increase in usage. This growth is a result of the world being much more dependent on internet communications and connection.
According to Statista, there are 3.78 billion social media users worldwide in 2021. This number represents a five percent increase from a year ago.
As businesses continue to gain advantages of social media marketing, the platforms also evolve and develop. Here are some of the latest social media statistics that are worth knowing about in 2021:
- In 2021, over 3.7 billion people use social media sites and apps, which is projected to increase to 4.41 billion in 2025.
- Approximately 233 million Americans use social media sites and apps in 2021.
- The most popular social media networks ranked by active users are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
- Facebook is still the most used social network in the world. In Q3 2020, the network reported over 2.7 billion monthly active users.
- Even though Facebook’s growth has leveled off over the last five years, 69% of adults say they still use the site at least once a week.
- Instagram, which Facebook owns, has 1 billion monthly active users.
- The largest Instagram demographic on the app is women aged 25-34 years old. The second-highest demographic is women aged 18-24.
- In 2020, Twitter reported 187 million daily active users, which is up 29% year over year.
- The number of daily active users on Snapchat jumped from 218 million in 2019 to 265 million in 2020. However, at the same time, Snapchat saw a significant decrease in users in the 12-34 age group.
- LinkedIn has more than 722 million users in more than 200 countries and territories.
- 96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for organic content distribution and 83% for paid social, making it the top most-used platform in both content distribution types.
- When examining B2B advertising, social media advertising was used by 83% of marketers and ranked second in success (29%) behind search engine marketing (33%).
- The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram (71%) or Snapchat (65%).
- TikTok, which launched about three years ago, has more than 680 million active monthly users in 2021.
- Nextdoor, which has around 27 million monthly active users, has seen a significant surge in interest during the pandemic.
- Adults living in urban (17%) or suburban (14%) areas are more likely to use Nextdoor. However, only 2% of rural Americans report using the site.
- According to the forecast, the number of online video platform viewers will amount to 1.86 billion in 2021, up from 1.47 billion in 2017.
- YouTube is used daily by 54% of its users, with 36% saying they visit the site several times a day.
- An average person has an account on more than nine different social media networks and spends a daily average of 2 hours and 16 minutes on social media.
- 91% of social media users today access social channels via mobile devices.
Looking through these 2021 social media statistics, one thing is clear: social media is not going away anytime soon. And for businesses that want to engage with new prospects, it can be an incredibly effective way to engage with those customers you already have.