Share of U.S. population who use social media 2008-2021

How many people are on social media?Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities and in 2021, 82 percent of the population in the United States had a social networking profile, representing a two percent increase from the 80 percent usage reach in the previous year. This equals approximately 223 million U.S. social media users as of 2020. Global social media accessAccording to estimates, the number of worldwide social media users reached 4.2 billion in January 2021. The overall most popular social network based on active users is the American market leader Facebook. In January 2021, Facebook had some 2.74 billion accounts, followed by YouTube and WhatsApp with roughly 2.3 billion and two billion users respectively. The regions with the highest penetration of social media users are Western and Northern Europe.Social media audiences in the United StatesAlthough knowing how many people use social media is a powerful indicator of the tremendous influence such websites and apps have in our day to day life, how people are using them and who these users are is also telling. A report on social media usage released in 2019 shows that among Americans, younger online audiences were more likely to use social networks than older generations. Social media users in the United States use different social networks for a wide range of purposes. In a February 2019 survey, Instagram was the top social network for viewing photos whereas Facebook was more popular for sharing content.

社交媒体用户数量究竟几何？社交媒体使用已成为最为盛行的在线活动之一。据2021年数据，美国82%的国民拥有社交网络档案，较上一年80%的普及率增长了2%。此数据相当于至2020年为止，美国约有2.23亿社交媒体用户。全球社交媒体接入情况据估算，截至2021年1月，全球社交媒体用户数量已达42亿。根据活跃用户数量，最受欢迎的社交网络是美国市场领导者Facebook。至2021年1月，Facebook拥有约27.4亿账户，紧随其后的是YouTube和WhatsApp，分别拥有约23亿和20亿用户。社交媒体用户渗透率最高的地区为西欧和北欧。美国社交媒体受众尽管了解社交媒体用户数量是衡量这些网站和应用程序在我们日常生活中巨大影响力的有力指标，但人们如何使用它们以及用户身份的揭示同样具有重要意义。2019年发布的一份关于社交媒体使用的报告显示，在美国，较年轻网民相较于年长一代更倾向于使用社交网络。美国社交媒体用户为广泛用途选择不同的社交网络。在2019年2月的一项调查中，Instagram成为查看照片最受欢迎的社交网络，而Facebook则更受分享内容之青睐。