The number of global internet users is 5.56 billion. Most of them use their phones to access the internet. Women are leading the way in using social networks. The statistics were presented in the Digital 2025 global report.
The use of social networks around the world is growing rapidly. Currently, 5.24 billion people are active users of social networks. Their total number has increased by 4.1% over the past 12 months. According to recent studies, “keeping in touch with friends and family” is the main reason for using social networks.
Globally, “being busy in free time” is in second place. This helps to understand why “endless feeds” are so widespread in social network applications. One in three users prefers social platforms to “read news”.
“Staying connected with friends and family” is the top social motivation for all age groups. While users are more interested in staying informed about “trending topics,” older adults are more likely to read news. Here’s a breakdown of who people subscribe to most by age:
People are mostly reading news on Facebook
Facebook is becoming increasingly popular for news around the world. 37 percent of respondents said they use it for news. 57.3 percent of active adult Facebook users log on to the platform to stay up-to-date with news and current events.
While this figure varies by age, more than half of active Facebook users aged 16 to 24 still use the platform to stay up-to-date with news and current events.
Men are more likely to use social media for news than women, although this “gender gap” is relatively small.
In countries with lower economic development indicators, people are more likely to turn to social media to read news. In Nigeria, 56.6 percent of active social media users prefer to follow current events. Similarly, more than half of adult users in Brazil, Turkey, and Greece join this trend.
Users in the Middle East are less likely to search for news content on social media.
Women are using social media more
Women continue to spend more time on social media than men of all ages. Girls aged 16 to 24 spend an average of just under 3 hours a day on social media. This is 12 minutes less than the average for this group two years ago.
Men in the same age group have also reduced their daily activity by 12 minutes over the past two years, leaving the “gender gap” among younger users at 25 minutes.
On the other hand, women aged 55 to 64 are using social media more than they did two years ago. Over the past 24 months, this group’s daily activity has increased by 6 minutes, while men in the same age group have decreased by an average of 4 minutes.
Top platforms by users
At the beginning of 2025, YouTube is the most used social media platform. WhatsApp is next. Facebook is third, and Instagram is fourth. TikTok rounds out the top five.
However, users are choosing Instagram as their favorite platform. Globally, WhatsApp is second with 16 percent, and Facebook is third with 13.1 percent. WeChat is fourth with 12 percent, but it should be noted that this is almost entirely due to the platform's popularity in China.
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