Compelling UK Social Media Statistics for 2024

What’s more, a whopping YoY growth of 4.6 million or 8.7% shows that social media has never been as popular as it is today. 86% of internet users in the United Kingdom use social media platforms as well, which is above the average percentage in Western Europe.

(DataReportal)

The UK doesn’t top the chart in this regard. In fact, with 81% of people doing their brand research on social, Kenya is at the top globally. The latest social media statistics show that the worldwide average is 43.5% which means that people in the UK don’t have a lot of confidence in the information they find on social media channels. Ironically enough, 48% of high school kids in the US learn about investing via social media.

(Hootsuite)

Although some reports also count WhatsApp as a social media platform and therefore claim it’s the most popular one, Facebook has been leading the social media market for years now. However, according to the latest Facebook usage statistics, the popularity of Facebook is dropping year over year and it’s assumed that the percentage of social network users who are on Facebook will drop from 80.1% in 2022 to 78.1% by 2025.

(Insider Intelligence)

Using data gathered from social media has proven to be so efficient that most businesses collect new info daily. 31% of organisations do it weekly, 10% monthly, while fewer than 1% of businesses don’t do it at all.

(SproutSocial)

Regarding social media demographics in the UK, females lead the way. Namely, the percentage of ad audience and users on almost all major platforms is higher for females, which isn’t surprising since there are more females in the UK than males. Still, it’s important to note that the ad reach percentages are slightly higher than when you compare the two genders population-wise.

(DataReportal)

With 57.6 million users, the United Kingdom is in the 22nd place when ranking all world countries in terms of social media penetration. The usage rate in the UK is well above the global average (45%) but still pretty far from countries like the U.A.E, which sits at 106.1% mainly because of fake or multiple social media accounts.

(Statista)

This is one of the social media addiction statistics UK people can’t be too proud of but it’s still below the global average of 2 hours and 27 minutes. People from Nigeria and the Philippines top the list, with over 4 hours of their daily time going on social networking, on average.

(Hootsuite)

However, this number is notably lower than the worldwide average of 7.5 apps used monthly. Still, social media use statistics show that the UK is pretty far from Brazil, India, and Indonesia regarding the number of social media apps used since people in these countries use 8.7, 8.6, and 8.5 apps on average, respectively. On the other hand, the Japanese use only 3.9 social platforms on average, while the average US citizen actively uses 6.6 different social media platforms.

(Hootsuite)

The COVID-19 pandemic has had people adapting to the new “normal” since 37% of Britons say they spend more than 2 hours on social media platforms every day, which is 6% higher than their neighbours ‘across the pond’. Statistics on social media use such as this one give a clear sign to marketers to step up their game and turn enhanced user engagement into profit.

(SproutSocial)

The same percentage of people said they used social media to send private messages, while 49% used social media platforms to comment on a post. 40% of respondents followed people, 38% of them posted a video/photo, while 9% of people said they haven’t done anything on social media in the previous 4 weeks.

(Statista)

This platform’s ad reach amounts to 30.2% of the total UK population, opening up a great opportunity for marketers and small businesses. Moreover, the total amount of people that could be reached by ads on Snapchat is equal to 30.8% of the total internet population in the UK.

(DataReportal)

Snapchat statistics show that 55.5% of Snapchat’s ad audience is female, which is 3.7% higher than the global ad reach for this social platform. Snapchat’s ad reach is even higher for people over the age of 13 and stands at 35.6%.

(DataReportal)

One of the more interesting statistics about social media for marketers shows that there’s an opportunity to exploit the app’s popularity among younger generations and millennials. Namely, 89% of people in the UK have heard of Snapchat, while 27% of people who have used the app say they’re likely to do it again.

(Statista)

The YoY growth in average time spent on TikTok is the highest among all social media platforms and stands at 37%. For comparison purposes, on the average time spent using social media apps leaderboard, YouTube holds second place, with the average user spending 16.1 hours looking at videos and enjoying the app’s other features.

(DataReportal)

According to TikTok statistics, TikTok is the most downloaded app in the UK and Instagram, with 131k downloads less, holds the reputable second place. The list of the top three most popular Google Play store apps in the UK is rounded up with BeReal, with almost 155k downloads as of 2022.

(Statista)

The astonishing growth of TikTok is no longer a surprise and no one expects the number of people using it to drop anytime soon. Regarding ad reach demographics, 59.7% of the total TikTok ad reach is occupied by female users.

(Statista, DataReportal)

Twitter is the 6th favourite social media platform for people in the UK, with 6.1% stating they loved spending time on Twitter the most. However, it holds second place regarding web traffic referral percentage, with 23.46%. However, the percentage is dropping at a whopping 20% YoY.

(DataReportal)

The potential rises to 31.8% when it’s stacked up against the UK population older than 13, but Twitter statistics show the ad reach dropped in the first quarter of 2022 by 3.4%. However, marketers shouldn’t give up on Twitter just yet since there’s still a huge pool of opportunities for marketing there.

(DataReportal)

In 2021, the estimated number of Twitter users in the UK was 23.33 million. Although there have been many doubts regarding Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, the drop in the number of users isn’t expected to be as drastic as one would expect after Musk took some unpopular decisions in 2022.

(Statista)

The majority of people who responded to the question “How often do you use social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook?” said they do so daily. It’s important to note that WhatsApp and other instant messengers weren’t involved in the query. Moreover, 15% of respondents said they use them several times per week, while 3% of respondents said they don’t use social media apps.

(Statista)

Advertising on Facebook Messenger is a great opportunity for marketers since this amounts to 39.9% of the total population of the United Kingdom. As far as the demographics go, 55% of the audience is female, which is good to know when choosing products that are worth advertising.

(DataReportal)

However, Facebook users statistics show that, due to the end of the pandemic, the YoY change is -6% meaning people spet less time on Facebook in 2022 than they did in 2021. However, 21% of UK people between the ages 16 and 64 said their favourite social media app was Facebook and the next in line of favourite apps (WhatsApp) gets people to stay active 8.8 hours per month, on average.

(DataReportal)

Dua Lipa is the most followed UK account on Instagram, with more than 87 million followers. According to a survey from 2021, around 25% of the UK’s male population is on Instagram, while that’s true for around 30% of their female counterparts. Younger generations still love Instagram, but it appears to be losing the battle with TikTok regarding its growth and attracting new users.

(Statista)

The latest Instagram statistics show that this platform should still be in marketers’ notebooks. Furthermore, Instagram restricts people younger than 13 to register so it’s interesting to know that 54.8% of eligible people in the UK use Instagram. Finally, with 56.3% of people using it at least once a month, Instagram is the fourth most used social media platform in the UK.

(DataReportal)

A personal favourite for 14.6% of UK people, most of Instagram’s users are females. Although its popularity has dropped by 1% in the last year, Instagram users still spend around 7.9 hours per month using this app. Moreover, web traffic referrals from Instagram skyrocketed in 2022, showing a 317.1% YoY growth.

(Statista, DataReportal)

According to a survey done in the UK and Ireland, there’s a discrepancy between consumers’ and marketers’ anticipation of apps they’ll be using in the next twelve months. Namely, 64% of marketers will most likely target Instagram users, while only 54% of surveyed people claim they’ll use Instagram in that period. On the other hand, 67% of consumers anticipate they’ll be using Facebook, while social media marketing stats support the claim that only 57% of marketers will target Facebook users with their marketing strategies.

(SproutSocial)

Furthermore, 35% of the interviewed consumers also claim they’ll not complete a purchase if they don’t receive a reply to their social media query in time. 18% of them will give a negative review on social media, while 33% will complain about it to their friends and family. If there’s one thing you shouldn’t miss out on as a small business in the UK, that’s investing time and effort into building customer loyalty. That’s why 68% of affiliate marketers use social media to connect to customers.

(SproutSocial)

As you might have noticed from one of the previous stats, this is one of the reasons why most marketers choose Facebook for pursuing their goals. 55.6% of web traffic referrals come from Facebook and the percentage keeps growing. According to the latest social media facts, Facebook’s potential ad reach for the population aged 13+ is a whopping 60.5%, while the percentage drops to 51.3% when put up against the total UK population number.

(DataReportal)

22.5% of people discover brands through social ads and 15.9% of them do the same through social media comments. That’s why it’s not surprising that brands invested around $8.25 billion on social media ads in 2022, which is a 22.7% YoY growth.

(DataReportal)

The total potential reach of ads on Instagram in the UK is around 31.75 million people. Moreover, the year-on-year change in Instagram ad reach from 2021 to 2022 is 750k or 2.4%. As you can see from these stats, marketers can still see a lot of merit in using this social media platform.

(DataReportal)

Potential ad reach for YouTube is astonishing since it stands at 57.6 million. As far as UK YouTube demographics are concerned, YouTube’s ads could potentially reach 92.2% of the total UK population older than 18. Regarding the YouTube audience, this social media platform has the smallest gender gap since 50.6% of females and 49.4% of males use YouTube.

(DataReportal)

In the UK, Meta’s platforms saw the most engagement from people aged 25 to 34. Namely, right after women aged 25-34, the second largest user base of Meta’s social media platforms were men in the same age group. Finally, a mere 4.1% of Meta’s UK users were teens between the ages of 13 and 17.

(Statista)

LinkedIn is one of the social media platforms with 34 million members meaning that it has huge untapped potential since its ad reach is equivalent to 50.8% of the local internet user base. Moreover, it’s interesting to note that it’s one of the rare social media platforms where men are the majority of users, with 56.3%.

(DataReportal)

Moreover, Facebook Messenger has more than 516k users in this age group. Teenage social media statistics in the UK also show that Meta’s Instagram had more than 1.6 million teenage users as of September 2022. However, all three platforms have seen a slight YoY decline in the number of teen users in 2022.

(Statista)

This stands true due to the fact that Pinterest has age restrictions, and only people older than 13 can use this platform. The user base is actually 13.1% of the total local internet user base and 74.5% of the ad reach audience is female.

(DataReportal)