Global Social Media Penetration: A Snapshot of Usage in 2025

Social media continues to shape how people communicate, consume content, and engage with brands worldwide. By 2025, social media adoption has reached unprecedented levels, with significant variation across regions and countries.

As of October 2025, Eastern Asia and Northern Europe emerged as the most digitally connected regions in the world. Social media penetration in Eastern Asia reached 88.1 percent, while Northern Europe followed at 79 percent, reflecting widespread internet access, strong digital infrastructure, and deeply embedded online social habits. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Eastern and Middle Africa recorded the lowest penetration rates globally, highlighting ongoing challenges related to connectivity, affordability, and digital inclusion. Overall, the global average social media penetration rate stood at 68.7 percent, underscoring the platform’s role as a mainstream communication channel for more than two-thirds of the world’s population.

The Growth of Global Social Media Use

The scale of social media usage has expanded rapidly over the past decade. In 2023, approximately 4.89 billion people worldwide were active on social media platforms. This figure is expected to continue its upward trajectory, reaching nearly six billion users by 2027, driven by population growth, smartphone adoption, and improved internet accessibility in emerging markets.

Among platforms, Facebook remains the world’s most widely used social network, boasting more than three billion monthly active users. Its parent company, Meta Platforms, dominates the global social media landscape, owning four of the ten largest platforms worldwide, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, each with more than one billion monthly active users.

Social Media Usage by Country

At the country level, penetration rates vary significantly. As of January 2024, the United Arab Emirates recorded the highest social media penetration rate among selected countries and territories, reflecting the country’s highly connected population and strong digital engagement. Brazil and Morocco were close to the global average penetration rate of 62.3 percent, registering 66.3 percent and 55.7 percent respectively. In contrast, Kenya reported a much lower penetration rate of 23.5 percent.

India presents a unique case in the global social media ecosystem. While its active social media penetration rate was relatively low at 32.2 percent, the country still ranked as the second-largest social media market worldwide, with 755 million users in 2022. This contrast highlights how population size can offset lower penetration levels, making large markets strategically important for global platforms and advertisers.

A Connected World, Unevenly Distributed

Taken together, these figures illustrate both the remarkable global reach of social media and the persistent digital divide between regions and countries. As connectivity expands and digital infrastructure improves, especially in developing markets, social media is expected to play an even more central role in shaping global communication, commerce, and culture in the years ahead.