There are now over 3 billion social media users in the world — about 40 percent of the global population
There are now over 3 billion (!!!) people logging onto social media accounts around the world, meaning that almost half of the world's population spends at least part of their day updating their status or story.
A new report compiled by Hootsuite and We Are Social and published by The Next Web found that there are 3.028 billion active social media users around the world. That's a mind-boggling number, especially when you consider that the Earth's population is estimated to be 7.524 billion people.
That means about 40 percent of the global population is using social media, and only a small portion of the estimated 3.819 billion people with internet access around the world don't have at least one social profile. Mobile users make up a large chunk of the base, with 2.780 billion active users.
These user numbers are massive, and according to the report's data, which came from a wide range of international sources and the social platforms themselves, they'll keep growing. There's been a 4 percent uptick in total global users (which equates to 121 million people) since just this April. That's about a million new users a day, which is rough news to hear for Twitter, which reported a flat user growth rate at its most recent letter to shareholders.
Facebook is, unsurprisingly, the king of the social media platforms, with an estimated 2.047 billion monthly active users (MAU), while its other properties, WhatsApp and Messenger were over the billion MAU mark as well in the third and fourth position, respectively. Instagram followed closely behind with roughly 700 million MAU.
You can check out the full report below for even more more detailed insights about the global social media landscape.
So the next time you find yourself wasting your time on Facebook or Twitter, don't feel bad — you're not alone. Most of the world's population is spending their spare moments scrolling through their news feeds, too.
Topics Facebook Social Media
Brett Williams is a Tech Reporter at Mashable. He writes about tech news, trends and other tangentially related topics with a particular interest in wearables and exercise tech. Prior to Mashable, he wrote for Inked Magazine and Thrillist. Brett's work has also appeared on Fusion and AskMen, to name a few. You can follow Brett on Twitter @bdwilliams910.
