How Many People Use Social Media in the US

How Many People Use Social Media in the US in 2024? (Latest Figures)

Published on: February 16, 2024
Last Updated: February 16, 2024

How Many People Use Social Media in the US in 2024? (Latest Figures)

Published on: February 16, 2024
Last Updated: February 16, 2024

Quick Answer 🔍

How many people use social media in the US in 2024?

295.48 million people in the United States use social media, accounting for 88.2% of the whole US population.

In the following paragraphs, we will share with you the number of people who use social media in the US alongside other facts, figures, and data we found that will be useful for marketers and the curious. 

How Many People Use Social Media in The US in 2024?

The most recent figure is 295.48 million people.

What percentage of americans have a social media account?

The figure above accounts for 88.2% of the whole US population

In comparison to the world, as of January 2021, the global figure for social media users came to 4.2 billion.

It’s been estimated that 4.5 billion people from all over the globe will be using social media by 2025. 

It’s been reported that in just the past month, 98% of those using social media ranged from 16 years old to 64 years old.

Another 90% of this percentage actively engage and contribute to multiple social media platforms.

Where Do Social Media Platforms Fall by Rank in The US?

Besides knowing above, marketers should know which social media platforms are getting the most activity.

Let’s take a look at what we dug up for that.

We will include the top 7.

YouTube

YouTube, while not often considered in the social media ranking because it also falls within the search engine category, second only to Google, still has plenty of social aspects that Americans often use.

In the United States alone, YouTube has 210 million users, including content creators.

In 2021, when YouTube introduced the Shorts feature, content creators jumped on the chance to reach out to users through shorter videos, which seem to be fitting to the generations with short attention spans.

Apparently, 2022 is to come with some exciting things from YouTube. 

Facebook

Facebook is still on top of the social media site chain, with 200.41 million users in the United States alone. Around 37% of Americans use Facebook.

Over 200 million businesses use Facebook to promote their offerings and to get attention. Most of the 200 million businesses are small businesses

Additionally, over 7 million advertisers actively market their businesses on the platform.

There are several ways to interact on Facebook for free, and also paid advertising.

Marketers need to know this when creating their social marketing strategies

Instagram

Instagram is second to Facebook among Americans with 163.95 million users, but third here in our list of how many Americans have social media.

It seems that visual social platforms have been steadily on the rise. 

Even though Instagram hasn’t overtaken Facebook, it could in a few years.

It depends on what they do with the platform and how Facebook, now Meta does in the coming years. 

Instagram has a lot of features that the younger generations especially love and that even the older generations are using.

Instagram allows you to have a business profile, Instagram Stories, Reels, Live streaming options and IGTV besides the traditional Instagram image posts. 

TikTok

Among Americans, TikTok comes in third for social media platforms, fourth on our list because we’ve added YouTube to the top of our list.

TikTok currently has 114.2 million American users. 

TikTok only came to the social media scene in 2017, so it’s made grand strides in popularity, sometimes against the odds.

It recently beat Google as the most visited site, but YouTube still holds the number one title. 

The concept behind TikTok is short-form videos ranging from 15 to 60 seconds in length.

This platform also offers filters, effects, and music snips to enhance the videos. You also see these elements with Instagram videos. 

TikTok is mainly used by people between 10 and 29 years old, though it does have a few older users that promote brands and businesses. 

Twitter 

Twitter has managed to stay in the top five of social media platforms with 112.9 million active users.

While Twitter did double its character count per tweet a few years ago, 280 characters does provide quick and informative tweets.

There is much real-time information shared on Twitter, which is one of the things that make this platform unique.

We simply cannot discuss social media usage statistics without some Twitter time. 

Today, over 80% of social customer service queries occur on this platform. Businesses have been using Twitter more and more for customer support.

This could be why this platform stays in the top five. 

Pinterest

Pinterest has 105.34 million American users.

It’s a search engine style social platform where people share their ideas and inspiration to the masses.

People discover new ideas and products here every single day. 

Pinterest uses “Pins” to save websites, images, blogs posts, product pages, and other forms of content to boards. Boards are used to organize Pins.

This platform is one of the best for driving traffic to your site. Plus, users on this social site are 7 times more likely to make a purchase from something they’ve pinned.

Some popular content on the site include beauty, fashion, home and garden, and DIY projects. Businesses gain a lot of exposure through Pins. 

LinkedIn

Number seven on our list is LinkedIn.

We think this has helped cover the full gambit of social media purposes as well as the top ranking social sites.

Let’s talk about LinkedIn.

In the beginning, LinkedIn was merely used as a simple job search engine where you could upload your resume for employers to see.

Today, it’s evolved into a professional social platform where job seekers, employers, and professionals network, build their own brand, and where experts can share their knowledge. 

Businesses have also established through leadership across industries while they attract top jobseeker talent. 

How Do People in The US Use Social Media?

How can you form an effective social media strategy without knowing the number of people using social media in the US and how they use these sites?

You can’t, so let’s get into the usage facts of social media. 

About 7 of every 10 Americans use social media to connect with each other, share information, engage with content and the news, and to entertain themselves.

Some of what people do on social media depends on the platform and some personal preferences. 

Social media as a whole is used by people in the US for these top ten reasons.

  1. To stay up to date with the current events and news.
  2. To seek entertaining and humorous content.
  3. It’s how they spend their spare time. 
  4. They stay in contact with family and friends.
  5. People share videos or images with others. 
  6. It’s used to research products to buy.
  7. Users who want to network with others. 
  8. Just because their friends are there.
  9. To share opinions.
  10. To meet new people. 

This data comes from a collaboration across agencies like Statista, GlobalWebIndex, GSMA Intelligence, Locowise, and SimilarWeb.

While some is related mostly to Facebook, this data applies across all social outlets. 

How Can Marketers Use Social Media Marketing?

As of the beginning of 2022, there are 3.96 billion worldwide social media users, including the nearly 300 million in the US. 

Not all social media marketers in the US market solely to the United States. Some do so globally.

That said, they need to have US figures as well as global figures. 

Here are a few little tidbits about how marketers use social media. 

The average social media user hops around multiple platforms throughout the day. The current number is across 7 platforms.

The amount of time they spend on these platforms accounts for 95 minutes each day. 

It’s within this kind of data that marketers can aptly create proper social media strategic marketing plans. 

Conclusion

We live in a day where social media virtually rules the lives of its users. This can be a good thing in some cases, or a bad thing in others.

The usefulness or downside of using social media relies on its users.

How many people use social media in the US in 2024?

It is close to 300 million (295+ million).

What percentage of Americans have a social media account?

88.2% of Americans have a social media account that they use.

Whether you’re a marketer or a curious person in general, all these figures and facts are interesting in regards to social media usage in America. 

If you’re a marketer, the information we have dug up and shared with you is important to your marketing strategy building.

Without the kind of data in this article, you will find it at least challenging to market to that target audience. 

How will you use social media for your marketing efforts now that you have this information in your hands?

Will you use more video than article content? How will social media impact your target audience over the year?

Sources

DataproteMarketerGlobal Media Insights
Prestige OnlineSprout SocialStartup Bonsai
StatistaStatistaStatista
The Global Statistics

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Written by Jason Wise

Hello! I’m the editor at EarthWeb, with a particular interest in business and technology topics, including social media, privacy, and cryptocurrency. As an experienced editor and researcher, I have a passion for exploring the latest trends and innovations in these fields and sharing my insights with our readers. I also enjoy testing and reviewing products, and you’ll often find my reviews and recommendations on EarthWeb. With a focus on providing informative and engaging content, I am committed to ensuring that EarthWeb remains a leading source of news and analysis in the tech industry.