EXPLAINER

The average user spends roughly two hours and 39 minutes on social media daily, adding up to more than 40 days a year. How does your social media usage compare?

Every year on June 30, people around the world mark Social Media Day, a date set by the digital-media website Mashable in 2010 to recognise the growing role of these platforms in global communication.

Now, 16 years later, social media is no longer just a space for conversation. It is a basic part of everyday life for more than two-thirds of the world’s population.

According to the DataReportal Digital 2026 Global Overview Report, the number of social media users has reached 5.66 billion – equivalent to more than 68 percent of the world’s population.

The number of social media users has grown steadily from fewer than 500 million in 2005 to 2.27 billion in 2015 and 5.66 billion in 2025, largely driven by the spread of affordable smartphones and expanding internet access.

In the box below, enter how long you spend on each social media app on an average day. We’ll add it up across a week, month, year and decade, then show it against a lifetime.

According to DataReportal, the average active user spends 18 hours and 36 minutes per week on social media, or roughly two hours and 39 minutes every day. Compounded over a year, that adds up to more than 40 full days spent on these platforms.

Global social media usage is widely adopted, averaging 68 percent, with particularly high rates across Europe and North America.

At 88.1 percent, East Asia has the highest ratio of social media usage relative to the total population, followed by 79 percent in Northern Europe, 77.7 percent in Western Europe and 74 percent in North America.

By contrast, Central Africa has the lowest social media usage at 12.1 percent, followed by East Africa at 12.6 percent and West Africa at 19 percent, according to DataReportal.

Data from Statista compiled in cooperation with Kepios ranks the most popular social media networks worldwide by monthly active users. As of October, the most popular platforms were:

• Facebook leads all platforms with 3.07 billion monthly active users. Reels is now the default format for all video content on the platform.
• Instagram (acquired by Facebook in 2012) and WhatsApp (acquired in 2014) each have 3 billion monthly active users.
• YouTube, which is owned by Google, comes in next with 2.58 billion monthly active users.
• TikTok, launched internationally in 2017, has an estimated 1.99 billion users although estimates vary by source.

Behind these numbers lies a growing concern. The European Parliament has backed proposals for a minimum age of 16 for social media access alongside a ban on addictive design features, such as infinite scroll and autoplay for younger users. No European Union-wide law is yet in place, but several member states have moved ahead independently.

The shift has been driven in part by Australia, which in December became the first country in the world to enforce a blanket ban on social media for children under 16.

Other nations have followed. Indonesia banned social media for children under 16 in March, becoming the first Asian country to enforce such a measure. Brazil’s Digital Statute of Children and Adolescents, which took effect the same month, requires users under 16 to link accounts to a legal guardian and bans addictive features, such as infinite scroll. Turkiye passed a law in April restricting social media access for children under 15.

In June, the United Kingdom’s government announced plans to ban under-16s from social media platforms with the restrictions expected to take effect in spring 2027.