20 Instagram Demographics and User Insights

Understanding the audience to which you are ‘pleading your case’ is essential for a successful marketing strategy. Instagram is no exception if that is your marketing weapon of choice. With this social media having over a billion active users, reaching your target group is a bit of a challenge. That’s why we’ve prepared these stats and facts to give you an accurate idea of Instagram demographics so that you can build your social media strategy to target the right people at the right time and the right place. 

Instagram Demographics (Editor’s Choice)

• Instagram has more than one billion monthly active users. (Backlinko)
• India has over 230 million Instagram users, the largest share worldwide. (Statista)
• Nearly 32% of Instagram users globally are between 25 and 34 years old. (Statista)
• 67% of people in the category of 18-24-year-olds use Instagram multiple times a day. (Facebook for Business)
• Women account for 49.3% of Instagram’s audience worldwide. (Statista)
• Instagram has reached 50.4% of the population of Australia. (NapoleonCat)

Instagram Audience Demographics

1. Instagram has over one billion monthly active users. 

This makes the platform the 6th largest social media network globally. Just under a quarter (23.92%) out of all mobile internet users worldwide access the app every month. To illustrate the power of this number, there are 4.18 billion mobile internet users. 

(Backlinko)

2. About 90% of Instagram users follow a minimum of one business. 

Then, as many as 83% have discovered a new product/service on it. This makes it a suitable ground for product placement by marketers, to the appropriate Instagram users demographics. It’s no wonder then that over 71% of companies in the US alone use this platform in some form.

(HubSpot)

3. Over 40% of US adults with a college degree use Instagram. 

While it’s difficult to determine the education of your Instagram target audience, data shows that 43% of US adults with a college degree or above use the photo-sharing platform. Over a third (37%) of those with some college education and 33% with a high school diploma or less do the same.

(Statista)

4. In the US, roughly 42% of people with a household income of over $75,000 are Instagram users.  

When comparing the demographics of Instagram users in the US based on income, we can see that those with higher earnings are more likely to enjoy the photo-sharing platform. Just under 40% of those with a household income of between $30,000 and $74,999 use Instagram. For those with an income under $30,000, the number drops to 35%.

(Pew Research Center)

5. Statistics show that Instagram has a 45% reach in the urban US. 

Only 25% of those living in rural areas use Instagram, and out of those in suburban areas, 41% have an account on the photo-sharing platform. Parent Facebook meanwhile has 70% reach in both urban and suburban areas, and 67% in the rural US. If we look at LinkedIn, 30% of urban, 33% of suburban, and 15% of rural residents use this platform. 

(Pew Research)

6. About 52% of the US Hispanic population uses Instagram. 

White has the lowest percentage, with only 35% of that ethnicity in the US using Instagram. Black comes in second based on the number of Instagram users from this segment (49%). Other social media networks have a slightly different ethnic reach than that of  Instagram user demographics. For example, 74% of Black people are Facebook users, Hispanic ethnicity is at 72%, while 67% of white people use Facebook. For LinkedIn, 29% of white people say they use it often, compared to 27% of Black, and 19% of Hispanics. 

(Pew Research)

7. 45% of Instagram users have travel as their top interest. 

According to Facebook data, following travel, music is the most common interest of Instagram users (44%). Next, food and drinks are another preference of users with 43%. Equally, users tend to be interested in fashion (42%) and movies (41%). Health and fitness came in sixth on the list (35%), followed by technology with 32%, skincare/cosmetics, and sports with 30% each, and lastly, we have news with 28%. 

(Facebook)

8. Approximately 95 million accounts on Instagram are fake. 

A closer look at the Instagram demographics reveals striking statistics. About 95 million fake accounts mean that one in 10 accounts on the platform are bots, which calls into question the impact of Instagram marketing strategies. An influencer’s reach of millions has little value if you can’t reach actual people. The situation, however, is not much different from that in other networks. For example, around 8.8-14.6% of profiles on Twitter are fake. While Facebook keeps this data on the down low, some reports point to 13% or 270 million fake accounts. 

(Basic Thinking)

Age Demographics of Instagram Users

9. Nearly 32% of Instagram users globally are between 25 and 34 years old. 

When we divide Instagram users by age, we can conclude that this segment of the global population is the most prominent one. Along with them, 30.2% of people between 18 and 24 years old are the most common Instagram users. In fact, these two groups combined represent nearly two-thirds of all platform users. At the other end of the spectrum, we have those over 65 years old who account for as little as 2.1% of Instagram users. 

(Statista)

10. In the US, around 11% of parents with children 9-11 years old said their kids use Instagram. 

Although the demographics of Instagram show it levitates toward younger segments of the population, it still has guidelines in place for those younger than 13. Despite that, children aged 11 and less also tend to join this platform and use it. Then, 5% of American parents with children aged 11 or less said their child used Instagram in 2020. Other platforms, however, seem to resonate more with this age group — 30% of parents with kids aged 9-11 think their offspring uses TikTok, while 22% say their child uses Snapchat. 

(Pew Research)

11. 67% of those aged 18-24 use Instagram multiple times a day. 

The age of Instagram users plays a role in how much they would have the interest to use the platform more than once daily, stats on Instagram users demographics show. A survey conducted globally on the samples of Instagram users from different generations suggests that younger generations stick around the platform more often. Aside from those 18-24, 60% of the next segment (25-34 years old) uses Insta multiple times daily. Around 49% of those 35-44 years old and 43% of the 45-54 age range of Instagram users access the network more times a day. Finally, only 31% of users aged 55 and above utilize it multiple times per day.

(Facebook for Business)

12. Instagram is the best means for a brand to communicate new products according to 73% of surveyed teens. 

The survey was conducted among teens in the US and it shows the significance of this platform for this age group in terms of business. Statistics about Instagram age demographics stand in confirmation of this. Likewise, many teens consider Snapchat a good channel for brand communication and product placement (49%). In the next spots, stats put email and text messaging with 37% and 34%, respectively. Only after those come website ads (29%), Twitter (20%), TV/Radio (19%), and, surprisingly, Facebook (12%). 

(eMarketer)

13. Most Instagram users post or watch stories. 

Around 86.6% of people on Instagram post stories every day. This leads to a great engagement and awareness potential for brands and the products they want to sell. One study of demographics of Instagram shows that 39% of respondents would be more interested in a product from a brand if they watched a story that includes it. 15-25% of people swipe up on the link in such stories.

(Statusbrew)

14. Over a quarter of 18-24 years old in the US use Instagram to access news. 

Gen Z and millennials on Instagram have a tendency to use it as a news source, recent studies suggest. On the other side, around 19% of the same group used Snapchat in 2020, while 6% went to TikTok for news and the latest info. Only 17% of those from this group used newspapers for information. Moreover, information placed on these sources can’t always be relevant or trustworthy. In some countries, it goes even further, like in Argentina, where up to  49% of youngsters 18-24 years old catch up with the news on Instagram. 

(The Guardian)

Instagram Gender Demographics

15. Women comprise 49.3% of Instagram’s audience. 

This is only slightly higher than 50.7% of male users. These statistics include only binary genders, since Facebook’s ad tools don’t include data on non-binary genders. When it comes to the US, 45% of men are on the platform, and 55% of women. 

(Hootsuite, Statista)

16. Out of 30.2% of users ages 18-24, around 13.4% are female. 

Alternatively, 16.8% of users are male. In line with Instagram gender statistics, this group and the age groups of 13-17, and 25-34 years old are the only ones that have a smaller percentage of females than males. All other groups have larger female users. For example, 35-44, around 8.1% are female, and 7.7% are male. In the 55-64-year-old segment, women comprise 2.2%, while men are 1.5%. Finally, out of 2.1% users of 65 years old and more, 1.2% are women and 0.9% are men. 

(Statista)

Instagram Demographics by Country

17. India has over 230 million Instagram users, the largest share worldwide. 

Looking at Instagram users by country data, India comes in first. It’s closely followed by the US with almost 160 million active users and Brazil which has close to 120 million. As of January 2022, India overtook first place from the US. Indonesia comes in fourth on the list with 99 million. Finally, to conclude the top five countries we have Russia with 63 million active users. 

(Statista)

18. Only 27% of Instagram’s users in India are female, Instagram demographics for India show. 

Looking at Instagram usage by country, India has the biggest gap between the female and male users of the platform. For reference, the majority of users in the country (73%) identify as male. This statistic is not surprising given that more than half of women in India don’t know about the existence of mobile internet. 

(Statista)

19. Over half of the population of Singapore is on Instagram. 

Over 3 million citizens use the photo-sharing platform today. Instagram demographics for Singapore don’t vary that much from those of other countries, with older millennials (25-34) comprising the bulk of users (38.6%).

(World Population Review, Statista)

20. Instagram has reached over half of the population Down Under. 

As many as 50.4% of the entire Australian population use the photo-sharing platform actively, which translates to around 13,200,500 people, according to numbers from February 2022. Instagram demographics for Australia further show that the majority of them are women, with 55.2% of the total audience base. Based on the age group demographics, the country’s largest user group is those 25-34 years old, where 4,000,000 Australians are active on Instagram. For comparison purposes,there were 2,360,500 fewer active users in Australia (10,840,000) in February 2021, representing 42% of the population. 

(NapoleonCat)

21. CarLifestyle is the most popular Instagram account in Canada, with its 4.3 million followers. 

According to the charts, this account has a 0.10% engagement rate. From the Instagram demographics of Canada, we can single out several other influential accounts like @justinpjtrudeau, with 4.1 million followers and a 0.50% engagement rate. Another one worth mentioning is @carswithoutlimits (3.7 million followers) with a 0.10% engagement rate. Although these are the top three when it comes to the number of users, @neekolul has one of the best engagement rates (16.30%). 

(StarNgage)

22. In the UK, roughly 54% of users access Instagram multiple times a day. 

On average, Brits spend around 32 minutes each day checking out Instagram. Instagram demographics of the UK are quite similar to those of the rest of the world, with the age group 25-34 dominating the total number of users. For reference, this is somewhere around 30.6 million estimated users of this platform in the country. To put this into perspective, 46% of the total UK population has an account, and that puts this network in the fourth spot as one of the largest social media in the country. 

(Social Films, Statista)

Wrapping up

As one of the most influential social networks, Instagram offers remarkable opportunities for every marketer. However, without conducting prior research on their desired audience, marketers might fail to generate maximum value, which is why it’s vital to explore the target groups before implementing any social media strategy. These Instagram user demographics facts might be a good start on your research path.

FAQs

Source

• Backlinko
• Statista
• Statista
• Facebook for Business
• Statista
• NapoleonCat
• HubSpot
• Statista
• Pew Research Center
• Pew Research
• Facebook
• Basic Thinking
• Pew Research
• eMarketer
• Statusbrew
• The Guardian
• Hootsuite
• Statista
• Statista
• World Population Review
• Statista
• Statista
• StarNgage
• Social Films
• Statista
• Statista
• EarthWeb
• Statista

By Ivan Blagojevic