To date, there are over 3 billion people registered to have a social media account around the world, which means that almost half of the world's population spends a portion of their lives updating their status or sharing their news.
A new report by Hootsuite and We are Social found that there are 3.028 million active social media users worldwide. That's a really big number, especially when you consider that the Earth's population is estimated at 7.524 billion people.
In short, about 40 percent of the world's population uses social media, and only a small fraction of the estimated 3.819 billion people with internet access worldwide do not have at least one social profile. Mobile phone users make up a large portion of the base, with 2.780 billion active users.
The number of users is huge, and according to the report, which drew from a wide range of international sources and their social platforms, it will continue to grow. There has been a 4% increase in total global users (equivalent to 121 million people) since April. That’s about… a million new users a day.
Facebook, as expected, is the king of social media platforms, with around 2.047 billion monthly active users (MAU), while its other companies, WhatsApp and Messenger, hold the third and fourth places, respectively. Instagram follows closely behind in 7th place, with around 700 million MAU.
You can view the full report here, for even more detailed information 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. The majority of the world's population spends their lives scrolling through the lives of others.
