Six out of ten people worldwide are internet users
55% of the world's population is a user of social networks, in a context in which 60% of the global population is already an internet user, as highlighted in the latest Digital 2021 report by Hootsuite and We Are Social.
Digital 2021 captures the key digital trends and usage of internet users around the world. According to the latest data, global internet users have increased by more than 330 million in the last year, surpassing 4.7 billion at the beginning of April, representing 60% of the global population. It is estimated that there are more than 7.85 billion people on the planet.
However, levels of internet adoption continue to vary significantly around the world, with more than nine out of ten people in northern and western Europe and North America now using the internet, but more than three out of four people in East Africa remain offline.
Social networking continues to grow in popularity. In the last twelve months more than 500 million new users joined these platforms, bringing the global total to 4.33 billion by April 2021 (55% of the world's population).
More than 24% of internet users aged 16-64 say WhatsApp is their favourite social platform, followed by Facebook (almost 22%) and Instagram (more than 18%). However, Facebook remains at the top of the most used social networks. According to the report, almost 2.8 billion people use this platform every month, which is 57 million more than just three months ago. It is followed by YouTube with almost 2.3 billion and WhatsApp with 2 billion.
Overall, staying in touch with friends and family remains the main reason why users use social networks. Passing the time (37%), reading the news (36%) and finding fun and entertaining content (31%) are also the reasons why users access these platforms.
Finally, the report also shows that there are now 5.27 billion unique mobile users worldwide (67.1% of the population), 97 million more than at the same time last year. This means that two-thirds of all people on Earth have a mobile phone. In addition, more than 76% of connections are made via a smartphone.
