Statistics

Instagram Statistics

Dmytro Tsybuliak

LinkedIn

January 11, 2022

500,000,000

daily users on Instagram (DAUs)

1,000,000,000

monthly users on Instagram (MAUs)

500,000,000

users post Instagram Stories every day

30

minutes an average user spends on Instagram

995

photos are uploaded every second

15,000

photos will have been uploaded by the time you finish reading this article

Nowadays, social networks are deeply present in people's lives. The bulk of the population, capable of holding a smartphone or pressing the keyboard of a desktop computer, is already registered on social networks. Therefore, the question of which social network is predominantly inhabited by people is acute today.

It is simply necessary for marketers and business owners to possess up-to-date information regarding this issue. Only relying on the latest data about Instagram, a professional can build a marketing strategy that will lead to success and earnings.

In this article, we have gathered the latest information and statistics, carefully analyzed various metrics, and are ready to present you everything in the shortest and most comprehensive form. Let's get started!

Table of Contents

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CHAPTER 1

The History of Instagram's Founding

In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock

On July 17, 2010, in Mexico, a programmer Kevin Systrom saw a stray dog hiding from the heat under a taco stand.

The guy took a picture of the dog and uploaded it to an app that the whole world would know as Instagram three months later. The Mexican dog certainly didn't know that its photo would start the age of Instagram.

Nor did Systrom anticipate that his app would be downloaded to smartphones by billions of people.

$1,000,000,000

In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. It was a huge sum for a company with only 12 employees. Today, over 450 employees keep Instagram running.

CHAPTER 2

Global Social Media Users: Growth

As of 2021, at least 4.2 billion people on the planet were active social media users

Hubspot claims in its report that as of 2021, at least 4.2 billion people on the planet were active social media users. Let's take a look at the rapid growth of social media users year after year.

Growth of social media

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

4.2 billion

2.3 billion

0 billion

CHAPTER 3

How Popular is Instagram?

More than 1 billion unique users visit Instagram each month

Instagram is unimaginably popular! Although we will still try to imagine the number of its audience.

According to a report provided by Hubspot in conjunction with Mention, more than 1 billion unique users visit Instagram each month. That means that 1 in 7 people on the planet goes to Instagram at least once a month. And 50% of users do so daily. Collectively, those 500 million people leave 4.2 billion likes per day.

And here's the data on the number of active Instagram users in previous years provided by Facebook:

500 M

2016

700 M

2017

1 B

2018

1.1 B

2019

1.2 B

2020

Most popular social networks

CHAPTER 4

How Many Fake Accounts Are There on Instagram?

On Instagram, almost half (45%) of the accounts are fake

On Instagram, according to HypeAuditor, almost half (45%) of the accounts are fake. That means they are either just inactive/abandoned or bots.

$500 million

What's the risk? Advertising losses: brand owners simply waste advertising budgets. Losses from Instagram scams are at least $500 million today.

CHAPTER 5

Why Is Instagram so Popular?

Users from around the world have downloaded Instagram 3.8 billion times

Users from around the world have downloaded Instagram 3.8 billion times. And more often than not, Instagram's popularity is primarily due to its concise presentation format, where an image or short video carries the main message and conveys the whole point.


But at the same time, Instagram is a very well-developed marketing platform that allows you to promote and sell products, increase customer loyalty and brand awareness.


According to the Global Digital 2021 report provided by Hootsuite, about half of young people turn to social media to search for products. This fact justifies the presence and activity of marketers and brands on this platform.


As a result, there are more than 25 million business profiles on Instagram today. 90% of users follow at least one of them. To simplify their work, shopping tags and other marketplace features within the site have started to appear in different countries since 2019.

According to Instagram's internal data:

90%

of users follow business accounts

2/3

choose Instagram to interact with brands

50%

show interest in a brand after seeing it advertised on this social network

CHAPTER 6

Instagram Is Popular, but Is Everyone Popular on Instagram?

Users from around the world have downloaded Instagram 3.8 billion times

According to recent Hubspot data, more than half of Instagram profiles (both personal and business) have less than a thousand followers, which means they're not very popular.

38% of people on this social network boast an audience of up to 10,000 followers. Less than 1% of people have 1M users and can already proudly call themselves influencers. But there are those who are subscribed to more than 10M users.

They are only 0.01% of the total mass. That's because promoting a profile on this social network in 2021 is not so easy.

CHAPTER 7

Most Popular Instagram
Accounts

The most popular account on Instagram is @instagram (470M followers)

The top 5

most popular Instagram accounts include:

@instagram

470M of followers

@cristiano

400M of followers

@arianagrande

294M of followers

@therock

296M of followers

@kyliejenner

309M of followers

In addition to famous personalities, some major brands are also in the 1% of Instagram accounts with more than 10M subscribers. Among them:

  • @lamborghini - 28.5M
  • @netflixbrasil - 22M
  • @anastasiabeverleyhills - 20M
  • @givenchyofficical - 14.2M

According to Mention, of the top 50 popular accounts, 35% are from the U.S., 24% - from Brazil, and 11% - from India.

CHAPTER 8

Who Are Instagram Users?

The Instagram audience consists of 50.8% female and 49.2% male users

Based on solid data from Hootsuite, Instagram is not at all the "female" social network that many people have come to believe.

Among users:

  • 50.8% Female / 49.2% Male (Omnicore);

  • 84% of teens in America prefer Instagram (Marketing Charts);

  • 64% of users are 18-34 y.o. (Statista);

  • 16% of users are 35-44 y.o.;

  • 71% of adults have an active account on Instagram. It is more than on Facebook (70%) or Linkedin (30%).

The percentage distribution of users by annual income is interesting to marketers:

  • $30K – 35%;

  • >$75K - 39%;

  • <$75K - 42%.

CHAPTER 9

Location of Instagram Users

According to Mention, the majority of all Instagram posts were made in the U.S

  • USA 49.5%;

  • Europe 30%;

  • Asia 14%;

  • Australia 3%;

  • Africa 3%;

  • Antarctica less than 1%.

The statistics can also be assessed by countries and number of publications:

  • USA 571,000 posts;

  • Brazil 307,000 posts;

  • UK 121,000 posts;

  • India 102,000 posts;

  • Russia 101,000 posts.

CHAPTER 10

Instagram Reach Rankings

Audience Reach Rate by Countries Compared to the Population

To evaluate Instagram reach rankings, we turn to WeAreSocial research. The statistics show the countries with the largest advertising audience.

The top 10 countries with the highest reach rate concerning population are given below.

  • Country

    Reach rate

  • Turkey

    68,4%

  • Sweden

    66,5%

  • Argentina

    58,7%

  • Brazil

    56,4%

  • Israel

    54,6%

  • Saudi Arabia

    54,4%

  • U.A.E

    54,0%

  • Ireland

    54,9%

  • Malaysia

    53,8%

  • U.K.

    53,0%

*According to wearesocialXHootsuite survey

CHAPTER 11

Top Most Used Hashtags

The most popular hashtag on Instagram is #love with more than 2B posts

A hashtag is a keyword or phrase preceded by a # symbol. It is used on social networks and helps users interested in a certain topic find related posts by other users, even if they are not subscribed to each other. The most popular hashtags on Instagram are the following:

On average, Instagram posts contain7-10 hashtags.

Popular hashtags on Instagram (in billion)

2

1

0

#love

#instagood

#fashion

#photooftheday

#art

CHAPTER 12

Content Types Statistics

Beauty content had the highest engagement rate in 2021 (about 25% of all interactions).

The social media engagement rate is an indicator that evaluates the quality and effectiveness of posts, as well as the use of all kinds of promotional tools. In simple terms, this parameter calculates the percentage of effectiveness of the published information. According to it, a professional can determine what kind of output it gives and understand whether to continue in the same way or to change the strategy.

Engagement rate by the number of followers:

  • 10K or less - 1.29%;

  • 100K or less - 1.00%;

  • 100K and more - 0.73%.

Beauty content had the highest engagement rate in 2021. About 25% of all interactions occurred with posts from this category. (Socialbakers)

We can see different types of content on Instagram, and current 2021 Locowise data can tell us about their percentage of each other:

Video posts (0.55% average engagement rate)

Carousel posts (1.05% average engagement rate)

Photo posts (0.88% average engagement rate)

CHAPTER 13

Instagram Stories

More than 500 million people post Instagram stories every day

According to data provided by Instagram, more than 500 million people post Instagram stories every day. More than 45% of users believe they learn new topical information when they view stories. 58% of users, after seeing a brand's stories, want to review or purchase products.

CHAPTER 14

Captions

Nearly 95% of captions are less than 1K characters long

Nearly 95% of captions are less than 1K characters long. However, more than 55% of them are between 100 and 1000 characters long.

Caption length in relation to the number of publications:

4.1%

1K-2K

56%

101- 1K

11,1%

51-100

17,5%

0-20

As of today, the maximum length of a post caption can be no more than 2200 characters. Moreover, in order for the entire text to appear in the feed in full, it should not exceed 125 characters.

According to Social Report, if the text is more than 1K symbols - coverage goes up.

CHAPTER 15

Tags

27% of all Instagram posts include tags

Tags were invented to help increase reach. In 2020, about 34% of all Instagram posts had no tags. In 2021, that number has risen significantly, with 73% of posts having no tags. Why? Because tagged users in 2021 are not as responsive to the post because, in previous years, they faced a lot of tagging of their profiles on posts that didn't interest them.

CHAPTER 16

The Most Tagged Accounts on Instagram

In 2021, the @jamescharles account was the most tagged on Instagram

In 2020, the most engaging account in terms of tagging was the Fashion Nova brand's profile. In 2021, the @jamescharles account is on the top. Also, due to the staggering rise in popularity of the social network Tik Tok, the @tiktok tag was widely used on Instagram, as users shared related videos.

Not only can users be tagged but also the location. According to Hubspot, posts with location tagging get a higher level of engagement. The most frequently tagged locations on Instagram, according to Statista, are London, New York, and Paris.

CHAPTER 17

Time of Highest Engagement

During the evening hours of 18:00-19:00 , engagement on Instagram peaks

According to a study of this metric by Mention, engagement is highly influenced by the time content is published. During the evening hours of 18:00-19:00, engagement peaks, while it falls sharply around midnight. During the daytime, engagement levels remain average but increase between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. local time. These are global averages, but in certain locations, they may fluctuate.

Also, posts published on Sunday get the highest engagement.

CHAPTER 18

Instagram Advertising Revenue

In 2020, Instagram earned $13.86 billion from advertising

Instagram advertising revenue is growing rapidly as the social network becomes more popular. In 2020, Instagram earned $13.86 billion from advertising, and by the end of 2021, that number is expected to rise to $18.16 billion.

6,18 B

2018

9,45 B

2019

13,86 B

2020

18,16 B

2021

CHAPTER 19

Instagram Annual Revenue

$24 billion is Instagram’s annual revenue in 2020

Instagram's annual revenue amounts are given in billion U.S. dollars. All figures are approximate, as the company owner of this social network does not distribute exact earnings figures. The revenue amounts are given according to Instagram’s annual reports.

1,8

2016

4,6

2017

10,3

2018

17,7

2019

24

2020

30

20

10

0

CHAPTER 20

Facebook Revenue

In 2020, Facebook Revenue included 37% from Instagram

According to Bloomberg, billions of dollars make up a large part of Facebook's budget. While Instagram is not Facebook's main source of revenue, in 2021, more than a third of revenue comes from this social network.

Ads appear on Instagram in posts, in the news feed, and in the Explore section. Every day, there are more and more ads from both influencers and Facebook, which has convenient tools to place them.

As a percentage, Facebook's revenue from Instagram has evolved as follows:

1,8

2016

4,6

2017

10,3

2018

17,7

2019

24

2020

30

20

10

0

CHAPTER 21

Advertising with Instagram Influencers

65% of businesses turn to Influencers on Instagram to promote their brands

Influencer Marketing Hub claims that at least 65% of businesses turn to Influencers on Instagram to promote their brands and gain customer loyalty.

And Businesswire shares the results of a study in which:

  • 61% of Instagram users tend to trust advertising from an Influencer;

  • 58% prefer to follow the experts in industries of interest;

  • 22% prefer to follow stars when choosing a product.

Consumers are the most engaged and ready to buy after seeing ads that fall into these categories:

  • Food products 56%;

  • Healthy Lifestyle 48%;

  • Cosmetics and care 33%;

  • Kids 13%.

97% of social media professionals believe Instagram is the most important social network for marketing. In 2021, marketers' interests have shifted from macro-influencers to micro-influencers. More than 70% of experts prefer to work with micro-influencers. As it turned out during the development of the social network Instagram, such bloggers have a higher percentage of involvement, people trust them more. Users are confident that micro-bloggers are not yet spoiled by a large number of advertising integrations and can recommend a really good product.

In terms of gender distribution, Statista claims that 85% of Influencers are women and only 15% are men.

Thanks to eMarketer, we know the approximate prices for sponsored posts made by Influencers. Of course, they vary depending on the blogger's popularity and page stats, but the averages are as follows:

$100 - 2,085 for a photo post;
$114 - 3,318 for a video post;
$43 - 721 for promotion in Stories.

Creative integrations, of course, will be priced much higher.

According to HypeAuditor, by investing $1 in promotion with Influencers, brands earn an average of $4.87 through this advertising integration.