Instagram Demographics Statistics 2026: Age, Gender and Country Breakdown

Instagram ads reached 1.74 billion users worldwide in January 2025, up 5.5% year over year, according to Meta’s own ad-planning figures compiled by DataReportal. The demographic center of that audience is narrower than the topline suggests: per DataReportal’s Kepios analysis, males aged 25 to 34 make up 18.4% of Instagram’s global adult audience.

Country-level data widens the picture further: the platform that looks 52.7% male globally is a female-majority audience in the UK and among US adults, while India’s ratio pushes the other direction. The figures below break Instagram’s audience down by age, gender, country, world region, US adoption, and teen usage.

Key Takeaways

• Instagram ads reached 1.74 billion users worldwide in January 2025, equivalent to 21.3% of all the people on Earth.
• The global gender split was 52.7% male and 47.3% female in Meta‘s own ad-planning tools.
• Males aged 25 to 34 were Instagram’s largest single cohort at 18.4% of the adult audience aged 18 and above.
• India had 414 million Instagram users in early 2025.
• Half of US adults reported using Instagram in Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey, including eight-in-ten adults ages 18 to 29.
• The UK had 33.4 million Instagram users in early 2025; among its adult ad audience, 54.5% were female.
• Roughly nine-in-ten US teens on Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat cite entertainment as a reason for using the app, per Pew Research Center’s survey of 1,458 US teens ages 13 to 17.

Editor’s Choice

• Instagram’s ad audience grew by 90.8 million users between January 2024 and January 2025, a 5.5% annual gain.
• Female users aged 18 to 24 accounted for 14.4% of Instagram’s global adult ad audience; male users aged 18 to 24 accounted for 17.2%.
• Southern Asia accounted for 25.7% of Instagram’s total global users (448 million people), the largest regional bloc by a wide margin.
• Pew Research Center found more than half of US women (55%) use Instagram, compared with under half of US men (44%) – the inverse of the global gender skew.
• Meta reported 3.58 billion Family daily active people across Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp in December 2025, up 7% year over year.
• Combined, users aged 18 to 34 made up 64.6% of Instagram’s global adult audience (14.4% female 18-24 + 17.2% male 18-24 + 14.6% female 25-34 + 18.4% male 25-34).
• US adult Instagram adoption climbed from 13% in 2012 to 50% in 2025 per Pew Research Center’s long-running Social Media Fact Sheet.

Instagram Global Age Distribution

• Users aged 25 to 34 combined for 33.0% of Instagram’s global adult audience – 14.6% female and 18.4% male.
• Users aged 18 to 24 combined for 31.6% of the adult audience – 14.4% female and 17.2% male.
• Users aged 35 to 44 combined for 17.3% of Instagram’s adult audience worldwide (8.5% female + 8.8% male).
• Users aged 45 to 54 combined for 9.6% of Instagram’s adult audience (5.2% female + 4.4% male).
• Users aged 55 to 64 combined for 5.2% of Instagram’s adult audience (3.0% female + 2.2% male).
• Users aged 65 and above combined for 3.3% of Instagram’s adult audience (1.9% female + 1.4% male).
• The average Instagram user in January 2025 sat somewhere between 25 and 34 years old on DataReportal’s Kepios analysis of Meta’s own ad-planning tools.

The “average age” description hides a bigger story: users 18 to 34 account for roughly two-thirds of the addressable adult audience, and everyone 45 and older combined – across four decades of life – adds up to less than one in five accounts.

Instagram Global Gender Split

• 52.7% of Instagram’s global audience was male in January 2025, per data reported in Meta’s planning tools.
• 47.3% of Instagram’s global audience was female over the same period.
• The male lean of 5.4 percentage points inverts in the US and UK – a single global mean that describes very few individual countries accurately.
• The UK inverts the pattern with 54.5% of Instagram’s adult ad audience female and 45.5% male in early 2025.
• India stretches the pattern the other way – 70.8% of its Instagram adult ad audience was male and 29.2% female in early 2025.

By the numbers: DataReportal’s Kepios team reports a 52.7% male vs 47.3% female split on Instagram in January 2025, but the same source shows India at 70.8% male and the UK at 54.5% female. The global figure is a weighted average, not a description of any single national audience.

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Recent Developments

• Meta reported 3.60 billion Family daily active people on average for June 2026, up 3% year over year, in its Q2 2026 earnings release published on July 29, 2026.
• Meta’s Q2 2026 revenue reached $60.80 billion, up 28% year over year, with Family of Apps ad impressions up 14% and average price per ad up 12%.
• Instagram’s advertising reach grew by 90.8 million users (+5.5%) in the twelve months ending January 2025 on Meta’s own ad-planning data.
• Pew Research Center’s cross-platform teen study of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat surveyed 1,458 US teens ages 13 to 17 between September 25 and October 9, 2025.
• Pew Research Center’s Americans’ Social Media Use survey (n = 5,022 US adults, fielded February to June 2025) confirmed Instagram as the only platform besides YouTube and Facebook that at least half of US adults use.

Instagram Users by World Region

Instagram’s regional footprint is concentrated in Southern Asia and the Americas. Southern Asia held 25.7% of Instagram’s total global users – 448 million people – the largest regional bloc by a wide margin. Southern America ranked second at 13.6% (237 million users) and Northern America third at 11.0% (192 million). Northern Africa (2.9%, 50.9 million) and Western Africa (0.9%, 16.2 million) together account for 3.8% of the platform on DataReportal’s regional cut.

• Southern Asia: 448 million users, 25.7% of the global total.
• Southern America: 237 million users, 13.6% of the global total.
• Northern America: 192 million users, 11.0% of the global total.
• South-Eastern Asia: 177 million users, 10.2% of the global total.
• Western Asia: 133 million users, 7.6% of the global total.
• Eastern Asia: 101 million users, 5.8% of the global total.
• Western Europe: 78.0 million users, 4.5% of the global total.
• Southern Europe: 72.6 million users, 4.2% of the global total.
• Central America: 62.6 million users, 3.6% of the global total.
• Northern Europe: 51.3 million users, 2.9% of the global total.

Source: DataReportal / Kepios analysis of Meta’s ad-planning tools, January 2025 (UN M49 geoscheme).

Instagram Users by Country

• India had 414 million Instagram users in January 2025.
• Instagram’s India audience grew by 51.0 million (+14.0%) between January 2024 and January 2025.
• The United Kingdom held 33.4 million Instagram users, equivalent to 48.2% of the UK population.
• In the UK, 56.3% of the eligible-audience denominator (age 13+) used Instagram – a cleaner cross-country comparison than raw population penetration, since Meta restricts the platform to people 13 and above.

Source: DataReportal / Kepios country reports and Instagram Essential Stats, January 2025.

The 1.74 billion headline is an addressable-audience ceiling, not a headcount. Ad-reach counts like this can fold in duplicate, business, and brand accounts rather than distinct people, so real monthly active users almost certainly sit below the line – a limit worth remembering.

Instagram Users in the United States

• Half of US adults reported using Instagram in Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey of 5,022 adults conducted between February and June 2025.
• Eight-in-ten US adults ages 18 to 29 reported using Instagram, compared with just 19% of adults ages 65 and older.
• More than half of US women (55%) reported using Instagram, compared with under half of US men (44%) – the reverse of Instagram’s global male-lean.
• Hispanic adults reported the highest Instagram adoption rate at 62%, followed by Asian adults at 58%, Black adults at 54%, and White adults at 45%.
• Americans with a college degree reported higher Instagram adoption than those with a high-school diploma or less, per Pew Research Center’s education crosstab.

Instagram Users in the United Kingdom

The UK is one of the clearest examples of the demographic inversion visible when you drop below the global average. Meta’s advertising tools showed Instagram with 33.4 million UK users in early 2025, equivalent to 48.2% of the total UK population and, per DataReportal, Instagram is used by roughly 59.5% of UK adults aged 18 and above.

• Instagram had 33.4 million users in the UK in January 2025.
• The reported reach was equivalent to 48.2% of the UK’s total population.
• 56.3% of the UK’s Instagram-eligible audience (age 13+) used the platform.
• 59.5% of UK adults aged 18 and above used Instagram at the beginning of 2025.
• 54.5% of Instagram’s UK adult ad audience was female and 45.5% male, the inverse of the global skew.
• The UK audience grew by 300 thousand (+0.9%) between January 2024 and January 2025 – a mature-market growth rate an order of magnitude below India’s.

Instagram Users in India

• India had 414 million Instagram users in early 2025, equivalent to 28.4% of the total Indian population.
• 37.6% of Indian adults aged 18 and above used Instagram at the beginning of 2025.
• 35.8% of India’s eligible audience (age 13+) used Instagram.
• 29.2% of Instagram’s India adult ad audience was female and 70.8% male.
• India added 51.0 million Instagram users (+14.0%) between January 2024 and January 2025.
• On a quarterly basis, India added 22.8 million users (+5.8%) between October 2024 and January 2025 alone – more incremental users in a single quarter than the UK’s entire annual growth.

Instagram Demographics by US Age Group

• Eight-in-ten US adults ages 18 to 29 reported using Instagram in Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey.
• 19% of US adults ages 65 and older reported using Instagram, roughly a 61-point gap once the hedged eight-in-ten rate among adults ages 18 to 29 is set against that 19%.
• Adults under 30 were the demographic block most likely to use Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Reddit per Pew Research Center’s age crosstab.

Instagram Demographics by US Race and Ethnicity

• 62% of Hispanic US adults reported using Instagram in Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey – the highest rate among the racial and ethnic groups Pew asked.
• 58% of Asian US adults reported using Instagram.
• 54% of Black US adults reported using Instagram.
• 45% of White US adults reported using Instagram – the lowest rate of the four groups.
• The 17-point gap between Hispanic (62%) and White (45%) US adults’ Instagram adoption appears in Pew Research Center’s 2025 crosstab.

Key finding: Pew Research Center’s 2025 crosstabs show a 17-percentage-point gap between Hispanic (62%) and White (45%) US-adult Instagram adoption, with Asian adults at 58% and Black adults at 54% sitting in between. That spread points to Instagram indexing on younger and more diverse US audiences, and it holds across every racial and ethnic group Pew measured.

Instagram Teen Audience

• Pew Research Center’s cross-platform teen study fielded September 25 to October 9, 2025, surveying 1,458 US teens ages 13 to 17, measured how teens use TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat differently.
• Roughly nine-in-ten or more of the surveyed teens cited entertainment as a reason they use Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat.
• Roughly four-in-ten or more teens on Instagram and TikTok cited news as a reason they use the platform, compared with about a quarter of teens on Snapchat.
• Majorities of teens on Instagram said they use the app to keep up with athletes or celebrities, versus 37% on Snapchat.
• About two-in-ten or fewer teens reported posting on Instagram every day, compared with about three-in-ten who post daily on Snapchat.
• About seven-in-ten teens on Instagram said their experience on the platform is mostly positive; 3% described it as mostly negative.

Source: Pew Research Center, Teens’ Experiences on TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat (n = 1,458 US teens ages 13 to 17, fielded September to October 2025).

Pew’s teen data hides the fact that Instagram is a browse-and-follow app for teens, not a post-daily app. Only about two-in-ten teens post daily on Instagram, versus three-in-ten on Snapchat – so the teen Instagram audience skews toward consumption, which reshapes how creators and brands should target it.

Instagram Gender Split by Country

• The global gender split in Meta’s ad-planning tools was 52.7% male and 47.3% female in January 2025.
• India’s Instagram adult ad audience was 70.8% male and 29.2% female.
• The UK’s Instagram adult ad audience was 45.5% male and 54.5% female.
• Pew Research Center found that more than half of US women (55%) use Instagram versus under half of US men (44%), an 11-point female skew inside the US.

Source: DataReportal country reports; Pew Research Center Americans’ Social Media Use 2025.

Instagram Adoption Timeline in the US

• US adult Instagram adoption climbed from 13% in 2012 (Pew’s earliest data point) to 50% in 2025, a 3.8x lift over 13 years.
• Pew Research Center’s periodic Social Media Fact Sheet tracks Instagram adoption alongside Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat, and X, with Instagram now used by half of US adults.
• Instagram is now the only platform besides YouTube and Facebook that at least half of US adults use, per Pew Research Center’s November 2025 survey.

Source: Pew Research Center Social Media Fact Sheet; Americans’ Social Media Use 2025.

Meta Family of Apps Context

Meta reports Instagram only inside its Family of Apps metrics rather than as a standalone monthly-active line, so the parent-company Family DAP figure is the closest quarterly signal that reflects the whole Instagram-plus-Facebook-plus-WhatsApp footprint. Instagram Ads sit inside that Family of Apps revenue line, which is why per-country Instagram MAU has to be inferred from Meta’s ad-planning tools rather than pulled from investor filings directly.

• Family daily active people (DAP): 3.58 billion on average for December 2025, up 7% year over year.
• Full-year 2025 revenue: $200.97 billion, up 22% year over year; Q4 2025 revenue: $59.89 billion, up 24%.
• Q4 2025 ad impressions across the Family of Apps: up 18% year over year.
• Average price per ad in Q4 2025: up 6% year over year.

What percentage of Instagram users are under 18?

The Instagram-specific share is not published in Meta’s advertiser-facing tools. Meta’s ad-planning tools only report demographics for users aged 18 and above; DataReportal / Kepios explicitly bucket ages 18 to 24 as the youngest slice they publish.

Pew Research Center’s cross-platform teen study of 1,458 US teens ages 13 to 17 documents how teens use Instagram relative to TikTok and Snapchat, but does not frame usage as a share of the total US teen population. The under-18 audience exists (Meta requires an age of 13 or above), but its share is under-published because it falls outside Meta’s advertiser-facing reporting bands.

National teen surveys are the best available proxies. Related coverage of the teen-heavy Gen Z audience and the Instagram vs TikTok teen split tracks the same cohort from different angles.

Which country has the largest Instagram audience?

India held 414 million Instagram users in January 2025. India added 51.0 million users (+14.0%) between January 2024 and January 2025.

That growth is coming largely from a young, male, mobile-first audience: 70.8% of Instagram’s India adult ad audience was male in early 2025, one reason Instagram’s global average tilts male despite its US and UK female skew. Our sister piece on Instagram Followers Statistics covers how creator follower counts distribute across those same markets.

Conclusion

Instagram’s demographic footprint in 2026 is shaped by two forces the topline figures obscure. The first is scale asymmetry. Instagram ads reached 1.74 billion users worldwide in January 2025; Southern Asia alone holds 25.7% of that audience (448 million people), and India single-handedly contributes 414 million of it.

The second is a demographic inversion: the global platform reads 52.7% male, yet Meta’s ad-planning tools show the UK at 54.5% female, and Pew puts US women at 55% versus US men at under half (44%). Marketers targeting Instagram on one global demographic number will get the wrong answer for almost every country they care about. The Social Media Demographics by Platform reference tracks the same pattern across Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat.