In this article, we will be taking a look at the 25 countries with most Instagram users in 2023. To skip our detailed analysis, you can go directly to see the top 5 countries with most Instagram users in 2023.
While social media has been in existence since the 1990s, few at the time would've expected it to be as influential as it is right now. Six Degrees is considered to be the first social media platform, which was established in 1997, while other social media platforms including Orkut, owned by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), and MySpace were established later on, with the latter being the top social media website in the world at its peak. While Orkut did not obtain as much success in the West, with most of its userbase located in India and Brazil, MySpace achieved true global popularity. Of course, most of these social media platforms only had a few years of incredible success, unlike Facebook by Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), which was launched in 2004 and available to anyone over the age of 13 from 2006 onwards.
Facebook managed to enjoy around 15 years of being the top used social media website in the world, and according to TechCrunch, crossed 3 billion active monthly users, even as it has been mired in massive controversy for the last several years. Few platforms have as much influence as social media platforms, and Facebook has been involved in several issues, including user data privacy, not to mention the infamous Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which resulted in the personal data of at least 87 million Facebook users being leaked. However, even bigger controversies erupted for Facebook when it was accused of providing a platform for political manipulation, especially in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and considering the U.S. is among the countries with the most Facebook users, its influence extended far and wide.
However, even though Facebook has achieved significant growth in most years since inception, this growth declined, especially in the U.S. with a higher drop-off in younger Americans, with this decline attributed to the massive success of Instagram, especially in the countries with the most Instagram users in 2023, which unsurprisingly have much in common with the countries that spend the most time on social media. While Instagram was launched in 2010 initially as just an IOS app, the platform achieved rapid growth, getting 10 million users in just a year, resulting in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) purchasing it for $1 billion in 2012. While also engaged in various controversies which is part and parcel of a massive social media platform, Instagram has still achieved massive popularity, and has become the go-to app especially for the younger generation, with the social media app crossing 2 billion in October 2022, according to Bloomberg and still growing at a healthy rate. Because of this, it is also not surprising to see that Instagram is among the most valuable social media companies in the world.
Not only is Instagram popular among users just to spend time on, it can also be a great business solution. Many major companies have already established a strong presence on the platform, which provides a great escape from Twitter, which we'll discuss later. Since more and more people are using Instagram, companies can have a much wider reach at much lower cost, which makes it viable for many. Further, while social media influencers and celebrities earning from social media already existed, Instagram has taken this to the next level. Many of the richest actors in the world, including Kim Kardashian, earn tens of millions of dollars from their posts on Instagram, while social media influencers can also make a healthy living in this respect. Athletes also enjoy unrivalled popularity with two most followed Instagram celebrities being soccer legends Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who are also responsible for the top 10 most liked posts on the platform, with 599 million followers and 482 million followers respectively, multiple times higher than the highest-followed accounts on other social media apps such as TikTok, Twitter and Facebook.
Going back to Twitter, it was and still is one of the most valuable social media companies in the world, with around 450 million monthly active users in 2022. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, purchased Twitter for $44 billion and took it private on October 27, 2022. Unfortunately for him, his running of Twitter has attracted fierce criticism, initially based on his attempts to backtrack on the deal to firing 80% of the company's staff to trying to rebrand the company to X. One investor stated that Twitter's value had plunged by tw0-thirds since Musk taking over which shows that even though social media is still consistently gaining in popularity, investing in social media companies still has its risks. In response, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) launched Threads, an alternative to Twitter which gained 100 million users in just five days, many of which were from the countries with the most Instagram users in 2023 as it was integrated with Threads. The initial unprecedented demand for Threads was covered in Meta Platforms, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) Q3 2022 earnings call where CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated "addition to improving the value people get within our family of apps today, we’re also investing in entirely new experiences for the future. We’re standing up infrastructure to support new AI-powered products across our services, which will give people more tools to express themselves and connect. And we’ve been pleased with the initial reception of our new standalone app, Threads, since its launch earlier this month. Our focus now is on further developing this into a product that will be valuable for a large set of people over time."
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has also implemented AI, on which it's spent billions, on Instagram which was also mentioned in the earnings call "AI includes both all of the ranking and recommendation systems that power the core apps, so all the content that you're seeing in Facebook and Instagram, all the ads content that you're seeing. It also underpins all the safety systems that we build." Even though the company had a terrible 2022 based on stock performance, its stock performance recovered spectacularly in 2023, increasing by 151% YTD.
Methodology
To determine the countries with the most Instagram users in 2023, we relied on data compiled by Similarweb on total users by country. We then calculated the number of users per capita, assigning 60% weightage to the former criteria and 40% to the latter, after which the nations were ranked based on ascending order.
Total Instagram users: 4,950,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 524
Even though Instagram has grown consistently in the UAE, TikTok's growth has resulted in a decline in Instagram's growth rate.
Total Instagram users: 12,450,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 342
Even though Saudi Arabia implements heavy censorship on social media, Instagram is still hugely popular with its residents.
Total Instagram users: 7,650,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 432
In the Netherlands, the most popular celebrities aren't actors but athletes with the three most-followed personalities being footballers Frenkie De Jong and Antony, followed by F1 champion Max Verstappen.
Total Instagram users: 5,300,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 511
Instagram has recently launched a tool to test age verification, which is being tested currently in Portugal, one of the countries with the highest number of Instagram users in 2023.
Total Instagram users: 10,100,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 429
Recently, ex-UK Prime Minister Liz Truss visited Taiwan in a visit which has been called "Instagram diplomacy" even as tensions between Taiwan and China continue to grow.
Total Instagram users: 5,700,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 544
Instagram is especially popular in Sweden which has the 3rd higher Instagram users per capita, with its vast reach making it an excellent platform for businesses, brands and celebrities.
Total Instagram users: 229,600,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 162
India has the highest number of Instagram users in the world in 2023, but because of comparatively lower internet penetration especially in rural areas, its per capita users are much lower than dozens of other countries.
Total Instagram users: 17,750,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 342
While YouTube is undoubtedly the top social media app in Colombia, Instagram's popularity is really high too even as growth has slowed down a bit in 2023.
Total Instagram users: 36,700,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 288
Mexico being among the countries with the most number of Instagram users in 2023 should come as no surprise, considering that its most followed celebrities Kim Loaiza and Danna Paolo have 37.8 million users and 34.6 million users respectively.
Total Instagram users: 13,900,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 410
A poll by New Strat Times in Malaysia showed that around 80% of respondents wanted either additional regulation or a ban for TikTok, which could pave the way for additional domination from Instagram in the country.
Total Instagram users: 11,650,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 448
Nearly half of Australia uses Instagram, and more than half of the adult population are Instagram users. Recently, Meta warned the country that its plan to limit targeted ads could result in the company's platforms moving from free access to becoming subscription-based.
Total Instagram users: 15,900,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 408
Recently, Instagram and Facebook both restricted users from accessing news in Canada after a law was passed in the country which required social media giants to pay news publishers.
Total Instagram users: 19,250,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 373
While Facebook is still the dominant social media platform in South Korea, Instagram's reach is continuing to increase quickly, in a country which is considered to be among those with the fastest internet speed.
Total Instagram users: 27,450,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 326
Germany is one of several European countries among the nations with the most Instagram users right now, even though usage per capita is quite low, showing that market penetration is not as high in the country as compared to most others.
Total Instagram users: 23,750,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 350
France's social media users are evenly divided between men and women, and while Facebook used to be the dominant social media platform, that is no longer the case and users between the age of 18-34 make up nearly 57% of total Instagram users in France.
Total Instagram users: 10,450,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 533
Erke Esmahan is the most followed Instagram celebrity in Kazakhstan, with more than 8 million followers.
Total Instagram users: 10,950,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 559
More than half of Chile's Instagram users are between the 18-34 age bracket, showing how younger generations prefer Instagram over other social media apps.
Total Instagram users: 89,150,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 324
The country with the highest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia is also among the countries with the highest number of Instagram users in 2023.
Total Instagram users: 45,700,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 365
Japan has one of the highest Instagram users per capita rate in the entire world, though LINE and Twitter still have more users in the country.
Total Instagram users: 21,900,000
Instagram users per 1,000 people: 460
Instagram, TikTok and Whatsapp are considered to the most popular social media apps in Spain.
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Disclosure: None. 25 Countries with most Instagram users in 2023 is originally published on Insider Monkey.
