Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks on a global scale with over 2.35 billion monthly active users worldwide (here’s your first Instagram statistic!).
But, how much do you really know about Instagram and how can obtaining more pertinent data about the platform help you to further your success and tailor your strategy?
Instagram is constantly evolving, and your strategy should be, too.
Perhaps you know some statistics about Instagram, but are you using them in the right way?
Statistics can help you to understand what is working well for you and where you can expand; they also help you to understand the functions and user behavior of Instagram for an even more powerful impact on your tactics.
It’s important to not only know the strategies but also know how to use them to create better Instagram marketing campaigns.
For this reason, we’ve compiled a list of must-know Instagram statistics and how you can use them to thrive on the platform.
Let’s go!
Key Statistics
- Over 2.35 billion people use Instagram every month
- 73% of content on Instagram is photos
- The top age group of US Instagram users is 18-26
- Travel is a top interest, with 45% of content being about the topic
- Instagram accounted for 30% of Facebook’s total ad revenue in 2020
- 200 million users visit at least one business profile every day
- 46% of users purchased a product via Instagram
- 80% of marketers think that influencer marketing is effective
- 80% of users like to research a product or service
- Instagram is the most followed Instagram account
Monthly Active Instagram Accounts
As we mentioned in the key statistics above, there are a ton of active Instagram accounts all around the world every month.
This is the first statistic marketers or entrepreneurs should know if they’re looking to cultivate better Instagram marketing campaigns.
With over 2.35 billion monthly active Instagram accounts, there are so many people in your target audience accessing Instagram on a monthly basis.
At least half of that number or more are active on Instagram every day.
You can use these statistics to understand your targeting efforts.
While many people simply try to buy Instagram followers and engagements to boost their overall performance, this actually harms your account (and Instagram analytics) because these accounts are either fakes or bots.
You can weed out fake or inactive Instagram accounts so that you can have access to better analytics and actually understand the true number of engagement that you’re getting when your real audience is online, and what their demographic actually is.
You’ll also see more engagement when you get rid of all of the fake and bot profiles polluting your account.
Number of Instagram Users
As we already know, more than 2.35 billion people use Instagram on a monthly basis. It’s one of the largest and most active platforms for businesses and brands to directly access their audience, building stronger relationships and generating interest in their content.
With so many users comes a huge amount of competition, meaning that Instagram businesses and marketers need to take a creative and innovative approach to their Instagram campaigns.
How are you going to stand out from the crowd and offer your followers something unique and different?
When you see Instagram users statistics in 2025 about the sheer volume of users and competition on Instagram, it is important to take them in stride and realize that there are truly hundreds of other businesses, if not thousands, vying for your same audience.
United States Instagram Demographics & User Statistics
If your target audience is based in the United States, then one of your main focuses should be on US Instagram usage statistics as well as demographics and more.
Demographic data shows that the top age group of US Instagram users is 18-26, making up 67% of all users. The least dense group of users on Instagram is the elderly (65+), composing only 8% of user totals.
Gender is a tight race, but females use Instagram slightly more in the US with 52% female to 48% male according to this statistic.
116 million Instagram users are located in the US with 37% of that total being adults, so it can be concluded that about 43 million adults use Instagram actively and could potentially be new clients for your business.
Teens make up 72% of Instagram users and 32% of those teens identify Instagram as the most important social network for them.
As of now, only a small percentage of US Instagrammers shop on the platform, 11% to be exact. Amplifying your efforts and creating better marketing campaigns can help you to boost that number.
Non-US Instagram Demographics & Statistics
In contrast, perhaps you’re looking to target a global audience. Americans are the largest total Instagram audience, but 89% of all Instagram users are located outside of the US.
The top 4 countries after the US with the largest audience base include, according to statistics,:
- India — 120 million users
- Brazil — 95 million users
- Indonesia — 78 million users
- Russia — 54 million users.
Instagram reaches the highest portion of a population in Brunei, with 60% active on the platform, an impressive statistic.
If you want to expand your target audience and find ways to reach the most saturated markets in terms of Instagram users and audience members, take a look at these numbers.
You can then create appropriate content that appeals to each of your markets or find common ground between them.
Time Spent on Instagram
Instagram is one of the top platforms that brands and businesses use to connect with their followers, leads, and customers; they can increase brand awareness and also offer a stronger bond with their followers, building loyalty.
The average Instagram user that is under 25 years of age spends roughly 32 minutes on the platform every day; older users spend about 24 minutes on a daily basis.
It’s important, then, that we get our content out in an effective way. Stick to a schedule and understand when your target audience is online.
You also need to create content that is captivating and will gain the attention of people who come across your content.
If you don’t, they’ll simply keep scrolling and get to something that they actually find important or unique.
There are over 100 million photos and videos uploaded to Instagram every single day, so ensure that your content is intentional and that you stick to your schedule.
30 minutes isn’t a huge amount of time, but Facebook users are on the platform roughly 34 min/day, 30 min/day on Snapchat, and 52 min/day on TikTok.
That puts Instagram in the fourth spot and you want to take advantage of that stronghold that Instagram offers in terms of user time.
Instagram Engagement Statistics
Because Instagram users are interested in following brands and businesses on the platform (more on that in the next section), it’s not a surprise that these users are visiting and engaging with business content on Instagram.
In fact, about 200 million users visit at least one business profile every day. Instagram has an average engagement rate of 1.6% overall, which means that there is a strong amount of organic reach that Instagrammers have through engagement.
1.6% may surprise you in that it seems like a very small number, but considering the volume of Instagram users and profiles, it’s not that bad. What’s more, you can use your engaging content to boost your own engagement levels and drive more engagement.
Video content, for example, has been shown to bring in roughly 38% more engagement than a normal Instagram post containing a static photo.
The best type of content for Instagram is carousel posts, especially when they include both photos and videos.
It’s important to keep in mind which type of media provides better engagement so that you can generate content that is likely to perform well and capture the interest of more users.
Pertaining to content usage on Instagram, this is the breakdown in stats:
- 73.5% photo content
- 13.7% video content
- 12.7% carousel content
There are more content formats on Instagram, but they either involve photos or videos, so they are not separated into those categories here.
Instagram users’ top interests include, in stats,:
- Travel — 45%
- Music — 44%
- Food and drink — 43%
- Fashion — 42%
If you want your content to reach the maximum number of people possible, make sure that you stick to a posting schedule and use your optimal Instagram posting times for best results.
If your content is seen right when it’s released, it will get more views and engagement, leading to more reach in the long run.
Generally, the best posting times for Instagram engagement include Wednesday and Friday late mornings, and Wednesday is the best overall.
Instagram Business Profile Statistics
While Instagram started out as a simple photo-sharing platform for friends and family, it’s blossomed into a huge powerhouse for businesses and brands over the years. There are over 25 million businesses on Instagram looking to connect with their audience and boost their overall revenue through the platform.
Instagram users still love to follow friends and family members as well as celebs and other causes that they love, but they also follow their favorite brands and businesses, with 95% of Instagram users following at least one business account.
Since Instagram users are open to engaging with brands on Instagram, it’s vital that marketers attack the platform and use it to their advantage to be present and active for their followers through content.
That said, the number of businesses on Instagram is still relatively small compared to the sheer number of Instagram users in general.
This bodes well for you— if you truly make your mark and offer your followers something valuable and authentic, they are likely to think highly of you and also remain loyal to your brand over time.
You can harness this connection to boost your brand to its highest potential.
Instagram also offers an array of business tools, including:
- Sponsored posts
- Shoppable content
- Optimized profile with additional calls to action
- Instagram analytics
You can use these tools to take your Instagram monetization even further and boost your marketing campaigns to drive tangible results.
Instagram Marketing Statistics
Advertising and Instagram marketing is a big industry, and there are over 2 million advertisers on Instagram, generating a lot of ad revenue for Instagram.
Ads can reach a potential 849.3 million Instagram users, which is almost the full span of its user base.
This reach is exponential, and Instagram supplied roughly 30% of Facebook’s total ad revenue at the end of 2020. Instagram and Facebook ads are joined due to the integration of both platforms.
Based on these statistics, Instagram is a top place to generate leads and find potential customers that are likely to spend their money on products and services that they discover on the platform.
Instagram ads vary greatly in cost, reach, and more, but you can target your campaign directly to your needs.
They have a huge reach in general in that you can reach people all around the world and businesses will continue to boost their posts using Instagram ads.
Instagram eCommerce Statistics
Videos offer the highest Instagram engagement levels, but recent statistics also show that users like interactive content, and there are a variety available on the platform.
Studies show that over 130 million people use Instagram shoppable posts monthly and 11% of all Instagram users participate in shopping on the platform.
This indicates that Instagram shopping will continue to grow and marketers should focus their efforts there.
After an Instagram users sees a product or service on the platform, the following statistics describe what actions a user may take:
- 79% search for more product or service information after seeing it on Instagram
- 65% visit the brand’s app or website
- 46% make a purchase either online or in stores
- 37% visit the retail store
- 31% follow the brand’s Instagram account or other social channels
- 29% discussed the brand with someone
This goes to show that promotional posts can help to generate interest in your brand and get people to take action, especially if your content is effective and uses calls-to-actions in the captions.
Highlight your latest products/services and compel them to take action.
Shopping on Instagram is also something that has been expanding; it was implemented a few years ago and makes it especially convenient for users to buy your physical products directly within the app.
It’s only available for physical products right now, not services.
In the future, it’s likely that this will even expand to interactive and video campaigns that will expand shoppable functions to stories, DMs, and more. Conversions are likely to continually increase on Instagram and drive revenue.
While it’s still in early stages and people are still getting used to it, it’s likely that it will become a hub for easy shopping and conversion for businesses, so get started now.
Influencer Marketing Statistics
Ever since Instagram became one of the most powerful platforms on the internet, many people realized that they could harness it and generate a huge amount of popularity for themselves as well.
This is when the “influencer” was born.
Instagram influencers have relied heavily on Instagram to generate income for themselves through brand partnerships and other monetizable content creation.
With such a saturated market, influencers now have to be more specific and intentional than ever in building an engaged Instagram following and monetizing their reach.
Even still, Instagram influencer marketing is still one of the top methods of advertising on the platform, and 55% of marketers were planning to use it at the beginning of 2021 in the place of other platforms or marketing channels.
80% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is effective, and 35% believe it is very effective. 45% believe that it is just simply effective.
If you’re considering Instagram influencer marketing, you should definitely take a look at a few metrics, including the influencer’s follower count and engagement.
While follower count used to be the most important metric for finding the best influencer, it’s changed a bit.
An influencer can have thousands or even millions of followers, but if no one engages with their posts or cares about their content, there’s no way that you can gain any profitability from the marketing partnership.
For that reason, you need to look for both follower count as well as engagement.
If you use an influencer with more followers, they’re likely to promote or mention brands across more industries; if you work with a smaller or even micro influencer, they’re likely to focus on brands that are more connected to a specific industry or niche.
Females in their mid-twenties are the most-followed influencers, making up a total 25% of the IG influencer follower count.
There are plenty of different industries that can use Instagram influencers; there are a recorded 3.6 million influencers in the hobbies and activities niche, business and industry with roughly 3 million, and art and music with 2.7 million.
North America has the highest proportion of Instagram influencers with huge brackets that raise over 1 million plus. The top-earning influencers are Kylie Jenner at $1.3 million, Ariana Grande at $996,000, Cristiano Ronaldo at $975,000, Kim Kardashian at $910,000 and Selena at $886,000.
These are obviously mega celebrities, and the average influencer is looking at a range of $100-$2085 per post. 69% of many marketing budgets is allocated for influencer marketing.
On average, marketers are looking to make about $5.25 for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing.
For this reason, you have to ensure that you work with the right influencers that have real, engaged followers that support the influencer and care about their opinion.
Research your influencer options thoroughly and make sure they’re a good fit for your brand to deliver the best results possible and gain a positive ROI.
User Behavior and Intent on Instagram
It’s also important to focus on the statistics and metrics that indicate the behavior of users on the platform as well as their intent.
When you understand how users behave on Instagram as well as what their intentions are, you can better capture their attention and engage them.
These are some of the most common behaviors and reasons for Instagram use in stats:
- 84% of Instagram users reference Instagram to discover new products
- 81% of people use IG to help them decide whether or not to purchase from or support a brand/business
- 80% like to research products or services
If you’re a marketer, ensure that you keep this in mind while you create your content.
When you know the intention of your target audience and how to satisfy that need, you can better connect with your audience and further your marketing campaign on Instagram.
Instagram Stories Statistics
Instagram stories are without a doubt one of the most, if not the most, popular features on Instagram. It was created a few years ago to combat the popularity of Snapchat and has exceeded all expectations.
Instagram stories also offer marketers a top feature in reaching more users on Instagram; over 500 million Instagram accounts are active on Instagram stories every day. Some users look at Instagram stories exclusively.
One-third of all Instagram stories viewed are from businesses, so people are watching. It also helps your business to look active and engaged because there will be a colored ring around your profile picture, drawing in more users to check out your content.
In general, brands post about 2.5 million Instagram stories every week. Instagram stories, then, is an essential feature that shouldn’t be ignored by brands or businesses. It has to be a key pillar of your content creation and marketing strategy.
Stories increase many things, including purchase intent, message association, ad recall, and click-through rate, which means it’s an effective way to connect with leads and your followers alike.
Take advantage of Instagram stories to do market research as well— you can engage your audience through stickers like polls, questions, and more. Find out what your followers like and don’t like.
Most Followed Instagram Accounts
Our final section of Instagram statistics for 2025 will break down the popularity of various Instagram accounts and which ones are the most-loved on the platform.
You can monitor these accounts and see all of their different strategies and why they are popular (other than that they’re probably a mega-celeb).
Instagram is the most followed Instagram account, with over 385 million followers.
After Instagram, National Geographic is the second-most followed brand on Instagram with 150 million followers. Nike comes next with 123 million followers, and the list continues:
- Real Madrid: 94 million followers
- FC Barcelona: 92 million followers
- Victoria’s Secret: 69 million followers
- NASA: 62 million followers
- 9GAG and NBA: over 50 million followers
These are just brand accounts, but there are also personal/public figure accounts that have reached over 200k Instagram followers.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the most popular with 247 million followers, and Ariana Grande with 211 million followers.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has 206 million, and Kylie Jenner close behind at 203 million followers.
Jennifer Aniston set the record for the account to reach 1 million followers the quickest; she was already over 1 million followers after only 5 hours and 16 minutes.
How to Make Use of Instagram Statistics
Now that you know some of the most common statistics that can help marketers to create more effective marketing plans, you can utilize this information in a variety of ways to help you generate more real results on the platform.
We’ll leave you with a plethora of actionable tips to help you take your Instagram content to the next level.
1. Identify Your Goals
The first thing you need to do in any social media strategy is to identify your goals and decide what it is exactly what you’re seeking.
Are you looking for more Instagram followers? Engagement? Marketing and brand awareness? Shopping?
When you identify this, you can then decide how to create your content and what your target audience needs from you.
More Instagram Followers
If you seek more Instagram followers, you may want to consider statistics related to user behavior and patterns. Create content that meets the needs of your followers and also know your demographics.
You can do market research via Instagram stories to find out what content people love and how to create content that makes people want to stick around for more.
Once you know what type of content to create, you can focus your energy on making it as good as possible while a service takes over your Instagram growth. Using an organic Instagram growth service is the best way to optimize your workflow and keep your attention where it counts.
These services can engage with the right users and get your account noticed, bringing you more real followers and engagement seamlessly through manual, organic growth methods.
More Instagram Engagement
If you’re looking for more Instagram engagement, you also need to focus on your content creation.
You should stick to a tight posting schedule so that your content will get in front of your followers consistently, increasing their engagement and ensuring that they’re always seeing it with priority in their news feed.
When the Instagram algorithm recognizes that users find particular content valuable, they will then show it to them more often, which is called Instagram reach. High engagement levels lead to more reach.
You also need to use call-to-actions (CTAs) in your content; prompt the user to do something, such as tag a friend, share it with someone, like the post, leave a comment, or post it to their stories.
Finally, consider including a good amount of user-generated content (UGC). UGC is shown to get higher levels of engagement, alongside videos and carousel posts, and can increase the likelihood that your followers will engage with your content and feel like part of a community.
Instagram Marketing
If your goal is to increase your Instagram marketing efforts, you should consider using Instagram ads or Instagram influencer marketing. Both of these elements can help to get your content out to new people and new audiences.
Also ensure your content is well-branded and also includes CTAs.
Instagram Shopping
Instagram shoppable posts are very simple and straightforward, making them great for the platform; you don’t have to use salesy or spammy tactics to get people to buy things— you can use organic content creation and create shoppable Instagram posts.
Here, your content creation is vital; people have to want to click on the product and check it out, so make sure that you create content that optimizes the look of your product(s) and gets users curious about more.
Also use Instagram stories to promote your products, sales, and product launches.
2. Look at Your Niche
Another important thing you should do after you’ve identified your goal is to check out relevant statistics about your particular niche.
You can look at interesting statistics or even your own metrics to understand when your followers are online, who are the majority of your followers, what are the demographics, and more.
When you have a clear understanding of who your followers are and who you want to target, you can then create more effective content.
It’s also a good idea to observe your competitors’ accounts and see what type of content they focus on, what type of followers they have, and any other nuances of their account that you may find useful.
3. Follow Instagram Strategies and Best Practices
Instagram doesn’t work in isolation— there are so many different factors that go into a successful profile.
All of the statistics that we just examined show that people are willing and excited about engaging with business platforms, so to maximize your results, you should follow the subsequent 4 best practices to optimize your overall profile and help you to reach your Instagram goals.
Optimize Your Bio
Ensure that users can find the information they need— that information should be located in your Instagram bio.
All of your contact information will be there and if you have any additional things that people can do such as reserve, call, etc., you can add those call-to-action buttons.
You should include a brief description of who you are and what you do; take a look at others in your niche to get inspiration if you’re not sure about what to write/how to write it.
You only have 150 characters, so use them wisely.
Your bio also includes your profile picture, and it should be something that represents your brand or business and stays aligned with your brand image. It’s a good idea to use the same one across all of your social channels (if you have more).
Finally, take a look at the overall aesthetic of your Instagram and see if you offer a uniform and consistent image.
Your Instagram story highlight covers should also be aligned to your brand for the best look possible.
Hashtags are another vital element if you want your Instagram content to get the maximum exposure possible.
Hashtags put your content into feeds that are discoverable by any user when they search for that hashtag (or follow it), so your content can get seen by more Instagram users.
You can use up to 30 hashtags in an Instagram post, but some experts agree that the best number is between 7-11 hashtags for optimal engagement.
If you really want to include the full amount, consider putting some in the original post caption and some in the first comment.
Hashtags can be added in the comment by you so that your caption isn’t taken up by all of your hashtags and so your post looks less spammy.
Avoid general hashtags that are overly generic or too popular; when hashtags are very popular, so many users are posting content including them that the posts get pushed down the feed too quickly for users to see them.
If you need help with your hashtag strategy, consider using a hashtag tool such as Task Ant.
Task Ant is the top hashtag tool for finding the best-performing hashtags in your niche and creating go-to sets that make it easy to post; it can save you tons of time and help you take the guesswork out of your hashtag strategy.
Create Varied Content
If you’re constantly posting single-photo posts on your feed and that’s it, you’re not likely to make much of a splash on Instagram. Instagram has been evolving for over 10 years and you have to take advantage of all the features to stand out.
This may push you out of your comfort zone and there may be a learning curve, but it’s important to keep up with the trends on Instagram and create valuable content across all content types.
You can create:
- Instagram stories
- Instagram in-feed content (video, photo, and carousel)
- Instagram live
- Instagram reels
- IGTV
Keeping your content varied and building content for all of the different content formats can give your followers a wide range of content to view, enjoy, and share, and show that you are professional and well-versed in social media.
You can also create more engaging content, including how-tos, interviews, product features, behind the scenes, takeovers, and more! Be creative and use all of the different content formats to your advantage.
Active Captioning
The final thing that can help your Instagram success is active captioning. You should always use your captions to give more background information or additional important info about your photos.
You want to tell a story or share relevant info with your followers through your words.
Instagram is a primarily visual platform, but using words in your captions that captivate your followers can be powerful. Always include a call to action.
That doesn’t mean your captions always have to be long— they can be varied and you can offer your followers different styles now and then to change things up.
Tag relevant brands and users, use geotags and also include your hashtags. Show your followers who you are and what your business is all about through your captions.
Here, you have a chance to be your true, authentic self and make a real bond on a human level and not just behind the screen.
Final Thoughts
Statistics can help you better understand what is happening on the platform, what your followers want and need, and who your target audience is.
It can also help you to predict future trends and understand where to focus your energy when creating content and captions.
Study up on the Instagram statistics to increase the effectiveness of your Instagram marketing campaigns, boost engagement, and get more followers, especially when you center your profile around the best practice that we discussed above.
