Last updated: 31 August 2026. Every figure on this page is sourced from named, primary research — Ofcom and DataReportal — with a link to the original report. Nothing here is estimated or extrapolated by us.
The headline numbers
- 55.5 million social media user identities in the UK — 79.7% of the population (DataReportal, Digital 2026: The United Kingdom)
- 89% of UK adult internet users are on at least one social platform, rising to 97% of 16–34s (Ofcom, Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes 2026)
- UK adults spend 4 hours 30 minutes online per day, ten minutes more than a year earlier (Ofcom, Online Nation 2025)
- Only 49% of social media users now post, share or comment — down from 61% in 2024 (Ofcom, 2026)
- YouTube reaches 94% of UK adults monthly and takes 51 minutes of their day (Ofcom, Online Nation 2025)
- YouTube viewing on the TV set has grown 111% in three years (Ofcom, Media Nations 2026)
1. How many people use social media in the UK?
DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report counts 55.5 million social media user identities in the UK, equal to 79.7% of the total population of 69.7 million. That is a rise of 700,000 (+1.3%) on the year before. Note the wording: these are identities, not people. One person with an Instagram account, a TikTok account and a LinkedIn profile shows up more than once, which is why platform figures always exceed the number of humans behind them.
Restricting the count to adults gives a cleaner number: 48.2 million UK adults use social media, or 87.2% of the eligible population.
Ofcom, surveying people rather than counting accounts, puts it at 89% of adult internet users being on at least one platform — and among 16–34-year-olds that reaches 97%. With 68.1 million Britons online (97.8% internet penetration), near-universal coverage among the young is now the baseline.
2. How long Britain spends online
Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report puts average daily time online at 4 hours 30 minutes per adult, up ten minutes year on year. The spread by age is wide:
- 18–24s: 6 hours 20 minutes per day
- All adults: 4 hours 30 minutes
- 65+: 3 hours 20 minutes
There is a gender gap too: women spend 4 hours 43 minutes online daily against 4 hours 17 minutes for men — 26 minutes more. And two services dominate that time: YouTube and Facebook/Messenger together account for 51% of all daily online time across every service Britons use.
3. Platform by platform: reach and attention
Two different measurements matter here, and confusing them is the most common mistake in social media strategy. Reach is how many people open an app at all. Attention is how long they stay. A platform can be enormous on one and marginal on the other.
Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 measures both among UK adults:
| Platform | Monthly reach (adults) | Average time per day |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 94% | 51 minutes |
| Facebook / Messenger | 93% | 43 minutes |
| 78% | 20 minutes | |
| 60% | 4 minutes | |
| TikTok | 56% | 28 minutes |
The interesting rows are the bottom two. TikTok reaches fewer UK adults than Instagram (56% against 78%) but holds them for 40% longer — 28 minutes a day against 20. And Reddit is the mirror image: it reaches 60% of adults, more than TikTok, yet holds them for just four minutes. Reddit is somewhere Britons arrive from a search result, read one thread and leave. That is not a weakness — it is why Reddit works as a search play rather than a feed play.
WhatsApp deserves its own line: 76% of UK smartphone users open it every day (35.9 million people) and 92% use it monthly — the highest daily habit of any app measured.
Advertising reach by platform
DataReportal reports the audience each platform’s own ad tools claim in the UK. These are self-reported by the platforms and count accounts rather than people, so treat them as an upper bound — but they are the numbers media planners actually buy against:
| Platform | UK ad reach | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 55.5 million | 79.7% |
| 48.0 million | 68.9% | |
| 45.8 million | 65.7% | |
| 38.8 million | 55.6% | |
| 35.5 million | 50.9% | |
| TikTok (18+) | 26.8 million | 48.4% of adults |
| Messenger | 25.7 million | 36.8% |
| Snapchat | 23.9 million | 34.3% |
| X (Twitter) | 19.0 million | 27.2% |
| 15.5 million | 22.3% |
Compare this table with the one above and the gap tells a story. LinkedIn and Reddit claim ad audiences of 48.0 and 45.8 million respectively — larger than Facebook’s — while Ofcom’s survey data shows Reddit holding attention for four minutes a day. Registered accounts are not the same thing as engaged humans. If you plan spend from ad-tool numbers alone, you will overpay for reach that never shows up.
4. Britain is going quiet: the rise of passive use
The most consequential trend in Ofcom’s 2026 data has nothing to do with which app is winning. It is that Britons have stopped participating.
- 49% of social media users post, share or comment — down from 61% in 2024
- 56% explore new websites — down from 70% in 2024
- 36% say social media is good for their mental health — down from 42%
- 59% say the benefits of being online outweigh the risks — down from 72%
- 49% worry that something they post could cause them problems later — up from 43%
A twelve-point fall in active participation in a single year is dramatic, and it changes the arithmetic for anyone building an audience. The pool of people who will comment, share or reply is shrinking while the pool of people watching stays flat. Engagement rates fall for reasons that have nothing to do with your content — which is worth remembering before you judge a post against last year’s benchmarks, or against someone else’s. Our engagement rate calculator works out where you actually stand.
The same survey found 67% of adults admit to spending too long on their devices, and 40% say it happens most days. Britain is watching more and saying less.
5. YouTube keeps eating the television
Ofcom’s Media Nations 2026 report, published 29 July 2026, tracks where video viewing actually happens. YouTube’s numbers stand out:
- 41 minutes of YouTube viewing per person per day across all home devices, up 18% in a year (from 39 minutes) and 24% since 2022
- 19 minutes of that happens on the TV set — up 111% from 9 minutes in 2022
- YouTube accounts for 80% of all video-sharing platform viewing in the UK
- It now makes up 15% of all in-home video viewing
Weekly reach by age shows where the growth is coming from, and it is not where most people assume:
- 25–34s: 70% — the highest of any adult group
- 35–44s: 69%
- 55–64s: 52%, up from 46% in 2022
- 75+: 33%, up from 28% in 2022
- All individuals: 62%, up from 59% in 2022
- 16–24s: declining for the second consecutive year
Read that last line again. YouTube is growing among the over-55s and shrinking among the under-25s. The platform is ageing upward — which matters if you are pointing YouTube promotion at a young audience, and matters more if you are ignoring YouTube because you assume it is young.
6. Podcasts and the video podcast shift
Ofcom puts weekly podcast listening at 27% of UK adults, with news and current affairs the most popular genre among 47% of weekly listeners.
The structural change is that podcasts stopped being audio. 43% of adults watch video podcasts monthly, against 39% for traditional audio-only podcasts. Video podcasts are now the larger format — which is why podcast growth increasingly runs through YouTube rather than the audio apps, and why podcast promotion now has to consider both.
7. What the data means if you are building an audience
Reach and attention are different products. Instagram reaches more British adults than TikTok; TikTok holds them 40% longer. If you want to be seen by the most people, that is one platform. If you want time with them, it is the other.
Search-shaped platforms need search-shaped content. Reddit’s four minutes a day and 60% monthly reach describe a platform people arrive at from Google, not one they scroll. Posts written to answer a question outlive posts written to catch a feed.
Falling participation makes early signals worth more. With active posting down to 49%, the first few reactions on a post carry more weight than they did a year ago — there are simply fewer of them to go round. That is the entire mechanic behind engagement services: not replacing an audience, but getting a post past the threshold where the remaining active half of the internet notices it.
The over-55s are the growth market nobody is targeting. YouTube reach among 55–64s is up six points in three years while 16–24 reach falls. The competition for older audiences is thinner than for younger ones.
Sources and methodology
Every figure above comes from one of four primary sources. We have not adjusted, rounded or blended them, and where two sources disagree we have said so rather than picking the flattering number.
- Ofcom — Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes 2026, published 2 April 2026. Survey of UK adults; source for participation, attitudes and AI figures.
- DataReportal — Digital 2026: The United Kingdom (We Are Social / Meltwater), published 5 November 2025. Source for user identities, penetration and platform advertising reach.
- Ofcom — Online Nation 2025, published 10 December 2025. Source for time online, app reach and minutes per day.
- Ofcom — Media Nations 2026 (UK report), published 29 July 2026. Source for YouTube viewing, video and podcast figures.
A note on comparing them: DataReportal counts accounts reported by platform advertising tools, while Ofcom surveys people. Account-based figures always run higher. Where this page cites a percentage of adults, it comes from Ofcom; where it cites millions of users, it comes from DataReportal.
Using these figures? You are welcome to cite this page or the underlying reports. A link back to this page is appreciated but not required.
Frequently asked questions
How many people use social media in the UK in 2026?
There are 55.5 million social media user identities in the UK, equal to 79.7% of the population, according to DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report. Counting adults only, 48.2 million use social media — 87.2% of the eligible population. Ofcom’s survey of people rather than accounts puts it at 89% of adult internet users.
Which social media platform is biggest in the UK?
YouTube, on every measure. It reaches 94% of UK adults monthly, takes 51 minutes of their day, claims 55.5 million in advertising reach and accounts for 80% of all video-sharing platform viewing.
How much time do UK adults spend online each day?
Four hours 30 minutes per day on average, up ten minutes year on year. It rises to 6 hours 20 minutes among 18–24s and falls to 3 hours 20 minutes among the over-65s (Ofcom, Online Nation 2025).
Is TikTok bigger than Instagram in the UK?
No, but it holds attention better. Instagram reaches 78% of UK adults monthly against TikTok’s 56%, yet TikTok users spend 28 minutes a day in the app against Instagram’s 20 minutes.
Are UK social media engagement rates falling?
Participation is. The share of UK social media users who post, share or comment fell from 61% in 2024 to 49% in 2026 (Ofcom). Fewer active participants means lower engagement rates across the board, independent of content quality.
How often are these statistics updated?
This page is reviewed whenever Ofcom or DataReportal publish new UK data — typically Online Nation each December, Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes each spring, and Media Nations each summer. Last updated 31 August 2026.
Related reading
Platform deep-dives: TikTok statistics UK 2026 and Instagram statistics UK 2026. For what these numbers mean in practice, see our social media growth pricing index, our guide to the best time to post, or browse free tools including the engagement rate calculator and the platform money calculators.