How often U.S. adults visit social media

U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized adults aged 18 and older. All survey participants, including missing and invalid item responses; weighted to the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized adult population aged 18+.

“In the past 12 months, how often did you do the following? Visited a social media site.”

B12 introduces social media with Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram as examples; it does not measure the named platforms separately.

Address-based probability sample, with one adult selected by the next-birthday method; postal self-administered paper survey with a push-to-web option. Fieldwork March 25–September 16, 2024. Full sample n=7,278 (including 70 partial completers); weighted household response rate 27.3%. PERSON_FINWT0 adjusts for selection, nonresponse and population calibration. The five point estimates are the supplied codebook’s rounded percentages, independently reproduced from the public-use data. SocialUsage computes sampling standard errors using all 50 NCI JK1 replicate weights and the documented coefficient 0.98.

Source point estimates are preserved at one decimal. For variance, the calculations retain the unrounded weighted estimate and all 50 replicate estimates. The standard error formula is sqrt(0.98 * sum((replicatePercent - fullSamplePercent)^2)), with results expressed in percentage points.

No confidence interval, significance test, change over time or subgroup result is inferred from this five-category cohort.

• Almost everyday is the source category, not an exact daily-use measure.
• The published categories are mutually exclusive choices. At least once a week is a response category and must not be presented as the cumulative weekly share.
• The denominator includes missing or invalid item responses, representing approximately 1.1% of weighted participants; substantive categories therefore do not sum to 100%. Do not relabel missing answers as Never.
• These are self-reported frequencies within a 12-month recall window, not minutes spent, platform activity counts or passively measured visits.
• Sampling standard errors do not capture all errors, including recall, coverage or nonresponse bias. No confidence interval or significance test is reported.
• This cohort contains one national wave and no demographic frequency breakdown. Do not compare it as a trend with NTIA, Pew or Eurostat measures.

For a different U.S. question, the NTIA collection covers six-month activity among internet users aged 15+. Those figures cannot be joined to this frequency distribution.

National Cancer Institute. Health Information National Trends Survey 7 (2024), HINTS 7 Public Codebook.pdf, PDF page 80 (printed page 79), Weighted Percent (Estimated); public package updated August 2025. Weighted share selecting each frequency of visiting a social media site during the past 12 months, among U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized adults aged 18+. The source codebook retains missing and invalid item responses in the denominator. Fieldwork 2024-03-25–2024-09-16. Standard errors: SocialUsage analysis using 50 NCI JK1 replicate weights; coefficient 0.98. Accessed 1 October 2026 (UTC). SocialUsage release hints7-2024-v2. https://socialusage.com/data/us-adult-social-media-frequency/versions/hints7-2024-v2/ Source: National Cancer Institute, Health Information National Trends Survey 7 (2024), public package updated August 2025. Weighted percentages from the supplied codebook; standard errors calculated by SocialUsage using NCI replicate weights. NCI does not endorse this presentation.

Source: National Cancer Institute, Health Information National Trends Survey 7 (2024), public package updated August 2025. Weighted percentages from the supplied codebook; standard errors calculated by SocialUsage using NCI replicate weights. NCI does not endorse this presentation.

Only these national aggregate statistics and original SocialUsage charts. Preserve NCI credit, source link, period, denominator and calculation notes. Excludes respondent records, agency logos, copied graphics, controlled-access geocodes and third-party material. No CC0 or blanket worldwide licence asserted.

Download the five aggregate rows with full source and method fields

Survey fieldwork

2024-03-25 to 2024-09-16

Source package update

August 2025. The official download page identifies this public package as updated August 2025. An exact package publication day was not supplied.

Retrieved

October 1, 2026 (UTC)

Evidence checked

October 2, 2026 (UTC); assisted source and calculation verification. Independent human approval is not recorded.

Published by SocialUsage

October 2, 2026 (UTC)

Corrects the questionnaire printed-page reference from 3 to 4 after visual inspection; PDF page 5 and item B12a were already correct. Values, standard errors, denominator, source package and retrieval date are unchanged. Supersedes hints7-2024-v1, which is preserved. Assisted technical review; no independent human approval claimed.

• hints7-2024-v2 — five aggregate categories.
• hints7-2024-v1 — five aggregate categories.