Platform brief · United States

Instagram statistics

How many U.S. adults use Instagram?

Data through 18 June 2025

50%

of U.S. adults say they ever use Instagram.

Adults aged 18+ · Self-reported ever use · February–June 2025

Source: Pew Research Center, Social Media Fact Sheet, “Which social media platforms are most common?” · 2025 row. The denominator is all U.S. adults, including non-internet users.

Cite this finding

Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. Social Media Fact Sheet (20 November 2025). 50% of U.S. adults report ever using Instagram; survey February 5–June 18, 2025, all adults aged 18+. Table: Which social media platforms are most common? https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/ Accessed 30 September 2026. Context: https://socialusage.com/platforms/instagram/

Within the same survey

Use across two age groups

Reported use is 61 percentage points higher among adults aged 18–29 than among those aged 65+.

Source: Pew Research Center, “Who uses each social media platform?” AGE table. Share of all U.S. adults in each age band who ever use Instagram; February–June 2025.

View the data table and calculation
Ever use of Instagram, U.S. adults, 2025
Age groupShareUnweighted subgroup n
18–2980%480
65+19%1,813

SocialUsage calculation: 80 − 19 = 61 percentage points, using rounded published estimates.

The same survey reports Instagram use among 80% of adults aged 18–29 and 19% of adults aged 65+. The 61 percentage point difference is SocialUsage's subtraction of the two rounded published estimates. It describes an age-group difference within this survey, without establishing a cause.

This describes a difference between age groups. It is not a measure of growth or a test of statistical significance.

About this finding

What “ever use” means

Weighted share of all U.S. adults who report ever using the named website or app. This measure does not establish daily or monthly activity, number of accounts, advertising reach, or a global user count.

Published question: “Please indicate whether or not you ever use the following websites or apps.”

Online-administration wording for SMUSE. The question was asked of internet users; the cited topline rebases estimates to all adults. Paper and phone wording can differ slightly.

Original question and denominator: 2025 survey topline, SMUSE (PDF).

Survey methods and uncertainty

SSRS conducted Pew Research Center's 2025 National Public Opinion Reference Survey using address-based sampling and web, mail and telephone responses. Results are weighted to the U.S. adult population.

Fieldwork: February 5–June 18, 2025. Results are weighted to U.S. adults; the unweighted sample is 5,022.

Pew reports a 95% margin-of-error benchmark of ±1.9 percentage points for full-sample estimates at 50%. Its published age-group benchmarks are ±5.6 points for ages 18–29 and ±3.0 points for ages 65+. These are not platform-specific confidence intervals. Sampling error does not cover all possible survey error.

Pew’s full survey methodology · Published sample and margin-of-error table

  • Self-reported ever use is broader than daily or monthly active use. It does not tell us how often an individual uses the platform.
  • The population is U.S. adults. These results do not describe teenagers, other countries, or the global platform audience.
  • Age differences describe groups at one point in time. They do not establish that age causes usage, or predict how an individual will behave as they get older.
  • Survey modes changed from phone before 2023 to web and mail in 2023, then web, mail and phone in 2024–2025. Do not treat the full historical series as an unchanged measurement process.
Publication dates, evidence review and reuse
Survey period
February 5–June 18, 2025
Source published
20 November 2025
Retrieved
30 September 2026
Evidence checked
30 September 2026
Editorial release
editorial-2026-09-30

Source extraction cross-checked against the published topline and methodology; no independent human review claimed.

Limited attributed editorial excerpt under Pew Research Center's Terms of Use, sections 1–3. Do not mirror or republish the source in principal part. This release does not redistribute survey files, source graphics, or a Pew CSV.

Pew Research Center terms. Pew Research Center bears no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations of the data presented here. The opinions expressed herein, including any implications for policy, are those of the author and not of Pew Research Center.

Common questions

Does this mean 50% use Instagram every day?

No. The survey asks whether people ever use the service. It does not establish how frequently they use it. A daily or monthly active-user figure answers a different question.

Understand the different user measures
Is this Instagram’s worldwide audience?

No. These estimates describe adults aged 18 and older living in the United States, including ages 18–19. They do not estimate teenagers as a separate group, cover other countries, or count accounts on the platform.

Can I combine this with other platform percentages?

No. The same person can use several platforms. Adding their adoption percentages would count some people more than once and would not estimate unique social-media users.

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