Instagram vs Facebook Demographics: Age Statistics

Instagram and Facebook are arguably the backbones of modern social media platforms since their launch. Facebook was viewed as a revolutionary platform that connected millions of people across the globe. Even though the popularity of the platform among the young population decreased with the birth of Instagram, there are still people using Facebook. Let’s have a detailed analysis of Instagram vs. Facebook demographics and review the choices of people of different age groups.

Instagram vs Facebook Demographics: A Look Into Facebook

Facebook is a social media platform that was launched in 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg. The platform still hosts the largest amount of monthly users despite losing popularity among youngsters. While the young population mostly chooses platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, Facebook is still as glorious as ever when it comes to having a large community.

So, what makes this platform so special among other social media platforms, and what are the numbers regarding the Facebook demographics? Let’s analyze these elements while reviewing Instagram vs Facebook demographics.

1. A Revolutionary Platform

Back when the platform launched in 2004, smartphones were still a thing of the future; and people were still relying on texts and calls to keep in touch with their contacts. This meant that losing the contact information of a person was always as close as having a problem with the contacts list of the phone, losing a physical phone book, or having a broken SIM card.

Facebook busted into the stage with promises to solve these problems for good. People could register to the platform with their names and surnames and could be viewed as such by other users of the platform. This meant that instead of keeping a physical copy of someone’s number, people could search people on Facebook by their names, and establish contact accordingly.

This was even more special for the older generation, who acted on the possibility of reconnecting with people they lost contact with; and this could be the reason why they are still the most loyal users of the platform.

2. What Do the Metrics Say?

As of 2024, Facebook has 3.06 billion active monthly users. The largest age group consists of 25-35-year-olds, with this age group constituting 30% of the platform’s community. Moreover, Facebook is also the platform with the least amount of Gen-Z users, as only 19.5% of the users are between the ages of 18 and 24. The constitution of the platform’s community is skewed towards a higher male population, with 57% of the platform’s community being males.

The users of the platform spend an average of 29.4 minutes on the platform daily, which is among the shortest time spans compared to other social media platforms.

Instagram vs Facebook Demographics: Instagram’s Figures

Instagram is arguably the most active social media platform, with millions of people posting content on the platform every day. But, what makes Instagram unique compared to other social media platforms, and what are the age dynamics regarding the use of the platform?

1. Instagram: A Welcoming Hub

Instagram has been increasing its offerings to the users, as the community is growing as fast as ever. Once a platform where people publish pictures, Instagram is now a hub of influencers, marketers, celebrities, and regular users. Having launched in 2010, Instagram competed with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat over the years, and it’s starting to look like Instagram may be the winning side.

Instagram implements a highly capable algorithm that learns from the actions of users and is very successful when it comes to personalizing the experience of an individual. The popularity of the platform is constantly on the rise, as it offers the possibility to share stories, posts, reels, and notes with other users. The engagement and interaction metrics of Instagram are always at the top, and this is largely thanks to the abundance of younger users on the platform.

2. A Look at Instagram’s Demographics

As of 2024, Instagram has 2.1 billion active users on the platform every month. Although this looks lower compared to Facebook on paper, the engagement rates of Instagram posts are higher compared to Facebook; indicating a more engaging and compelling social media usage. More importantly, the largest age group of Instagram’s community is the Gen-Z, as they constitute 32% of the community. This points to the presence of a younger audience for posts on the platform.

Also, the average time spent on Instagram daily is 35 minutes, indicating a 25% increase compared to Facebook. This could be linked to many reasons, but having a more up-to-date theme for the posts is arguably the main element that makes Instagram more engaging.

Lastly, Instagram has a more equally-distributed community regarding genders, with male and female users accounting for 49% and 51% of the platform, respectively.

F.A.Q.

1. Which Social Media Platform Will be the Most Popular?

The answer to this question depends on current trends, the interests of the incoming generation, and the decisions that will be taken by the platforms. For instance, although Facebook was the most popular platform until 2010’s, the birth of Twitter and Instagram decreased the number of younger users of the platform.

Similarly, TikTok now has one of the biggest online communities, despite launching 6 years later than Instagram and 12 years later than Facebook.

2. What is the Biggest Social Media Platform?

As can be seen above, being “big” depends on various metrics, and can not be measured solely via the number of users. Still, although platforms such as Instagram and Twitter have higher engagement rates, Facebook is still the leader when it comes to having the biggest community; having a total of 3.06 billion active users compared to Instagram’s 2 billion.