Rule number one of creating a great Instagram marketing campaign? Know your audience. Which is where these Instagram demographic statistics come in handy.
You might already have a pretty good idea of who your followers are on the platform, but with these Instagram audience insights, you’ll have the cold hard facts to prove it.
Understanding Instagram’s demographics will allow you to identify your target market, plan relatable content, drive engagement and create winning social media campaigns. So let’s get to know the 2 billion monthly active users who might be checking out your brand’s Instagram account.
Get our 2024 Social Trends report, and dig into the juicy data that’ll help you reach your goals in 2024—which is shaping up to be social’s best year yet.
Instagram age demographics
People from all age groups use Instagram—teens, grandpas, everybody’s here. But there is definitely a concentration in the 18 to 34 age range. Millennials and Gen Zers love the ‘Gram, it seems.
Here’s how the Instagram audience breaks down by age, according to Statista:
- 13-17 years old: 8%
- 18-24 years old: 30.8%
- 25-34 years old: 30.3%
- 35-44 years old: 15.7%
- 45-54 years old: 8.4%
- 55-64 years old: 4.3%
- 65+ years old: 2.6%
If you’re crunching these numbers at home, you may have realized that nearly 85% of Instagram’s audience is younger than 45. So, yes, Boomers and Gen Xers are represented here amid Instagram’s 2 billion users, but not in huge numbers. You might be better off honing your Facebook marketing strategy if this is a target market for you.
Source: Statista
On the opposite end of that spectrum, a mere 8% of Instagram users are teens. If reaching that demographic is important to you, this might not be the best place to do it. (Though half of teens who are on Instagram use it at least once a day… and 10% report that they visit Instagram “almost constantly.”)
While TikTok has a higher number of youth users than Instagram, Insta remains the preferred social platform for users ages 16-34. GWI reports that 44.4% of female internet users in this age group rank Instagram as their favorite social app; 40.7% of male internet users agree.
Instagram gender demographics
Instagram users are split pretty evenly by gender, which isn’t always the case with social media platforms—for instance, X (formerly Twitter) has an audience that’s 63% male, while 76.2% of Pinterest users identify as female.
Source: Statista
On Instagram, 51.8% of global users identify worldwide, while 48.2% identify as female—basically half and half. That being said, the gender divide isn’t consistent through age groups—for users aged 35 and up, for instance, women outnumber men, and in younger brackets, male users pull ahead.
Interestingly, different countries have different gender splits. In the U.S., for example, women make up a higher portion of Instagram’s user base—56.9% of American Instagram users are female-identifying. In India, on the other hand, 73% of users are male. So the location of your audience will impact just how many male and how many female users are likely viewing your content.
And if you’re wondering where non-binary users fit into all of this… well, we are too. Unfortunately, this male-female info is the only gender data we have available at this time. But if you look at the #nonbinary hashtag results on Instagram, it’s clear there’s a thriving community here of Instagram users who define their gender outside of those identities. Go get ‘em, tiger!
Instagram location demographics
Yes, yes, the internet is a global village and we are all citizens of the metaverse or whatever, but the people who are using the internet have to reside somewhere on this terrestrial plane. So where in the world do the most Instagram users live?
While Instagram reaches 2 billion users globally, when you break it down by country, the largest regional audience is in India. (If you’re holding a big foam finger that says “U.S.A. NUMBER 1” then… I’m sorry for your loss.)
The United States is actually the second largest regional audience, but India takes the crown with a wide margin: India has 223 million users, while the U.S. had 143 million and counting. The runners up from there? Brazil comes in at number three (113.5 million), followed by Indonesia (89.15 million) and Turkey (48.65 million).
India is part of one of Instagram’s fastest growing markets: the Asia-Pacific region accounts for one-third of Instagram users total, in fact.
Source: Statista
Interestingly, while Instagram is the second most-visited social media platform in the country (Facebook is still #1 for Americans), it’s not a major source of news for residents. Only 16% of U.S. adults regularly get their current events from the app — a far lower number than those who report getting news from Facebook or Youtube.
Source: Pew Research
So if you’re looking to connect with a U.S. audience, it would be wise to keep things light and fresh. This is a platform people come to for entertainment, not news. Need some creative content ideas? We’ve got you covered.
Instagram income demographics
They say it’s uncouth to discuss money — but this is the Hootsuite blog! We’re the “bad boys” of the social media marketing world and we play by our own rules! Just try and stop us! Ideally with a big payout! Because we have no shame in talking about money, as previously discussed!
The most recent data we have on this is from 2021, so it’s possible things have changed in the last few years, but according to Pew Research, only 35% of households with an annual income of less than $30,000 USD use Instagram, while 47% of Instagram users have a household income of more than $75K.
The takeaway? Instagram audiences come from a wide range of financial backgrounds (in the U.S. at least) but are slightly more likely to be from higher-income homes. This makes it a prime avenue for ecommerce and sales, so perfect those social media calls to action and consider exploring Instagram Shopping.
Instagram education demographics
Though Facebook famously was once exclusively available to college students (Mark! You rascal!), today, social media platforms are open to almost anyone. Doesn’t matter if you are currently attending correspondence witch school or holding a PhD from Harvard: Instagram is for you.
The wide range of education completed by Instagram users proves just that. According to Pew Research data from 2021 (again, not the most up-to-date numbers, but we’re working with what we’ve got here), nearly half of Instagram users are college graduates.
Here’s how it breaks down:
- 30% of Instagram users have a high school degree or less
- 44% have some college education under their belts
- 49% of users are college graduates
Why doesn’t that add up to 100%? I personally do have a college degree and feel I should know this.
Your specific audience for your brand will probably skew in one direction or another, but given the broad range of educational experiences on the platform, it’s wise to keep language accessible. Simple, clear, concise! Unlike the long, rambling sentence I just wrote!
Instagram regional demographics
Whether you live in a high-rise metropolitan penthouse or are squatting in a barn: if you have an internet connection, Instagram is at your fingertips. But it turns out that the social media platform is really mostly popular with urban and suburbanites—country folk are less interested. (Maybe too busy finding love on the FarmersOnly dating app?)
According to that same 2021 Pew Research poll:
- 45% of Instagram users live in urban areas
- 41% of Instagram users are suburbanites
- Only 25% of users live in rural regions
Knowing that Instagram’s demographic is primarily located in city centres (or close to!) can help inform the types of campaigns you run and references you make. Like… uh… jokes about elevators?
Instagram interests demographics
Trends on Instagram shift over time. (That’s why they’re called ‘trends’ and now ‘laws.’) In its 2024 trend report, Instagram has identified fashion, beauty, wellness, finance, celebrities and lifestyle as the main interests for Gen Z users.
If we take a look at overall top hashtags, we can get a peek into the interests of Instagrammers as a group. #Fashion is the third-most popular tag (1.1 billion) with #photography and #art not far behind. #Nature and #travel both make a prominent appearance on the list, indicating that people like to share and view content from the wide world out there… so maybe get outside, sometimes? #Beauty, #Fitness and #Food also are highly ranked. See our full list of the top 100 Instagram hashtags here.
More broadly speaking, 50% of Instagram users love to see funny content on the app, while 46% are thrilled to see creative Instagram posts. 41% like informative content, while 37% want relaxing Instagram content and 36% are looking for inspirational posts and Stories. Hard to disagree with any of those preferences… I mean, who would vote for “boring ugly” content as their fave thing to consume on the app?
Source: Statista
Want to learn even more juicy, juicy stats about Instagram to help put your next social media campaign into perspective? We’ve got 35 illuminating data points here. And when you’re ready to actually dive in and start creating content for your well-defined Instagram audience, check out our ultimate guide to Instagram marketing.
Ready to turn these Instagram statistics into action? Start building your Instagram presence using Hootsuite. Schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance, and run all your other social media profiles — all from one simple dashboard. Try it free today.
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