As of January 2022, roughly 31 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 25 and 34 years. Over two thirds of total Instagram audiences were aged 34 years and younger and this makes the platform particularly attractive for marketers.
Instagram users
With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide. The social photo sharing app is especially popular in India and in the United States, which have respectively 201 million and 157 million Instagram users each. In the United States, the number of Instagram users is projected to surpass 120 million MAU in 2023.
Instagram features
One of the most popular features of Instagram is Stories. Users can post photos and videos to their Stories stream and the content is live for others to view for 24 hours before it disappears. In January 2019, the company reported that there were 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users. Instagram Stories directly competes with Snapchat, another photo sharing app that initially became famous due to its “vanishing photos” feature. As of the second quarter of 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users.
Best Time to Post on Instagram
Instagram is meant for use on mobile devices. Approximately 60% of its U.S. users use the app daily, though it would appear that many engage with content more during off-work hours than during the workday.
- On average, the best times to post on Instagram across industries are 1 p.m, and 5 p.m., during lunch and the end of the typical work day, respectively.
- B2B organizations have the most times of high-clickthrough rates to choose from: 12 to 1 p.m., 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., and even as late as 8 to 9 p.m. when people are winding down for the day.
- The best day to post on Instagram is Friday.
When is the Best Time to Post on Instagram Networks?
The popular visual social network isn’t much of a traffic driver (though it can be useful for directing targeted traffic toward specific pages using the one link you get in your bio), but it does have a highly engaged audience. Here’s when you can expect the most activity.
- B2C Businesses: The best time for businesses selling consumer products here looks to be before work, over lunch, and when people are relaxing at home late at night.
- B2B Businesses: The times for B2B are similar, with the most activity happening around lunch and after work.
- Software Businesses: Not much change here either, though it seems like right before and right after lunch might be best. It’s possible those of us working in software spend lunches looking away from screens.
- Healthcare Companies: Healthcare businesses appear to do best at off-peak hours in mid-morning and early afternoon.
- Media Companies: Driving traffic from Instagram is tough, but it’s valuable for brand-building, even for media publishers. The best times are when people are just getting into work, taking their lunch break, or looking for an afternoon break.
- Higher Education: When it comes to higher education, catching people after work appears to be most effective. It could be that people are responsive to the idea of advancing their education or making a career switch right when they’re leaving work (hopefully you don’t feel that way though).
Instagram Network Summary
Here are your best times broken down by industry (according to internal research by CoSchedule):
- B2C: 8 am, 1 pm, and 9 pm.
- B2B: 12 pm-1 pm, 5 pm-6 pm, 8 pm-9pm.
- Software Services: 11 am, 1 pm, 5 pm.
- Healthcare: 10 am and 2 pm.
- Media: 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm.
- Higher Education: 5 pm – 6 pm
Other Sources
What about other sources, though?
- Later says your best bet is to post between 11 am and 1 pm, and 7 pm and 9 pm. The idea is to catch people over lunch and when they’re winding down for the night.
- TrackMaven narrows that down further to 7 pm on Fridays.
- HubSpot suggests rolling with any time other than 3pm-4pm (when people may be deep in work), or considering 8 am on Mondays to catch people starting their work weeks.
- Post Planner, citing a study from Sprout, suggests avoiding 9 am to 4 pm when people are most likely at work.
- Falcon.io suggests posting between 11 am and 1 pm (lunch hour for a lot of folks) or at 2 am (theoretically, this might mean catching people looking at their phones after bar close).
- Oberlo seconds the suggestion to post around lunchtime.
- TruConversion reports that 2 am and 5 pm are the best times. That seconds the idea of posting in the early morning (late night?) hours, or right when people are leaving work.
- Hootsuite says to post between noon and 1 pm, supporting the findings of several other studies.
- BizTraffic deviates from other reports by saying you can post at literally any time on this network.
- QuickSprout opines that Fortune 500 companies post most heavily during business hours.
- The Drum suggests posting between 9 am and 6 pm Tuesday through Friday.
Network Tips:
- Stick to using one filter.
- Avoid posting more than once per day.
- Consider sharing late at night and on weekends.
| Active Users | 2 B |
| Business Type | B2C |
| Marketing Tools | Instagram Ads, Story/ Photo/ Video Ads, Carousel Ads, IGTV |
| Ideal for | Visual Branding, Influencer Marketing and Relationship, Personal Branding |
| Aim at | Improving Brand Exposure, Generating Leads |
Instagram Demographic Stats
- Instagram has more than 2 billion active users.
- 64% of Instagrammers are under 34 years.
- The 25-34 year old age group is the largest of the demographics, attributing to 31.2% of the total Instagram population.
- Daily active users of Instagram stories are 500 million.
- 17.6% of the world population uses Instagram.
- Instagram has 51.6% female and 48.4% male audiences.
- The highest users of Instagram are in India (201 million), the U.S. (157 million), and Brazil (115 million).
Instagram Usage Stats
- 58% of marketers are planning to leverage reels in 2022.
- About 6 in 10 Instagram users log in at least once daily.
- 21% of users log in weekly, and 16% log in less often than that.
- 38% of users log in to the platform multiple times.
- More than 100 million photos are uploaded on the platform each day.
- The average time spent on Instagram is 28 minutes.
- 70% of the people watch Instagram stories daily.
- 71.9% of the content on Instagram is photo posts.
- 130 million users tap on shopping posts each month.
- 40% of Instagrammers post stories daily
Instagram Engagement Stats
- The average engagement rate for all post types is 0.83%.
- The average engagement rate for photo posts is 0.81%, video posts is 0.61%, and carousel posts is 1.08%.
- Business accounts with fewer than 10,000 followers have an average engagement rate of 1.11%.
- Business accounts with 10,000-100,000 followers have an engagement rate of 0.93%.
- The average number of likes per Instagram post is 1261.
- Longer captions get better engagement.
- On average, 10.7 hashtags are used in Instagram posts.
- Instagram has 58% more engagement per follower than Facebook.
- 100 million Instagrammers watch or launch live videos daily.
- Photos with faces perform almost 40% better than without faces.
- Videos get 21.2% more engagement compared to images.
- Posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement.
- Instagram users engage more on weekdays, with Wednesday and Thursday showing the most engagement.
- Users like 4.2 billion posts on Instagram each day.
- 80% of the stories with voiceover or music drive better low funnel results than ads with no sound.
- Posts with tagged locations get 79% more engagement.
Instagram Business Stats
- More than 25 million businesses use Instagram to promote their services and products.
- 90% of accounts follow at least one business on Instagram.
- 2 in 3 people surveyed believe Instagram enables interaction with brands.
- 81% of Instagrammers use the platform for researching new products and services.
- 44% of businesses use stories to promote their products.
- 98% of fashion brands use Instagram.
- 67% of users watch branded stories.
- 83% of Instagram users discover new products and services on the platform
- 73% of marketers are in favor of Instagram for influencer marketing.
- The average monthly follower growth of business accounts on Instagram is +1.46%.
- There are 500,000 active influencers on Instagram.
- 54% of all influencers on Instagram are nano influencers, while 33% are micro-influencers.
- 70% of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for product discovery.
- Instagram business accounts post an average of 1 post daily
Instagram Ads Insights
- 50% of Instagram users are more interested in a brand when they see ads on Instagram.
- Instagram marketers spend 69% of their budget on influencer marketing on Instagram.
- The U.S. has the highest potential Instagram advertising reach, followed by India and Brazil.
- 75% of Instagrammers take action on at least one ad.
- The highest Instagram advertising audience is from the 25-34 age group, which is 32.3% of all Instagrammers.
- Instagram’s advertising audience grew by 20.3%.
- 1.39 billion people can be reached through adverts on Instagram.
- Marketers can reach 22.7% of the population aged 13+ with adverts on Instagram.
- 48.4% of the ad audience on Instagram is female, and 51.6% is male.
- Collection ads receive 6% more conversions.
- Video ads have 3x more engagement than photos.
Instagram Top Brands
- National Geographic is the most popular, with 199 million followers.
- Nike has 189 million followers on Instagram.
- Real Madrid CF has 107 million followers on Instagram.
- FC Barcelona has 103 million followers on Instagram.
- The UEFA Champions League has 85.8 million followers on Instagram.
Instagram Trends
- Create More Reels: Instagram responded to millennials flocking to TikTok with its very own short video feature, Reels. Since its release, users are getting more reach and engagement from Reels than any other posting format on Instagram. On top of that, Instagram has also added TikTok’s “Duet” like Remix function on Reels.
- In-App Shopping: 70% of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for product discovery, and 83% of Instagram users discover new products on the platform. With Instagram shops in the play, these consumers can also end their buying journey inside the app itself. With more and more shoppers tuning to Instagram, in-app shopping will be a big 2022 trend.
- More Stories In Store: With 500 million daily users, Instagram stories are the most effective content on the platform to make your brands’ presence engaging, effective, and fun. Instagram story trend is not going anywhere as 63% of Instagram influencers started to use stories “much more frequently” the past year, and 78% of brands had the best result on their influencer content through stories.
- Creators Takeover: Many brands have recognized the role of influencers and creators in the social media community. Businesses can go for thematic campaigns with the creators to add credibility to their messaging and be more relatable. There will also be subscription models launched by the platform to safeguard the interests of creators and help them generate incomes continually apart from brand collabs.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text