At least half of all adult global internet users are social networkers

Across the 40 countries surveyed, a median of 76% of internet users say that they use social networks, which include Facebook and Twitter in all countries (except for Twitter in China), plus other popular country-specific social networks.

Between 2013 and 2015, there has been some upward movement in the percentage of people who access social networks across many emerging countries. This is especially the case in China, where 63% of internet users report using social networking in 2015, up from 48% in 2013. Elsewhere the change has been less dramatic or no change has occurred. But because internet access and reported smartphone ownership rates have increased in most of these nations, more people are using social networks even as the proportion of internet users who say they do so has not changed dramatically, if at all.

For example, 81% of online Germans ages 18-34 say they use social networking, versus only 39% of older online Germans. And 83% of young French internet users are social networkers, versus 42% among older internet users. Large age gaps also appear in Vietnam (+37), Poland (+35) and Japan (+35). It should be noted that, based on total population, the gap in social media use between older and younger generations is even larger because more young people in all of the countries surveyed are online to begin with. But even among active internet users, social networking is more common among global youths.

In addition to age, there are also differences on social networking use among online adults by education. However, significant gaps on education are not as common for social networking as they are for overall internet access and smartphone ownership. In 18 countries with large enough sample sizes for analysis, internet users with more education are significantly more likely to use social networking sites compared with less educated online adults. The education gaps are particularly large in Lebanon (+30) and China (+26).