Social Media UK User Statistics for 2020: If you are looking to market your services or goods, the power and reach of social media cannot be underestimated. With over 3.8 billion active social media users globally, social platforms give you the potential to reach out to 49% of the global population. Focussing closer to home, the statistics for social media audiences in the UK are equally impressive. To give you a head start in reaching your target audience by using the most appropriate social media platform for your products and/or services, we will, in this blog, carry out our traditional, annual social media review for users in the UK.

Facebook UK Users

Facebook remains a dominant force in the world of social media both globally and in the UK with a market share of over 54% in the UK:

• As of December 2020, there were 51 million Facebook users in the UK, this is an increase of over 6 million from the previous year
• The mix of users has stayed the same as for 2019 with 48% of users being male and 52% being female
• Facebook engagement in the UK is very good with the average user commenting on 8 posts per month and clicking on 18 ads per month
• In 2020 the largest age group using Facebook was the 25 to 34-year-olds with 11.2 million users

Twitter UK Users

Although much smaller in terms of users than Facebook, the reach of Twitter cannot be underestimated.

• There were 16.7 million active Twitter users in the UK in 2020 which is around 29% of the population aged 13+
• The gender split is a little different for Twitter with 60% of users being male and 40% female
• 80% of all Twitter users access the platform using a mobile device and 93% of Twitter video views are also on mobile devices
• People spend 26% more time viewing ads on Twitter than any other platform
• Tweets with GIFs get 55% more engagement than those without!

YouTube UK Users

Owned by Google, Youtube has evolved into the place to be for UK video marketing:

• More than 78% of all age groups and income brackets use YouTube in the UK, making it the second largest platform after Facebook
• Over 80% of UK 15-25-year-olds use YouTube making this the largest demographic for the platform in the UK.
• Over 70% of YouTube views are on a mobile device which seems to be holding steady year on year.
• Average viewing sessions on YouTube are now up to 40 minutes which is a 50% increase since 2018.
• 33% of YouTube users report that they use the platform daily.
• 8 out of 10 marketers view YouTube as the most effective video marketing platform

Pinterest UK Users

Pinterest still remains rather niche as far as social media users are concerned but it has great potential for marketers if the social platform plays host to your audience.

• Pins have a great shelf life and are active for up to seven months
• The vast majority of Pinterest users are female at 72% of all users
• Nearly 44% of users in the UK fall into the 25-44 age bracket
• Nearly 97% of all Pinterest searches are unbranded suggesting that Pinterest users are seeking inspiration
• More than 10.6 million people in the UK use Pinterest which is a 2.9% increase over 2019.

Instagram UK Users

Acknowledged as a lifestyle platform, Instagram will appeal to those marketing products and service to the younger UK generations:

• There are around 30.6 million Instagram users in the UK which is the largest user base reported since late 2018
• There is a fairly even split between men and women using the platform with 44% being male and 56% being female
• Instagram appears to appeal mainly to the younger generation with 75% of 18-24 year olds using the platform and 57% of 25-30 year olds but only 8% of over 65’s.
• 54% of Instagram users report that they use the platform daily with an average time spent on the site of 53 minutes.

LinkedIn UK Users

LinkedIn is much more geared to professional interactions rather than social ones and is the perfect platform for B2B engagement

• The UK has nearly 31 million LinkedIn users with a split of 58% male and 42% female
• The largest age group using LinkedIn is the 25 – 34 age range with 58% of users coming from this group.
• LinkedIn has the largest visitor-to-lead generation of all the platforms and outperforms Facebook by almost 3 to 1
• 80% of social media B2B leads come from LinkedIn

Snapchat UK Users

• There were around 18.7 million people using Snapchat in the UK in 2020
• 82% of Snapchat users are under 35 years old
• The gender split is staying consistent with previous years, nearly 60% of Snapchat users being female and 40% are male
• 63% of Snapchat users in the UK use the platform daily with the average person using Snapchat for nearly 50 minutes per day

TikTok UK Users

TikTok is a video sharing app which has caused huge ripples in the social media market since it’s inception in 2016. Although still a very young company, it is growing fast and is a major platform for the younger generation and is a platform that marketers are starting to take a big interest in.

• There are 3.7 million users of TikTok in the UK which is expected to increase to over 10 million by the end of 2021
• TikTok is now the 7^th most active social media platform globally
• The Tiktok app is downloaded over 1 million times per month
• The average daily time spent on the app in the UK is 41 minutes
• 26% of UK smartphone users have TikTok

Social Media UK User Statistics for 2020

2020 was a very strange year for us all, with national lockdown’s and local tiers, it is no wonder people have spent more time online, engaging with each other on the various social media platforms. Each platform has its own pros and cons and appeals to a different demographic audience and choosing the right one can be challenging. Hopefully these statistics will help you with that analysis and help you chose the right platform for you to reach your target audience.

Social Media UK User Statistics for 2020 Resources

The data used in this article: “Social Media UK User Statistics for 2020” has been pulled from multiple sources. We have reported the data as accurately as possible. The following sources contributed to the collation:

Avocado, Omnicore, Hootsuite, Influencer Marketing Hub, Social Films, Sprout Social, We are Social.