Present and Historical Overview of LinkedIn's Userbase

LinkedIn is one of the largest professional networks on the internet, and it has also taken over this niche by itself. You don’t really hear about other similar platforms that connect professionals from around the world.

LinkedIn is specifically designed to appeal to:

Entrepreneurs
Businessmen and women
Academics
People looking for a job
Companies looking to open themselves up to the public
People looking to develop their careers

You won’t find funny cat videos here, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who isn’t interested in some aspect of the business. LinkedIn just isn’t used for anything other than business or profession-related things.

Below, I’ll show you a chart with the number of LinkedIn users from 2009 all the way to 2022. Enjoy:

Year	Number of Users	% Increase in Number of Users
2009	42 million users
2010	78 million users	85.7% increase from last year
2011	116 million users	48.71% increase from last year
2012	174 million users	50% increase from last year
2013	238 million users	36.78% increase from last year
2014	313 million users	31.51% increase from last year
2015	380 million users	21.4% increase from last year
2016	450 million users	18.42% increase from last year
2017	491 million users	9.11% increase from last year
2018	556 million users	13.23% increase from last year
2019	604 million users	8.63% increase from last year
2020	690 million users	14.23% increase from last year
2021	756 million users	9.56% increase from last year
2022	830 million users	9.78% increase from last year
Q1 2023	Around 900 million users	Around 8.43% increase from last year

LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and released to the public in 2003, but I haven’t found any data about its user base prior to 2009.

In a 10-year period, from 2009 to 2019, LinkedIn’s user base grew by 1338%, from 42 million users to 604 million users. It seems that the platform has scaled considerably year after year, attracting more and more professionals in its midst.

LinkedIn Usage in the US from 2018 to 2022

Interested in seeing how LinkedIn’s user base evolved in the US? Fine, I have just the thing for you, courtesy of Statista. But it only contains stats from 2018-2022.

Here it is:

Year	Number of Users
2018	53.8 million users
2019	58.5 million users
2020	62.1 million users
2021	64.7 million users
2022	66.8 million users

LinkedIn is currently among the largest online career platforms in the US, and it’s expected to grow its user base steadily in the coming years.

With the digitization of many professions and work-at-home jobs becoming more popular, LinkedIn is bound to receive more attention. Already large companies are already looking on the platform for prospective new hires.

The platform has also built a certain credibility and trustworthiness (in a niche kind of way) for employers and employees.

Another study by Statista showed that in Q3 2019, around 84% of respondents said that they mainly use LinkedIn to strengthen their professional network. This could mean establishing professional connections, finding like-minded people, researching potential jobs, and so on.

It makes sense since that’s what the platform is built upon. Moving on, let’s take a look at the…

Gender & Age of LinkedIn Users Worldwide as of 2023

What’s the average age of LinkedIn users, and are they predominantly male or female? See all of that in the chart below:

	Number of people (in %)	Number of People (in millions)	Gender Difference per Age
18-24	21.7%	190 million	12% male and 9.7% female
25-34	60%	520 million	34.3% male and 25.7% female
35-54	15.4%	120 million	9% male and 6.4% female
55+	2.9%	21 million	1.9% male and 1% female

It seems that LinkedIn is predominantly used by people aged 25-34, which fits the general profile of entrepreneurs or individuals who are just starting out their businesses or trying to expand them.

This is also the profile of most up-and-coming employees who are looking to find a new job or expand their professional network.

Also, the platform is made up of 56.3% men and 43.7% women, so it is dominated by men for the most part. Based on the gender difference per age, it seems that men dominate women in that regard too. There are more men than women LinkedIn users at any age.

The starkest difference is in the 24-34 age bracket, where approximately 34.3% of users are male, and 25.7% are female.

Moreover, if you care to know, the most common pronouns used on LinkedIn are, in this order:

She/them
He/they
They/she
They/he
Any pronouns

Remember that these are the most popular after “he/him“, “she/her“, and “they/them“. So, first, there are the common pronouns that regular people like you and me use, and then there are the ones listed above.

LinkedIn Usage by Country in 2023

It might also be interesting to look at the number of LinkedIn users per country as of January 2023 (source – Data Report).

Here’s what you need to know:

Country	Number of Users	Penetration Rate (% of the population that uses LinkedIn)	Reach vs. population aged 18+
The US	200 million users	59.83%	75.4%
India	99 million users	6.98%	10%
China	60 million users	4.12%	5.3%
Brazil	59 million users	27.34%	36.2%
The UK	35 million users	51.75%	65.4%
France	26 million users	38.23%	50.7%
Indonesia	23 million users	8.13%	11.9%
Canada	21 million users	54.18%	66.9%
Mexico	19 million users	14.84%	21%
Italy	17 million users	28.03%	34%
Spain	17 million users	35.76%	43%
Germany	15 million users	17.89%	21.6%
Australia	14 million users	53.21%	67.9%
Philippines	13 million users	11.39%	17.4%
Turkey	13 million users	14.74%	21%
Colombia	12 million users	23%	31.1%
Argentina	11 million users	24.10%	33.3%
South Africa	11 million users	18.29%	27.5%
Netherlands	10 million users	56.11%	69.9%
Pakistan	9.3 million users	3.9%	6.8%

It seems that the US, Canada, and the Netherlands have the highest penetration rate when it comes to LinkedIn usage.

These are first-world countries, after all, so it’s to be expected that many professionals are looking to expand their career options.

China and Pakistan seem to have the lowest penetration rate, even though China is the country with the third-largest LinkedIn user base in the world.

Indonesia has a 3.8% penetration rate and 9.3 million users, while the Netherlands has 10 million users and a 56.11% penetration rate, just for comparison’s sake.

In part, this points to Pakistan having a less developed professional industry, especially when it comes to online networking.

Economically and socially speaking, Pakistan is considered a third-world country due to it being undeveloped in many areas.

As for China, well, China is a special case in almost all regards. The country is effectively enclosed socially, politically, culturally, technologically, and so on.

The Chinese don’t have access to many of the apps that we use on a daily basis, or they have alternative apps that they use.

LinkedIn Usage by World Region in 2023

Now that we’ve looked at LinkedIn’s user count per country, how about a look at its user count per world region?

It might be interesting to see where the platform is most concentrated in terms of users and which regions don’t really use it.

We might form some opinions based on this data.

See the chart below (ordered by geographical positioning):

World Region	Number of Users	Penetration Rate
Northern America	221.1 million	36.42%
Central America	24.9 million	13.46%
Caribbean	4.9 million	11.11%
Southern America	108.2 million	24.55%
Western Europe	62 million	31.33%
Northern Europe	51.4 million	47.77%
Southern Europe	44.6 million	29.42%
Eastern Europe	20 million	6.85%
Northern Africa	17.3 million	6.7%
Western Africa	13.7 million	3.18%
Middle Africa	2.6 million	1.34%
Eastern Africa	10.3 million	2.16%
Southern Africa	11.8 million	19.38%
Western Asia	39.4 million	13.53%
Central Asia	2 million	2.58%
Southern Asia	117.9 million	5.89%
Southeastern Asia	57.6 million	8.39%
Eastern Asia	73.1 million	4.31%
Oceania	17.4 million	39.17%

It’s to be expected that LinkedIn has a higher usage in more developed world regions like Northern and Southern America, Southern Asia, Eastern Asia, and some of Europe.

Looking at the penetration rate, though, we see some interesting things:

Northern Europe has a higher penetration rate (a higher percentage of the population is using LinkedIn) than Northern America
Oceania also has a higher penetration rate than Northern America
Most African countries have an extremely low penetration rate, likely due to the regions’ unstable social and economic situations.
Eastern Europe is… Eastern Europe, I guess, with a pitiful 6.85% penetration rate. Compared to the rest of Europe, it’s not looking good.
Australia is full of entrepreneurs and budding businesses (39.17% penetration rate for Oceania)

With the emphasis on work-at-home professions and the digitization of many industries, I estimate that LinkedIn should become more important in the coming years.

LinkedIn’s Ad Reach on the 18+ Population Worldwide

During my research, I came across stats related to LinkedIn’s ad reach regarding the 18+ population worldwide.

This info would be extremely useful for B2C marketers as it offered them directly usable info on the marketing potential on LinkedIn.

Below, I’ll show you a list of the countries and territories with the highest LinkedIn ad reach for the 18+ population:

Country/Territory	Percentage of the 18+ Population Using LinkedIn	Total Reach
Bermuda	102.4%	54,000
Cayman Islands	97%	54,000
Iceland	89.2%	260,000
Andorra	86%	58,000
U.S. Virgin Islands	84.8%	65,000
United Arab Emirates	84.3%	6.6 million
United States of America	75.4%	200 million
Singapore	72%	3.7 million
Ireland	70%	2.7 million
Netherlands	69.9%	10 million
Aruba	68.1%	58,000
Australia	67.9%	14 million
Canada	66.9%	21 million
Luxembourg	66.2%	350,000
United Kingdom	65.4%	35 million
Denmark	65.3%	3.1 million
Guam	62%	74,000
New Zealand	61.8%	2.5 million
Guernsey	60.7%	31,000
Malta	59.9%	270,000

Bermuda’s score of 102.4% is likely due to fake and/or duplicate account or age misstatements; take that with a grain of salt.

Either way, we see some interesting findings. The Bermuda and Cayman Islands are close to 100% reach vs. its 18+ population.

It’s not exactly something that I expected, to be honest. These are such unexpected countries to have such a great interest in LinkedIn. Even the US has only 75.4% reach for its 18+ population.

Does it seem that the youth of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands have a stronger work ethic or are more interested in career advancement than young Americans?

It sure seems so, given that LinkedIn is a social media platform that you “just” stumble upon.

There are no cat memes, funny videos, and other such content that young people would find attractive.

This begs the question – what’s so different about the youth population of Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and Iceland (89.2% reach)?

Comparing LinkedIn’s Subscriptions in Yearly Usage

LinkedIn has two separate subscriptions for its users – a Basic and a Premium one.

Here’s what the Basic subscription offers:

Find and talk to your colleagues or classmates
Request an offer recommendations.
Search and view profiles of other LinkedIn users
Receive an unlimited number of InMail Messages
Save up to three searches and receive weekly alerts on those searches

Now here’s what a Premium subscription gets you:

The Premium Career feature helps you look for jobs and get hired
The Sales Navigator feature lets you generate leads and create a loyal clientele
The Recruiter Lite feature lets you find and hire talent
The Premium Business feature lets you obtain detailed business insights to expand your business
The LinkedIn Learning feature lets you improve your skills or learn new ones

It seemed interesting to me that most LinkedIn users are using the Basic (free) subscription, and that number has kept growing from 2019 to 2021.

However, the number of premium users has also increased somewhat.

See below:

	Number of Users with a Basic Subscription	Number of Users with a Premium Subscription
2019	644.82 million	41.97 million
2020	709.29 million	45.92 million
2021	774.61 million	49.16 million

Looking at the chart above, you can’t help but notice that there are a lot of premium users on LinkedIn. And that number has grown in recent years, as I said.

Moreover, I’m willing to wager that many of those premium users are businesses looking to hire personnel or expand their reach and create connections to other businesses.

By estimation, about 6% of all LinkedIn users were paying for a Premium subscription in 2021, which may not seem much, but the numbers speak for themselves – 49 million premium users.

The benefits provided by the Premium plan are sufficient to convince all those entrepreneurs and businessmen to pay for it.

To Summarize…

LinkedIn is a very niche social media platform that appeals most to entrepreneurs, businesses, and people looking for a job. In terms of its user base, I’d say that the platform has steadily grown over the years and has been on a positive streak ever since 2009.

Most users use the Basic subscription, but some 50 million are paying for a Premium one, and that number of growth year after year.

There are also more men than women on the platform, especially in the 25-34 age bracket, and it seems that its penetration rate is higher for more isolated countries like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

My opinion about LinkedIn is that it offers solid opportunities for career advancement and business expansion.

I also like that the platform has garnered a loyal user base and built a trustworthy reputation as a legitimate business network worldwide.

Many businesses recruit talent on LinkedIn, as a matter of fact, and professional profiling has become quite trendy in recent years.

I fully expect LinkedIn to become more popular among young people in the coming years due to the digitization of the job market. It remains to be seen how the platform will continue, so stay tuned for any news!