Social Media Worldwide User Spread per Region in 2023

Have you ever wondered just how many social media users there are in the world? About 4.76 billion or about 59.4% of the world’s total population.

But what about the spread? What parts of the world hold the most social media users, and where are the last ones? This is what we’ll find out in this article. Plus, I’ll also tell you precise numbers for every social media platform out there.

Ready for this? Keep reading!

Number of Social Network users per Region as of 2022-2023

Below, I’ve prepared a chart based on research from Statista, mainly. I’ve also used Date Reportal (source, source, source, and source) research to gather the information summarized below.

Enjoy:

World Region	Global (2022)	Facebook (January 2023)	Instagram (January 2023)	Twitter (January 2023)	TikTok (January 2023)
Eastern Asia	1.194,2 billion	48.4 million	81.8 million	92.7 million	31.7 million
Southern Asia	847.17 million	417.2 million	254.1 million	34.3 million	16.5 million
Southeast Asia	506.3 million	366.8 million	155 million	66.3 million	272.2 million
Northern America	434.93 million	195.7 million	159.3 million	105.8 million	124 million
South America	306.76 million	242.2 million	192 million	49.7 million	157.8 million
Western Europe	261.89 million	75.8 million	70.1 million	40.3 million	55 million
Eastern Europe	183.7 million	70.3 million	39.5 million	10 million	94.5 million
Southern Europe	183.26 million	68.7 million	66.1 million	21 million	40 million
Western Asia	163.9 million	98 million	103.1 million	48.2 million	107.4 million
Northern Africa	154.18 million	91.9 million	37 million	8.9 million	33 million
Western Africa	88.68 million	45.2 million	11.7 million	7.3 million	0
Eastern Africa	65.93 million	36.1 million	8.5 million	4.6 million	0
Southern Africa	45.31 million	24.5 million	6.2 million	3.9 million	11.8 million
Northern Europe	29.18 million	55.5 million	46.6 million	31.6 million	29.6 million
Oceania	27.79 million	20.2 million	14.3 million	6.2 million	9.9 million
Central America	27.71 million	107.6 million	47.8 million	21 million	57.5 million
Central Asia	26.62 million	5 million	17.9 million	672,000	10.4 million
Caribbean	24.71 million	11.6 million	8 million	3 million	0
Middle Africa	21.13 million	13.9 million	1.8 million	670,000	0

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on the 2023 data for the total social media users per region. However, I could find the user numbers for every individual social media platform for those regions.

Facebook wipes the floor with Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok in almost every region except for:

Eastern Asia where Instagram has 69% more users
Eastern Europe where TikTok has 34.4% more users
Western Asia where Instagram has 5.2% more users, and TikTok has 9.59% more users
Central Asia where Instagram has 258% more users, and TikTok has 108% more users

There may come a time when TikTok dominates everyone else in terms of users (hopefully not), but that time is not here yet.

You may also notice that Twitter is the only social media platform out of the four that has under a million users in several regions (Central Asia and Middle Africa). That’s because Twitter’s core social features are not as appealing as those of Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

Based on this chart, we can derive a few general ideas: Facebook appears to be the all-rounder social media platform that appeals to mostly everybody, irrespective of their culture.

TikTok has more than double the users of Facebook in Central Asia, which may hint at the country’s budding creative industry finding a safe place on TikTok.

Social Media Users per Region vs. Total Population in January 2023

Curious about the share of social media users per world region? I’ll give you the data in percentages versus the total population in that region, so you can understand how many people are using social media in that region.

See below:

World Region	Active Social Media Users as % Out of the Total Population	Active Social Media Users as % Out of the Global Social Media Users
Northern America	73.9%	6.9%
Central America	67.5%	3%
Caribbean	50.6%	0.6%
Southern America	71.3%	7.7%
Northern Europe	83.6%	2.2%
Western Europe	83.3%	4%
Southern Europe	76.7%	2.9%
Eastern Europe	70.5%	5%
Northern Africa	48.8%	2.6%
Western Africa	13.3%	1.4%
Middle Africa	7.4%	0.4%
Eastern Africa	8.4%	1%
Southern Africa	41.3%	0.7%
Central Asia	27.4%	0.5%
Western Asia	63.6%	4.3%
Southern Asia	32.5%	16.1%
Eastern Asia	72%	29.4%
South-Eastern Asia	63.7%	10.7%
Oceania	62%	0.7%

It’s interesting to see that, while social media has a higher penetration across regions of Europe and the Americas than Asia, it’s Asia that have more (much more) users than both Europe and the Americas put together.

There’s strength in numbers, after all. But how are those numbers represented, though? That’s what I’ll go through below, the gender representation of social media across world regions!

Gender of Social Media Users Across Regions in January 2023

How are the gender stereotypes propagated throughout the world, and what’s the male-to-female ratio of social media users in different world regions? I found this topic quite interesting to go through, and I hope you find it too.

Enjoy:

World Region	Male-to-Female Ratio
Global Average	53.7% male to 46.3% female
Northern America	54% female to 46% male
Central America	52% female to 48% male
Caribbean	51% female to 49% male
Southern America	53% female to 47% male
Northern Europe	52% female to 48% male
Western Europe	51% female to 49% male
Southern Europe	50% female to 50% male
Eastern Europe	53% female to 47% male
Northern Africa	41% female to 59% male
Western Africa	41% female to 59% male
Middle Africa	40% female to 60% male
Eastern Africa	41% female to 59% male
Southern Africa	51% female to 49% male
Central Asia	48% female to 52% male
Western Asia	38% female to 62% male
Southern Asia	29% female to 71% male
Eastern Asia	49% female to 51% male
South-Eastern Asia	49% female to 51% male
Oceania	54% female to 46% male

On average, the male-to-female ratio seems female-dominant in most areas of the world except for Africa and Asia, where the balance is severely skewered by Southern Asia, Middle Africa, Eastern Africa, Northern Africa, and Western Africa.

The global average is 53.7% male to 46.3% female on account of those stark differences in Asia and Africa. What can you do…

Likeliness of World Regions to Use Social Media in January 2023

Alright, this is the last chart I’ll do. To simplify it, it shows the likeliness of world regions to use social media based on the global average (which is 100). It compares each region’s share of global social media users with their respective share of the global population.

Remember that scores above 100 mean that the population is more likely to use social media compared to the global average, and scores below 100 mean that the population is less likely to use social media compared to the global average.

Let’s get this over with:

World Region	Likeliness of Population to Use Social Media
Northern America	145.6
Central America	133.1
Caribbean	99.8
Southern America	140.5
Northern Europe	164.7
Western Europe	164.1
Southern Europe	151.2
Eastern Europe	139
Northern Africa	78.7
Western Africa	26.2
Middle Africa	14.6
Eastern Africa	16.5
Southern Africa	81.4
Central Asia	53.9
Western Asia	115.7
Southern Asia	64
Eastern Asia	141.8
South-Eastern Asia	125.5
Oceania	122.1

The only severe cases where a population within a given region is extremely unlikely to use social media compared to the global average (100) are:

Western Africa
Eastern Africa
Middle Africa
Central and Southern Asia somewhat

As for those who are the likeliest to use social media, they are, in order of likeliness:

Northern Europe
Western Europe
Southern Europe
Northern America
Eastern Asia
Southern America
Central America
Oceania
South-Eastern Asia
Western Asia

The Caribbean, Southern Africa and Northern Africa are only slightly less likely to use social media compared to the world average.

Conclusion?

What I got from these data charts is that both cultural and financial dimensions are supremely important when it comes to the population’s access to social media.

Most African and Asian countries tend to be more male-centric, with women having less access to social media networks.

The penetration rate of social media in some less populous regions may be a marker of cultural differences between those regions.

Like I said in the beginning, the Americas and Europe tend to have higher social media penetration rates than Asia, even though the latter has more overall social media users due to a higher population count.

Last but not least, I believe that the chart showing the likeliness of social media usage per region compared to the global average shows the effect of both cultural and material differences in providing access to social media to a population.

For instance, it’s pretty clear that Western, Eastern, and Middle Africa are the least likely to use social media because they are very poor. Access to social media is among the last of their priorities.

Southern and Central Asia largely suffer from the same material problems, though not as intense, there also may be cultural (or political) elements that make it difficult for those populations to access social media.

In any case, this has been quite interesting research, and I hope you’ve learned some cool stuff. Stay tuned for other such guides!