It’s about time I found the time to take on YouTube. After all, it’s the biggest video-based social media platform out there.
In this guide, I’ll be looking at the user statistics, including:
- User number
- Number of paying subscribers
- Number of paying subscribers in the US
- Distribution of users per gender and age
- User penetration in various countries
- Countries with the most YouTube users
- YouTube’s potential reach with the 18+ population
- Ad reach ranking in selected countries
- Global engagement and monthly active users worldwide
- Time spent using YouTube on mobile
YouTube is one of the most successful social media companies in the world, so we should find plenty of interesting stats.
Ready? Let’s start!
Countries With the Most YouTube Users in Q1 2023
The first thing we should look at is where most YouTube users are. Which country loves YouTube the most? The US, you might say?
Nope. See the chart below for some surprises:
| Country | Number of YouTube Users |
| India | 467 million |
| United States | 246 million |
| Brazil | 142 million |
| Indonesia | 139 million |
| Mexico | 81.8 million |
| Japan | 78.4 million |
| Pakistan | 71.7 million |
| Germany | 70.9 million |
| Vietnam | 63 million |
| Turkey | 57.9 million |
| Philippines | 57.7 million |
| United Kingdom | 57.1 million |
| France | 52.1 million |
| South Korea | 46 million |
| Egypt | 45.9 million |
| Italy | 43.9 million |
| Thailand | 43.9 million |
| Spain | 40.7 million |
| Bangladesh | 34.4 million |
| Canada | 33.1 million |
India has the most YouTube users by far, almost twice as many as the US, in 2023. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, since India’s population is approximately 4.2-4.3 times larger than the US population.
With more people in the country, it’s no wonder India is the leading country in social media users for almost every social media platform.
However, even though the population is 4.2 times larger, that doesn’t translate to 4 times as many YouTube users. That’s because a large share of India’s population doesn’t have access to the internet.
But what about user penetration worldwide? Does India still have the highest user penetration for YouTube? It shouldn’t.
See the section below!
YouTube Worldwide User Penetration in 2023
The countries with the highest user penetration are the ones where YouTube is most attractive. You may or may not guess which takes first place.
Either way, here’s the chart:
| Country | YouTube User Penetration |
| Worldwide | 36.8% |
| United Arab Emirates | 98.7% |
| Netherlands | 92.7% |
| Norway | 92.1% |
| United Kingdom | 91.9% |
| South Korea | 91.6% |
| Israel | 91.3% |
| Hong Kong | 91.3% |
| Saudi Arabia | 91.2% |
| Canada | 90.8% |
| Sweden | 90.2% |
| Denmark | 90.2% |
| Spain | 90.1% |
| Germany | 89.9% |
| New Zealand | 88.8% |
| France | 88.8% |
| Ireland | 88.6% |
| Switzerland | 88.5% |
| Belgium | 87.7% |
| Taiwan | 87.5% |
| Australia | 87.2% |
| Austria | 86.8% |
| Singapore | 86% |
| Chile | 85.4% |
| Czechia | 83.5% |
| Malaysia | 79.8% |
| United States | 78.4% |
| Italy | 78.2% |
| Argentina | 77.7% |
| Greece | 76.1% |
| Portugal | 75.4% |
| Turkey | 74% |
| Brazil | 73% |
| Romania | 72.6% |
| Mexico | 71.2% |
| Poland | 71% |
| Japan | 79.7% |
| Vietnam | 68.9% |
| Moroco | 68.5% |
| Colombia | 64.3% |
| Thailand | 63.3% |
| Philippines | 61.6% |
| South Africa | 56.1% |
| Indonesia | 55.1% |
| Egypt | 50.7% |
| India | 36.3% |
| Kenya | 25.6% |
| Nigeria | 25.3% |
The United Arab Emirates was the country with the highest YouTube user penetration in Q1 2023, with around 98.7% of its entire population using YouTube.
Next on the list are the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, South Korea, and others. There are 12 countries with a YouTube penetration above 90%.
The global YouTube penetration sits at 36.8%, which is not too shabby. Even Facebook’s global penetration is under 40% at the moment, so YouTube is looking good.
What’s very interesting is that India, the country with the most YouTube users, is also among the last when it comes to user penetration. It’s the third from the bottom, with 36.3% user penetration.
In fact, most of the countries with a lower YouTube user penetration are known for their poor quality of life and living conditions. Access to the internet is most likely the biggest problem there.
Even more fascinating is the fact that the US has a “measly” 78.4% YouTube user penetration. I would have 100% expected that most of the country’s population is using YouTube but nope.
Apparently, America is not a big fan of YouTube, which is mind-boggling if you ask me. But it is what it is.
Let’s move to the next section!
Worldwide Number of YouTube Music & Premium Subscribers from 2020 to 2022
YouTube has a premium subscription, too, if you weren’t aware. Plus YouTube music, which is also premium. Let’s see how many of them are there in the world.
See the chart below:
| Period | Number of Paying YouTube Subscribers |
| October 2020 | 30 million |
| September 2021 | 50 million |
| November 2022 | 80 million |
Apparently, there aren’t so many paying subscribers around the world. With over 2.1 billion monthly users around the world, YouTube only had 80 million premium subscribers in November 2022.
Around 3.8% of YouTube’s entire user base is paying for a premium subscription. So, that’s not working at all, the way I see it.
However, the number of premium subscribers has been growing exponentially over the years. There were nearly 3 times as many premium users in 2022 than in 2020.
How about the number of premium subscribers in the US? If you’re wondering how many of those 80 million premium subscribers are from the US, keep reading!
Number of Premium YouTube Subscribers in the US from 2020 to 2024
Does the US have many paying YouTube subscribers or not? This study from Statista should shed light on this. See it below:
| Period | Number of Premium Subscribers |
| 2020 | 20 million |
| 2021 | 23.6 million |
| 2022 | 25.5 million |
| 2023 | 26.7 million |
| 2024 | 27.9 million |
More than a quarter of the total number of premium YouTube users are from the US, apparently. So, while the US doesn’t have a high user penetration worldwide, it does have a ton of paying subscribers.
If you didn’t know, premium YouTube subscribers have zero ads as well as video and music download capabilities.
But honestly, YouTube Premium is only worth it on mobile devices since desktop computers have ad-blockers which are amazing the last time I checked. Zero ads on YouTube!
Distribution of Global YouTube Users per Gender & Age in Q1 2023
Without wasting your time, here’s the male-to-female ratio for global YouTube users:
- 54.4% male
- 45.6% female
Yep, there are more male YouTube users than female ones. Not a surprise, since most social media platforms (apart from a select few) are male-dominated.
But what about the age-to-gender distribution? That should be more interesting. Here’s the chart:
| Age Range | Male Users | Female Users |
| 18-24 | 8.8% | 6.2% |
| 25-34 | 11.9% | 8.8% |
| 35-44 | 9.1% | 7.6% |
| 45-54 | 6.3% | 5.6% |
| 55-64 | 4.4% | 4.4% |
| 65+ | 4.2% | 4.8% |
Across every age range, males outnumber females by a few percentages. Only in the 65+ age range are females more numerous than males.
I guess that, as we get older, men become less interested in social media, or people men who are already old now don’t use social media that much.
Interested in the global engagement rate and the monthly active usage for YouTube shorts? The next section will show everything!
Global Engagement & Monthly Active Usage for YouTube Shorts in June 2022
YouTube shorts were introduced relatively recently (compared to the platform’s entire history) and became monetizable even more recently.
Here’s a chart that shows the daily views and the monthly active usage:
| Monthly Active Usage | Daily Views |
| 1.5 billion | 30 billion |
So, around 1.5 billion users engage with YouTube shorts monthly, and there are more than 30 billion views on shorts “per day“.
That’s a helluva’ lot of daily views. Not even TikTok amasses that many daily views on its platform. My sources say that TikTok receives around a billion views per day on all its videos.
That’s 30 times less than YouTube shorts if the data is reliable. It means YouTube shorts are 30 times more popular than TikTok videos, which is….kind of unbelievable if you ask me.
Time Spent Using the YouTube Mobile App
Another interesting stat I found relates to the average monthly time spent on the YouTube mobile app (on Android phones).
Data Reportal helped us with the data:
| Country | Average Monthly Time Spent on the YouTube App |
| South Korea | 40 hours |
| India | 29.2 hours |
| Indonesia | 26.8 hours |
| Russia | 26.3 hours |
| Worldwide | 23.1 hours |
| Brazil | 22 hours |
| U.S.A. | 21.3 hours |
| Mexico | 21 hours |
| Singapore | 20.9 hours |
| Turkey | 18.5 hours |
| Canada | 17.7 hours |
| Australia | 17.1 hours |
| U.K. | 15.5 hours |
| Argentina | 13.9 hours |
| France | 11.7 hours |
| Germany | 10.8 hours |
South Korea is the undisputable leader in monthly usage of the YouTube app, at an astounding 40 hours. They spend almost 2 days on YouTube per month.
Even India, in the second spot, spends 27% less time at around 29.2 hours per month. No one can even come close to South Korea’s commitment to YouTube.
And remember, this stat only applies to Android users, so it doesn’t include iOS YouTube usage. I’m willing to bet that South Korea goes over the 50-hour mark for total mobile usage of the YouTube app.
How about the average growth of monthly time spent on the YouTube mobile app worldwide? Take a look below 😀
Change in Monthly Time Spent on YouTube Mobile Worldwide
This statistic will show whether some countries have increased their usage of YouTube mobile or not, over the years. The survey time period for this study is 2022 and it only looks at Android phones.
Here’s the chart:
| Country | Change in Monthly Time Spent on YouTube Mobile |
| Canada | +4% |
| Indonesia | +2% |
| Argentina | 0% |
| Australia | 0% |
| Singapore | 0% |
| South Korea | 0% |
| Turkey | 0% |
| India | -1% |
| France | -2% |
| Russia | -3% |
| Worldwide | -3% |
| Germany | -4% |
| United Kingdom | -4% |
| United States | -4% |
| Brazil | -6% |
| Mexico | -8% |
Out of all countries in the world, only Canada and Indonesia have seen a growth in the monthly time spent on the YouTube app in 2022.
Most other countries have experienced a decline, though. Mexico and Brazil are at the top of that decline, with -8% and -6% respectively.
Whether that decline will continue or not, I can’t say. It remains to be seen, but I’m guessing YouTube shorts aren’t falling out of popularity just yet.
Alright, I have nothing else to show you. Based on the stats I’ve presented above, YouTube is still an undisputed king in the social media industry.
And that’s not going to change any time soon. I hope you’ll find the information in this guide useful! See you at the next one 😀
Sources
- Statista – Leading Countries Based on YouTube Audience Size as of January 2023
- Statista – YouTube Penetration in Selected Countries and Territories as of January 2023
- Statista – Number of Paying YouTube Music and YouTube Premium Subscribers Worldwide from 2020 to 2022
- Statista – Number of YouTube Premium Subscribers in the United States from 2020 to 2024
- Statista – Distribution of YouTube Users Worldwide as of January 2023 by Gender
- Statista – Distribution of YouTube users Worldwide as of January 2023, by Age Group and Gender
- Statista – YouTube Shorts Global Users Engagement and Monthly Active Usage as of June 2022
- Passport Photo – TikTok: 100+ Statistics, Facts, and trends [2023]
- Data Reportal – YouTube Statistics and Trends
- Statista – Year-over-Year Growth of Monthly Time Spent on the YouTube Mobile App in Selected Markets Worldwide in 2022
