Which social media platforms do British people actually use? How much time do they spend, and which platforms are growing or declining? We analyzed the latest Ofcom data to answer the questions marketers and researchers are asking about social media in the UK.
Platform Reach & Popularity
Which Social Media Platform Is Most Popular in the UK? (2025)
YouTube is the most widely used social media platform among UK adults with 94% reach, equating to 46.3 million UK online adults monthly.
Facebook and Messenger rank second with 93% reach, reaching 45.9 million users. Instagram follows with 78% reach (38.5 million users), then Reddit at 60% and TikTok at 56%.
The top five platforms all exceed 50% reach. This means more than half of UK online adults visit each of these services at least monthly.
I find the gap between YouTube and everything else notable. YouTube operates almost like a utility at this point, more comparable to Google Search than to Instagram or TikTok.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ipsos iris
How Many People Use Facebook in the UK? (2025)
Facebook and Messenger reach 93% of UK online adults, totalling 45.9 million users. That reach grew 6% year-on-year.
Daily reach is even more impressive at 69%, meaning 34 million UK adults use Facebook every single day. Among older users aged 55 and over, Facebook has the highest proportion of visitors compared to any other top 10 platform.
Despite years of predictions about Facebook decline, the platform continues to grow in the UK. The narrative that young people have abandoned Facebook is complicated by the fact that it remains a daily habit for tens of millions.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ipsos iris
How Many People Use Instagram in the UK? (2025)
Instagram reaches 78% of UK online adults, equating to 38.5 million users. That represents a 7% increase year-on-year.
In 2024, 82% of online women visited Instagram compared to 70% of online men. Average time spent is 22 minutes per day, with 61% of that time coming from women.
Instagram continues to grow steadily while maintaining strong engagement. The gender skew toward women makes it particularly valuable for brands targeting female audiences.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ipsos iris
How Many People Use TikTok in the UK? (2025)
TikTok reaches 56% of UK online adults. Visitor numbers grew 14% year-on-year, following a 13% increase in 2024.
Daily reach is 21%, representing 10.4 million visitors. That daily figure grew 37% year-on-year, faster than the monthly reach.
Among 18 to 24 year olds, 74% visited TikTok in 2024, and they spent an average of 64 minutes per day on the service. Women aged 18 to 24 spent 77 minutes daily, compared to 48 minutes for men in the same age group.
The daily usage growth outpacing monthly growth tells us TikTok is becoming more habitual. People who try it keep coming back.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ipsos iris
How Many People Use X (Twitter) in the UK? (2025)
X (formerly Twitter) reaches 39% of UK online adults. Visitor numbers fell 13% year-on-year.
Reach declined from 45% in May 2024 to 39% in May 2025. Looking further back, monthly average adult reach declined from 27.9 million in 2021 to 22.2 million in 2024.
X did achieve its highest daily reach on July 5, 2024, the day after the UK General Election, with 9.8 million visitors. News events still drive spikes in usage.
X is the only major platform showing consistent decline. The election spike shows it retains relevance for breaking news, but everyday usage continues to erode.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ipsos iris
Growth & Trends
Which Social Media Platform Is Growing Fastest in the UK? (2025)
Reddit is the fastest-growing major social media platform in the UK. Reach increased 88% over two years, from 33% in 2023 to 60% in May 2025.
Reddit grew 28% year-on-year for the second consecutive year. It overtook X and LinkedIn in 2024 to become the fifth-highest-reaching social media service.
Among 18 to 24 year olds, Reddit reach is 71%. Among 25 to 34 year olds, it reaches 63%.
Reddit growth is remarkable because the platform has existed for nearly two decades. This is not a new app catching fire. Something changed in how British users discover and use Reddit.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ipsos iris
Is X (Twitter) Declining in the UK? (2025)
X visitor numbers fell 13% year-on-year in the UK. Reach dropped from 45% in May 2024 to 39% in May 2025.
The decline has been steady since 2021. Monthly average adult reach fell from 27.9 million to 22.2 million over that period, a loss of more than 5 million regular visitors.
Average time spent on X is 9 minutes per day. That compares to 32 minutes for TikTok and 49 minutes for Facebook, suggesting X users engage less deeply even when they do visit.
The data confirms what many suspected. X is losing users in the UK, and those who remain spend less time on the platform than users of competing services.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025
What About Threads and Bluesky in the UK? (2025)
Threads reaches 9% of UK online adults, representing 4.3 million people. It peaked at 11% (5.3 million) in July 2024.
Bluesky reaches 6% of UK online adults, about 2.7 million visitors. Growth has been rapid from a small base. Bluesky reached just 0.2% (80,000 users) in May 2024, rising to 1.0% (461,000) by September 2024.
Neither platform has achieved the scale of established services, but both show the appetite for alternatives to X among British users.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025
Time Spent
How Much Time Do UK Adults Spend on Social Media? (2025)
Facebook and Messenger lead with 49 minutes of daily usage among adult visitors. TikTok follows at 32 minutes, then Snapchat at 31 minutes, Instagram at 22 minutes, X at 9 minutes, Reddit at 4 minutes, and LinkedIn at 2 minutes.
YouTube visitors spent 47 minutes per day in 2024. Pinterest users spend just 1 minute per day on average.
Time spent varies dramatically by age. TikTok users aged 18 to 24 spent 64 minutes per day in 2024, compared to 27 minutes for all adults. Snapchat users aged 18 to 24 spent 55 minutes daily.
The time spent figures reveal which platforms command attention versus which are quick check-ins. Facebook and TikTok dominate time. Reddit and LinkedIn are brief visits.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ofcom Online Nations Report 2024
Which Age Group Spends Most Time on TikTok? (2024)
UK adults aged 18 to 24 spent 64 minutes per day on TikTok in 2024. Women in that age group spent 77 minutes, while men spent 48 minutes.
This age group accounts for 39% of total TikTok time by UK adults, despite representing a much smaller share of the population.
A similar pattern appears on Snapchat. Users aged 18 to 24 spent 55 minutes daily, with women at 67 minutes and men at 42 minutes. That age group accounts for 64% of total Snapchat time.
Young adults, particularly young women, drive the majority of engagement on short-form video platforms.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2024
Demographics
Which Social Media Platforms Do Men and Women Use Differently? (2025)
Pinterest has the strongest female skew. 79% of time spent on Pinterest comes from women, with 69% of visitors being female.
TikTok leans female with 63% of time spent coming from women. Instagram is 61% female by time spent. Snapchat is 66% female.
X is the only top 10 social media platform where men predominate. 60% of X visitors are male, and 68% of time spent comes from men.
Reddit and LinkedIn both skew male. Reddit time spent is 59% from men, LinkedIn is 58% from men. Quora is 70% male by time spent.
The gender splits are stark. Platforms are not gender-neutral spaces. Marketing strategies should account for these differences.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ofcom Online Nations Report 2024
Which Social Media Platforms Are Most Popular With Young People? (2025)
Snapchat has the most youth-oriented audience. 66% of visitors are aged 18 to 34, while only 7% are aged 55 and over.
TikTok and Pinterest both see 39% of visitors from the 18 to 34 age group. Reddit reaches 71% of 18 to 24 year olds and 63% of 25 to 34 year olds.
Facebook and Messenger have the highest proportion of visitors aged 55 and over among top 10 platforms.
81% of 18 to 24 year olds visited all three Meta platforms (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram) in 2024. Even young people who prefer other platforms still maintain Meta accounts.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ofcom Online Nations Report 2024
Do Young People Still Use Facebook? (2024)
Only 4% of total Facebook time comes from users aged 18 to 24. Young adults in that age group spend just 15 minutes per day on Facebook, compared to the 39-minute average across all adults.
However, 81% of 18 to 24 year olds still visited all three Meta platforms monthly. They have accounts. They just do not spend time there.
Facebook remains sticky as a utility for events, marketplace, and messaging. But it has lost the attention of young people to TikTok and Snapchat.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2024
Platform Comparisons
How Does UK Social Media Usage Compare Year-Over-Year? (2024-2025)
Facebook reach grew 6% year-on-year to 93%. Instagram grew 7% to 78%. TikTok grew 14% to 56%.
Reddit showed the strongest growth at 28% year-on-year, reaching 60% of UK adults. This follows 47% growth in 2024.
X declined 13% year-on-year, falling from 45% to 39% reach. LinkedIn also declined 3% to 39%.
YouTube remained stable at 94% reach. At that level of penetration, significant growth is mathematically difficult.
The overall picture shows continued growth for video and visual platforms, with text-based services either stable or declining.
Sources: Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025, Ofcom Online Nations Report 2024
- [Ofcom Online Nations Report 2025](https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/online-research/online-nation/2025/online-nations-report-2025.pdf)
- [Ofcom Online Nations Report 2024](https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/online-research/online-nation/2024/online-nation-2024-report.pdf)
- Ipsos iris