Sure, you’ve got some idea of who is using Instagram: your best friend, your boss, your uncle, that girl who sat behind you in physics. After all, you see their sunset pics every day as you scroll through the app.

But to really understand broader Instagram demographics, social media marketers need to look beyond their personal feeds and dig into the cold, hard numbers. More than a billion people use Instagram every month — that’s a global smorgasbord of users. And understanding who they are, where they’re from, and what they do is from is key to crafting a strong social marketing strategy that will drive engagement.

To get the full scoop on just who is posting, scrolling, liking, and sharing on the second-most downloaded app in the world, read on.

Instagram age demographics

To understand Instagram user demographics, it’s important to take a look at Instagram age demographics first. Is the app still as teen-centric as it once was, or has TikTok siphoned off the attention of the youngest cohort of social media users, leaving it in the hands of tech-savvy grandmas?

Here’s how Instagram users are broken down by age, according to our Global State of Digital 2022 report:

• 13-17 years old: 8.5%
• 18-24 years old: 30.1%
• 25-34 years old: 31.5%
• 35-44 years old: 16.1%
• 45-54 years old: 8%
• 55-64 years old: 3.6%
• 65 years old and up: 2.1%

The takeaway? As of 2022, the majority of Instagram’s audience are Millennial or Gen Z users.

In fact, overall, Instagram is Gen Z’s favorite social platform. Global internet users aged 16 to 24 prefer Instagram to other social platforms — yep, even ranking it above TikTok. If that’s an age cohort you’re looking to reach (hey, kids!), Insta is apparently the place to be.

That’s not to say there aren’t older users on the app as well: around 13% of Instagram’s audience is aged 45-plus. But if your target market includes Boomers, Instagram might not be the most effective place to reach them. You’d be better off connecting with this group on alternative platforms. Brush up on your Facebook marketing skills with our guide here.

One note about Gen Xers, though: it’s the fastest-growing group of users on the app. Last year, the number of 55- to 64-year-old males using Instagram grew by 63.6%. That’s a lot of growth on a platform designed for showing off, considering Gen X is a generation generally associated with irony. Growing up!

Wondering about even younger users? In a 2018 survey, 15% of teens reported that Instagram was the app they use most often. (35% say the same thing about Snapchat, while 32% list Youtube as their most-used social platform.)

And according to a poll by Pew Research Center, 11% of U.S. parents say their 9-11 year-olds use Instagram. “How is that possible?” you may be wondering, out loud. “Doesn’t Instagram require account holders to be at least 13 years old?” This is true, but younger users can run accounts managed by parents or guardians — good news if you want to impress some tweens with your engaging Instagram content.

Instagram gender demographics

This gender balance for Instagram is unique among social media platforms — both Twitter and Facebook skew more heavily towards male users, while Instagram keeps things split almost down the middle (hey, ladies!).

The balance of male to female users is fairly evenly split, with total male users (50.7%) edging out total female users (49.3%) by just a hair. (Though that isn’t necessarily the case in every age category; for users aged 35 and up, for instance, women outnumber men.)

Of course, this is all a pretty binary way of looking at gender. There are plenty of non-binary users on the app, too, who unfortunately are not measured in the stats that have currently been collected by Instagram.

Instagram, however, did introduce the ability to list preferred pronouns in profiles back in May 2021 — perhaps a sign that more diverse gender options will be available in the data someday soon? (Though you never can predict what the folks at Insta HQ will get up to next. Remember when they brought back chronological feeds? Make up your minds, you maniacs!)

Instagram location demographics

In order to make this next segment into a multi-sensory experience, I invite you to cue up the Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? acapella theme song, only replace “Carmen San Diego” with “Instagram’s Global Audience.”

In terms of advertising reach, the top countries and territories with the largest audiences on Instagram are India, the U.S., Brazil, Indonesia, and Russia.

That’s right: India takes the lead, after the U.S. had dominated the app for years.

What a twist! Marketers looking to tap into an engaged Indian audience: it’s clear that Instagram is the social platform for you. Congratulations and we hope you’ll be very happy together.

India has more than 230 million users, and is also Instagram’s fastest-growing market, currently increasing its audience by 16% quarter-over-quarter.

Clocking in at a very respectable #2, the U.S. has a reach of 159,750,000. But, interestingly, while Instagram is the fourth most-visited social media platform in the country, it’s not a major source of news for Americans. While 40% of Americans have ever used Instagram, only one-in-10 U.S. adults regularly get their current events from the app — a far lower number than those who report getting news from Facebook or Youtube.

So if you’re looking to connect with a U.S. audience, it would be wise to keep things light and fresh. This is a platform people come to for entertainment, not news. Need some creative content ideas (besides remixes of the Carmen San Diego theme song)? We’ve got you covered.

Elsewhere in the world, there are some other impressive stats brewing. Brunei is the country with the largest population reach: 92% of its residents use the app. (Guam and the Cayman Islands take second and third place, respectively.)

Instagram income demographics

They say it’s uncouth to discuss money — but this is the Hootsuite blog! We’re the “bad boys” of the social media marketing world and we play by our own rules! Just try and stop us! Ideally with a big payout! Because we have no shame in talking about money, as previously discussed!

The most recent data we have on this is from 2018, so it’s possible things have changed in the last few years, but according to Statista, only 44% of households with an annual income of less than $30,000 use Instagram, while households that bring in over $100,000 are more likely to use the app: 60%, in fact.

The takeaway? Instagram audiences come from a wide range of financial backgrounds (in the U.S. at least) but are slightly more likely to be from higher-income homes. This makes it a prime avenue for ecommerce and sales, so perfect those social media calls to action and consider exploring Instagram Shopping.

Instagram education demographics

Are Instagram users fanning themselves with their diplomas as they view your hot, hot posts? It’s pretty likely. As of February 2019, 43% of Instagram users held a college degree, while another 37% had some college education under their belts.

Only 33% of Instagrammers reported having a high school degree or less. Overall, we’re looking at a highly educated bunch of users on this app. If reaching this type of audience is key to your social media marketing strategy, you’ve come to the right place.

Instagram regional demographics

Farm folks aren’t too keen on the ‘Gram, it turns out. A shame, because I personally would love to see more barnyard animals in my feed.

In all seriousness though, Instagram has a higher market reach in urban and suburban areas than rural ones, according to Pew Research Center. So if you’re looking to target Farmer Brown with your brand’s cute new overall designs, you might have more luck on a platform like Facebook.

For Instagram, the regional breakdown is as follows for U.S. adults:

• 45% of urbanites have used the app
• 41% of suburbanites have used the app
• 25% of rural residents have used the app

Instagram interests demographics

No matter the Instagram demographic, people use the social network to delve into their interests. Recent research commissioned by Facebook finds that 91% of people polled say they use Instagram to follow an interest. In India, it’s 98%.

The research finds that the top interests on Instagram are travel (45%), music (44%), and food and drink (43%). Bucking the trend, people in India favour technology as their top interest. In Argentina, Brazil, Korea, and Turkey, film ranks in the top three. Among parents in the UK, the top five interests are food, travel, fashion, beauty, and unsurprisingly, parenting.

If you found these Instagram demographics compelling, we think you’ll dig our list of Instagram statistics every social pro should know, too. Go and get your quantitative data on, you wild and crazy social media marketer, you!

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