Demographics · United States
Who uses social media?
Explore differences by age, income, education, disability status and race/Hispanic origin. Start with the population each survey actually covers.
Choose a question, then keep its survey population with the answer. NTIA measures social-network participation among internet users aged 15+. Pew's selected platform findings cover all U.S. adults aged 18+. Those measures provide different perspectives; they do not form one demographic ranking.
Sources: NTIA Internet Use Survey, November 2023 · Pew Research Center, 2025 adult survey. Original definitions and source dates remain attached to the linked findings.
Participation across demographic groups
These analyses use the same NTIA survey question and period. Each percentage describes internet users within its own group; it is not the share of all people in that group.
- Social-network use by family income
Five family-income groups, original definitions and source uncertainty.
NTIA · U.S. internet users 15+ · November 2023 - Social-network use by education
Four attainment categories, distinct from current student status.
NTIA · U.S. internet users 15+ · November 2023 - Social-network use by disability status
Two CPS-reported groups, screening definitions and comparison limits.
NTIA · U.S. internet users 15+ · November 2023 - Social-network use by race and Hispanic origin
Six source categories, Hispanic-any-race definitions and uncertainty.
NTIA · U.S. internet users 15+ · November 2023
Source: NTIA Analyze Table, Nov 2023 / socialNetworkUser / adultInternetUser. Prior-six-month activity; source standard errors retained. Family income, attainment, reported disability and race/Hispanic origin are separate breakdowns, not combined intersections.
Age differences in platform adoption
For selected Instagram, Reddit and YouTube comparisons, follow the younger and older adult estimates within Pew's 2025 survey. These findings ask whether adults ever use a platform; they do not measure daily activity or growth as people age.
- Social media use by age
Selected platform adoption estimates across younger and older adults.
Pew · U.S. adults 18+ · 2025 - The U.S. platform age gap
Follow three within-platform age comparisons and their calculations.
Pew · U.S. adults 18+ · 2025
Source: Pew Social Media Fact Sheet, February 5–June 18, 2025 fieldwork. U.S. adults aged 18+, including non-internet users. Selected attributed findings; no comprehensive Pew dataset or export is offered.
Go from the finding to its data
| Reader question | Population and measure | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Participation within demographic groups | NTIA; U.S. internet users aged 15+; activity during the prior six months; November 2023 | NTIA dataset and versions |
| Adoption of a named platform by age | Pew; U.S. adults aged 18+; reported ever use; 2025 | Selected age findings |
| Frequency or time among teens | Separate CDC school and Gallup teen populations, questions and periods | Usage habits and teen evidence |
Definitions: NTIA dataset, Pew age findings, CDC school-student frequency and Gallup teen duration. Reading across sources is not a like-for-like comparison.
Use the breakdown the source supplies
Additional NTIA groups and the age-15+ cutoff
The underlying NTIA dataset also contains age, source sex and race/Hispanic-origin categories. They can be explored as separate published views, with their original labels and errors. A dataset breakdown does not imply that every possible report or intersection has been researched.
NTIA's 15–24 band includes teenagers and adults. It cannot be relabelled a teen-only survey or matched directly to Pew's 18–29 group.
Why these reports do not establish causes or trends
These are descriptive group comparisons. Marginal percentages do not adjust for other characteristics or supply age-by-income, education-by-disability or demographic-by-platform intersections. Original source SEs do not by themselves supply a variance for every difference. Growth requires a separately reviewed compatible series.
Comparison methodologyGeography and international evidence
State comparisons belong in the United States overview and state-estimates guide. Eurostat's European age comparison has its own all-individual denominator and three-month window; it is a separate evidence path.
NTIA data period: November 2023; source-table publication 6 June 2024. Pew data period: 2025; source publication 20 November 2025. Retained evidence checks occurred in 2026; this collection does not advance the underlying data periods. Sources and reuse limits.