YouTube by the Numbers: Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts

1. YouTube User Statistics 

According to the latest official figures, YouTube has 2.6 billion users (Statista, 2022). The research firm Statista provides further insights that show that the platform boasts about 1.86 billion active users. 

While the current figures place YouTube’s monthly active users at about 2.6 billion, the actual figures might even be higher. This is because the numbers are calculated per number of people that actually log in to the website (or app).  

However, there are other ways people watch videos, such as the ability to watch YouTube videos on WhatsApp, which takes YouTube’s reach even higher. 

With such a huge audience, YouTube remains one of the best platforms for your digital marketing efforts. 

2. YouTube Demographics: Geography 

India has the highest number of active YouTube users. At least 467 million people in India regularly access YouTube ‒ that’s approximately 16% of the total population. 

The United States comes second as the country with the most YouTube users, with about 240 million active YouTube users.  

Indonesia (127 million), Brazil (107 million), and Russia (99 million) take up the next three positions at the countries with the highest number of YouTube users. 

While India leads with the total number of YouTube users, the United States’ usage translates to a much higher proportion of the country.  

81% of the entire U.S. adult population uses YouTube (Pew Research, 2021). 

YouTube is currently localized in over 100 countries and can be used in 80 different languages (YouTube, 2021). This fact has made it possible for the fast penetration of the platform to other countries globally.  

As of January 2022, the Netherlands is the country with the highest YouTube penetration at 95%. South Korea ranks second at 94%, while New Zealand ranks third at 93.9%. African countries Nigeria and Kenya have a YouTube penetration of under 30% (Statista, 2022). 

3. YouTube Demographics: Gender 

53.9% of YouTube’s total users are male, while 46.1% are female (Statista, 2022). YouTube’s current reporting structure supports the two genders (male and female) of people between 16 and 64 years. 

4. YouTube Demographics: Age 

YouTube reports on its usage for those between 16 and 64 years. As of 2021, 82% of all male adults are on YouTube, while 80% of all females access the platform in the U.S. (Pew Research, 2021). 

According to a 2021 Pew Research report, 95% of 18-29 year-olds and 91% of 30-49 year-olds in the U.S. use YouTube.

The younger generation isn’t the only one that uses the platform as 1 in 3 baby boomers go on YouTube to learn more about a product or service.  

Besides that, 80% of U.S. parents of children under 11 years old claimed that their kids watch YouTube (Pew Research, 2020). 

What’s even more interesting, 49% of 65+ year-olds in the U.S. use YouTube.

YouTube is a popular social media platform for every demographic group, and no wonder – video is the fastest and the most efficient source of information in this day and age.

5. YouTube’s Usage Statistics 

With 122+ million daily active users on YouTube consuming more than a billion hours of video every day, this is one of the most widely used social media platforms (and search engines) in the world (YouTube, 2021). 

On average, users spend 18 minutes on YouTube every day (Alexa, 2021) browsing at least eight different pages on the platform.  

It has all become easier thanks to the variety of content available on this social platform. There are more than 31 million YouTube channels to choose content from.  

6. YouTube’s Popularity among Users 

Besides being the only other major social media platform with over 2 billion users (only Facebook ranks higher), YouTube is the second-most popular social media platform in the world (Statista, 2021). 

It is also the second-most popular search engine right after Google, racking up over a billion hours of views every day (YouTube, 2021). In fact, YouTube receives more search queries than other major search engine platforms like Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask ‒ combined.  

70% of all YouTube traffic comes from mobile devices (YouTube, 2019). The platform’s popularity makes it easy for a larger audience to reach it, reaching more U.S. mobile content consumers than any other television network. 

7. YouTube’s Popularity among Marketers 

To put it into perspective, the total number of social media users in the world is just a little shy of 4 billion people. YouTube has 2+ billion users, meaning more than 50% of all social media users are on YouTube. 

These figures mean a lot to digital marketers that wish to reach a larger audience. Video content has taken over the world, owing to the latest video marketing statistics. And where best to market your videos than the world’s largest video search engine? 

As of 2020, YouTube was the fifth most used social media platform for marketers after Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. 

Regardless of its high potential, many small business owners in the U.S. are yet to make good use of YouTube, as only 9% of small businesses are on YouTube. However, the platform is quite popular among digital marketers as 55% of marketers use YouTube. 

However, owing to its popularity, it is no surprise that 50.9% of B2B decision-makers use YouTube to research purchases. This makes YouTube outrank the likes of Facebook (48.5%) and LinkedIn (33%) for this purpose.  

YouTube has a high convincing power to buyers, increasing their buying intent, and according to data shared by Google, 70% of viewers bought from a brand after seeing it on YouTube. 

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