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YouTube Stats: How Many People Use YouTube?

Brian Dean

Written by Brian Dean

YouTube Usage and Growth Statistics: How Many People Use YouTube

YouTube was officially founded on February 14th, 2005. The first video followed on April 23rd, with co-founder Jawed Karim publishing “Me at the zoo”. The now-legendary 18 seconds of the film has been viewed over 302 million times.

With over 2.49 billion monthly active users, the platform has come a long way. In fact, 47% of all global internet users access YouTube every single month.

This article is a one-stop shop for a variety of YouTube demographic and usage statistics.

Here’s a summary of what you’ll learn:

So now let’s dive into the stats.

YouTube Statistics (Top Picks)

  • YouTube currently has 2.49 billion users. Up from 2 billion users in 2019.
  • 47% of all global internet users access YouTube monthly.
  • YouTube’s user count of 2.49 billion places it second on the list of most-used social media platforms. Only Facebook has more users.
  • India has the most YouTube users, estimated at 462 million. The United States follows, with 239 million.
  • Globally, more women than men use YouTube.
  • Quarterly YouTube ad revenue is nearly $8 billion.
  • On average, individual creators receive between $1.61-$29.3 per 1000 views.

YouTube Monthly Active Users

Monthly active users is a statistic denoting how many unique visitors YouTube receives in a given month. This figure only measures logged-in users, so the actual numbers may be even higher.

  • YouTube has over 2.49 billion monthly active users. Among these, there are more than 80 million paid subscribers, taking into account YouTube’s Premium and Music services.
  • Just over a third of the world’s population access YouTube every month.
  • 47% of the online global population are YouTube monthly active users.

Sources: DataReportal, YouTube

YouTube User Growth

YouTube currently has 2.49 billion users. Which means close to half of the global online population are YouTube users. So how did the video sharing platform get to this point?

YouTube User Growth

There isn’t any official consolidated data on YouTube’s user growth rate over time, but we can get a reasonable idea by pulling various sources together. Here are some milestones in terms of YouTube’s user growth.

Note: Due to differences in methodology, data from multiple sources above may not be comparable.
Year Users Per Month
2006 20 million
2008 160 million
2012 800 million
2013 1 billion
2014 1.3 billion
2019 2 billion
2021 2.29 billion
2022 2.52 billion
2023 2.49 billion

YouTube currently ranks as the 2nd most visited website worldwide. The only website to receive more traffic is that of its parent company, Google.

Sources: DataReportal, Semrush, The New York Times, The New Yorker, CNBC, The Mercury News, CNET

YouTube Users by Country

YouTube is localized in over 100 countries. It can also be used in 80 different languages. Clearly, the video sharing platform has become a truly global phenomenon. But how do usage statistics break down by country?

India has the largest YouTube audience. At least 462 million people living in India are YouTube users – that’s around 38.4% of the adult reach rate. The USA comes in second on raw user count, but that translates to a much higher proportion of the country.

YouTube Users by Country

Around 77.7% of the entire US population aged 18+ are YouTube users.

Here are the top countries by total estimated number of YouTube users:

Country YouTube Users
India 462 million
USA 239 million
Brazil 144 million
Indonesia 139 million
Mexico 83.1 million
Japan 78.6 million
Pakistan 71.7 million
Germany 67.8 million
Vietnam 63 million
Philippines 58.1 million
Turkey 57.5 million
UK 56.2 million
France 50.7 million
Egypt 44.7 million
South Korea 44.3 million
Thailand 44.2 million
Italy 42.8 million
Spain 39.7 million
Bangladesh 33.6 million
Canada 31.9 million

Sources: YouTube, DataReportal

Ranked 2nd: Most Used Social Media Platforms Worldwide

In 2023, YouTube is ranked second amongst all global social media platforms. Sorted by the number of active users, it is beaten only by Facebook.

Most Used Social Media Platforms Worldwide

TikTok’s ascent to 1.22 billion users occurred in just six years. It took YouTube around nine years to hit the same milestone – so if that meteoric growth continues, we may yet see some movement towards the top of this table.

For context, there are just shy of 4.95 billion active social media users globally. So YouTube is one of just two sites that can claim to have captured at least a 50% share of all social media users.

Platform Users
Facebook 3.03 billion
YouTube 2.49 billion
WhatsApp 2 billion
Instagram 2 billion
WeChat 1.33 billion
TikTok 1.22 billion
Messenger 1.04 billion
Telegram 800 million
Snapchat 750 million
Douyin 743 million
Kuaishou 673 million
X (Twitter) 666 million
Sina Weibo 599 million
QQ 571 million
Pinterest 465 million

Source: DataReportal

YouTube User Demographics

Given that YouTube has 2.49 billion users, it can be safely said that people from a whole range of demographics use the site. But user breakdowns can give an idea of the groups of society where YouTube is the most popular.

YouTube Gender Demographics

51.4% of all adult YouTube users in the USA use female, while the remaining 48.6% are male. But globally more male users use YouTube compared to female users, around 54.4% of YouTube users are male and 45.6% are female.

Any content creators without a specifically gendered target market should therefore be looking to make videos with a relatively even male/female viewer split in mind.

Source: DataReportal

YouTube Age Demographics

More than half (50.6%) of YouTube users are Gen Z and Millennials (born between 1981 and 2012). Only 15% of US YouTube are Baby boomers (1946-1964).

50.6% of YouTube users are Gen Z and Millennials

Here’s a detailed breakdown of US users by generation:

Generation Share of US YouTube users
Gen Z (1997-2012) 25.1%
Millennials (1981-1996) 25.5%
Gen X (1965-1980) 19.9%
Baby Boomers (1946-1964) 15.0%
Other 14.5%

Globally, around 54.3% of YouTube users are aged between 18 and 34 years old.

Note: Values may not sum up to 100% and may not reflect the total active user base.
Age group Share of global YouTube users
18-24 15.5%
25-34 21.3%
35-44 17.5%
45-54 12.5%
55-64 9.2%
65+ 9.2%

Sources: eMarketer, DataReportal

YouTube Location Demographics

US adults living in urban areas are more likely to use YouTube. 84% of city-dwellers are users, dropping to 81% in suburbia and 74% in rural locations.

Sorted by country, India has the most YouTube users. The USA follows, with Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico next.

Sources: Pew Research Center, DataReportal

YouTube Income Demographics

In the USA, YouTube is most popular among high earners. 90% of those earning $75,000 or more say that they sometimes visit YouTube.

Among Americans with an income of $30,000-$49,999 income, 83% are Youtube users, and dropping to 79% among US adults with an income of between $50,000 and $74,999. That figure drops again for those earning under $30k, with 75% of this group using YouTube.

Source: Pew Research Center

YouTube user education level data

These statistics reveal a correlation between YouTube usage in the USA and higher levels of education.

70% of adults with a high school education or less use the video-sharing platform. This rises to 86% for those with some college education. Among those with more than a college education, 89% use YouTube.

Source: Pew Research Center

YouTube usage by device

In YouTube’s early days, PCs and laptops were the only real viewing options. But the digital landscape has changed hugely since 2005. Smartphones and smart TVs have altered how people interact with the world – and with YouTube specifically.

The YouTube mobile app has over 10 billion downloads on the Google Play store. It is therefore unsurprising that 63% of all views on YouTube come from mobile devices.

63% of all views on YouTube come from mobile devices

To put it in a perspective, desktop computers accounted for only 12% of YouTube views.

Here’s a detailed of breakdown of global YouTube views by device in Q2 2021:

Device Share of YouTube video views
Mobile 63%
Connected TV/other 14%
Desktop 12%
Tablet 8%
Console 3%

With the rising popularity of YouTube Shorts, mobile share likely has increased since then.

Sources: eMarketer, Google Play

Most-Subscribed YouTube Channels

T-Series, India’s largest music label, is the most-subscribed YouTube channel.

Most-Subscribed YouTube Channels

Here are the exact subscriber numbers:

Channel Subscribers
T-Series (music) 257 million
MrBeast (entertainment) 228 million
CocoMelon – Nursery Rhymes (education) 170 million
SET India (entertainment) 167 million
Kids Diana Show (film) 117 million
PewDiePie (entertainment) 111 million
Like Nastya (entertainment) 111 million
Vlad and Niki (entertainment) 107 million
Zee Music Company (music) 103 million
WWE (sports) 98.8 million

Source: SocialBlade

Most-Viewed YouTube Videos

Baby Shark Dance is the most viewed YouTube video of all time, reaching over 13.3 billion hits.

Most-Viewed YouTube Videos

The top 10 is dominated by music. It looks like this:

Video Views
Baby Shark Dance (music, kids) 13.3 billion
Despacito (music) 8.25 billion
Johny Johny Yes Papa (music, kids) 6.78 billion
Bath Song (music, kids) 6.38 billion
Shape of You (music) 6.07 billion
See You Again (music) 6.01 billion
Wheels on the Bus (music, kids) 5.53 billion
Phonic Song with Two Words (music, kids) 5.47 billion
Uptown Funk (music) 5.02 billion
Learning Colors – Colorful Eggs on a Farm (music, kids) 4.45 billion

Source: Statista

YouTube by the Money

In November 2006, Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. At the time, this was considered a hugely risky investment. Now, it earns nearly 5x this in ad revenue – quarterly.

YouTube advertising revenue amounted to $22.31 billion in the first nine months of 2023, a 4.84% year-on-year increase.

YouTube’s ads accounted for a 10.09% share of Alphabet’s overall revenue in the first nine months of 2023.

These figures don’t even include money from subscriptions. YouTube hit 80 million Music and Premium subscribers worldwide. Monthly individual subscription for YouTube Premium in the US costs between $11.99 and $13.99.

Creators who are a part of the Partner Program on YouTube are paid 55% of advertising revenue, YouTube takes 45% cut. Actual earnings among YouTube creators vary significantly, depending on factors such as engagement rate, but as a rough average channel owners can earn between $1.61 and $29.30 for every 1000 video views.

Sources: Investopedia, Alphabet, TechCrunch 1, TechCrunch 1, Business Insider

Conclusion

You made it! That’s the end of my list of YouTube user statistics.

Hopefully, you found these facts and figures informative. Lots of the YouTube stats beyond their press page require some hunting down, but I’ve done my best to put a good selection together in one place.

Now I’d like to hear from you:

Any questions? Or anything you’d like to see added to this YouTube roundup?

Either way, please let me know in the comments below.

1 Comments

  1. Kyra Avatar Kyrasays:

    I definitely didn’t know there was this much to Youtube! But thanks to a curious soul, I didn’t have to research it myself. This was so helpful, thanks a million. Or… could I say thanks 2 billion?

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