Hootsuite: Instagram Stats Need to Know in 2023

Instagram in 2023 is a quickly evolving social platform, with features changing and moving and disappearing at a sometimes dizzying rate.

Rather than chasing platform updates from Meta, ground yourself in hard data that shows what exactly Instagram is right now and how it's likely to change in the year to come.

These 34 Instagram statistics paint a picture of a platform with a shifting audience that's nonetheless holding its own in a crowded social landscape. You'll find some valuable insights for planning your Instagram marketing strategy this year.

General Instagram stats

1. Instagram is the 8th most visited website in the world

According to Semrush, based on total website traffic, Instagram is one of the world's top 10 most-visited websites globally, with 4.25 billion total visits per month.

Importantly, while most users login through the mobile app, this stat is a good reminder that people may be viewing your posts on their desktops or laptops, too. That means you can't count on everyone seeing features that are only available in the app, like product tags. It's worth mentioning product names in your captions so web users can track them down if they're inspired to buy.

4. Just 0.1% of Instagram users only use Instagram

The likelihood that an Instagram user also has an account on another social platform is 99.9%. 83% of Instagram users, for example, are Facebook users, while 56% are also on Twitter and 52% also use TikTok.

(Conversely, 81% of TikTokers also use Instagram.)

What does this mean for marketers? You're likely reaching the same people across different platforms. Make sure your content is unique, engaging, and relevant for followers on each platform with a strategic cross-platform campaign.

Instagram usage stats

11. Users spend an average of 11.7 hours/month on Instagram

It ranks fifth among social platforms, behind YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and WhatsApp. But no matter how you slice it, that's almost half a day every month spent consuming content on the platform.

13. Instagram accounted for 17% of the time U.S. adults spent on social media in 2022

eMarketer expects this to grow to 18.6% in 2024. In 2022 Instagram still beat TikTok for percentage of time spent, but by 2024 they'll be tied.

Instagram Story stats

14. The potential ad audience on Instagram Stories is 996 million

For reference, you can potentially reach 1.32 billion users on the main feed. Does that mean main feed is a better ad bet? Not necessarily. It all depends where your audience spends most of their time.

Instagram analytics can help you figure out whether Stories or main feed posts get more attention from your audience. While this isn't the only factor to consider when planning Instagram ad placement, it's a useful data point to have on hand.

There's an important lesson here for overworked social media managers: Give yourself a break. If the most active brands are posting stories about every other day, you can feel confident saying no to a boss who expects daily Stories content.

Again, for reference, feed ads can reach up to 1.32 billion, and Stories ads can reach up to 996 million. Expect this to change in the coming year as Reels ads become more mainstream 

Instagram stats for business

16. Instagram is the #1 social media platform for people to connect with brands

This stat comes from a Meta-commissioned Ipsos Marketing study. The exact phrasing is "people surveyed said Instagram is the #1 place to keep up with their favorite brands compared to other platforms." What exactly this means may be open to interpretation, but it certainly shows that people interested in your brand expect to find you on Instagram. 

17. The average Instagram business account grows its followers by 0.98% each month

Of course, this varies significantly by industry. Here are some industry-specific Instagram follower growth stats benchmarks:

• Education: 0.03%
• Entertainment and media: -1.59%
• Financial services: -0.07%
• Food and beverage: -0.88%
• Real estate: -0.06%
• Retail: -0.37%
• Travel/hospitality/leisure: 0.33%

Notice that growth is negative right now for many industries – so don't be alarmed if you've seen your own follower count drop a little in recent months. To counteract the trend, check out our tips for growing your Instagram followers here.

18. 35% of Instagram users will make a purchase on the platform in 2023

That's just behind Facebook and TikTok, both of which will see a purchase percentage of 37%.

But percentages don't tell the whole story because of the varying user numbers for each platform. Here's how it breaks down in terms of actual people making purchases on each social network:

19. Instagram accounts for 7.51% of web traffic referrals from social media

hat might not sound like a lot, but it's actually the third-ranked platform behind Facebook and Twitter. (Facebook is the runaway leader in this category with 71.64%.)

The more important detail here is that Instagram's share of web traffic grew 88.2% last year, while Facebook's shrank 0.8%. Instagram used to have a real shortage of ways to link out to websites, but that's dramatically changed with shopping features like link stickers and tags. Watch for this figure to continue to grow.

Instagram ad stats31. 61% of Instagram's advertising audience is aged 18 to 34

Here are the specifics of how it breaks down by age and gender.

Read more stats at Hootsuite