Facebook dominates and Twitter drops – how Swedes use social media 2016

Swedes like social media and our use of it continues to grow. 77 percent of all internet users* use social media, and we continue to spend more time on it. Facebook is still the most popular and continues to increase in all age groups except those under 16. There, Snapchat and Instagram are the most popular. Twitter is however losing users. This comes from the report “Swedes and Social Media 2016” by The Swedish Internet Foundation. The report is an excerpt of the upcoming yearly report “Swedes and the Internet.”

Today 77 percent of all internet users occasionally use social media and 58 percent use it every day. Those using social media do so at an average of 7.1 hours per week, which is an increase of 30 minutes from last year and almost a 50 percent increase during the last three years. The most frequent users are young women between the ages of 16 – 25 who devote around 12 hours per week to social media.

How many people use different social networks

Facebook – 71 percent

Instagram – 44 percent

Linkedin – 26 percent

Snapchat – 25 percent

Twitter – 18 percent

Kik – 10 percent

Reddit – 8 percent

5 million Swedes use Facebook

The use of Facebook continues to grow and has done so since the measurements began in 2011. 71 percent use Facebook, compared to 70 percent the year before. This means that around 5 million Swedes are users. Around half of all internet users are on Facebook every day.

– Facebook has gone from being just a social media service to being more or less a must, a part of the infrastructure for communication on the internet, says Pamela Davidsson, Head of Statistics at The Swedish Internet Foundation.

The biggest number of users are in the group of 16-25 year olds where 94 percent use Facebook. The only group where the use decreases is among youth under 16. Two years ago, 80 percent of 12-15 year olds used Facebook, but today that number is down to 67 percent.

Twitter drops for the first time

After a steady increase since the start of measurements in 2011, the number of users of Twitter has decreased; from 22 percent last year to 18 percent in 2016, which is a reversal to the same level as 2013. This is the first time there has been a drop for social media in the survey at all. Less than half of those who visit Twitter write something themselves, and only 3 percent of Twitter users tweet daily.   

New services increase among youth

Snapchat is one of the social medias that has increased the most in Sweden since 2015 (from 21 to 25 percent). Here the difference between use however differs with age groups. Among teenage girls, the use is skyrocketing.

– 92 percent of high school girls use Snapchat every day. This is the highest daily use of a service we have ever measured, says Pamela Davidsson.

The older users have not found Snapchat and therefore it is rare with users over age 35. Up to 25 years, there are at least 75 percent using Snapchat, but over age 56 there is almost no use at all.

Kik and Reddit are new services in the survey

For the first time, the group chat Kik and the social news site Redding are in the survey. 10 percent of internet users use Kik. The most common are the ages of 12-15 where 59 percent are users. From 26 years old and up, there are only 4 percent who use Kik. Reddit has considerably more users among men than women. 14 percent of men have at some time used Reddit, while corresponding numbers for women are only 2 percent.

Women more active than men

A larger number of women than men use social media. The women dominate Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, while a larger number of men use Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit. Women also spend more time than men on social media, on average 7.8 hours per week compared to men at 6.3 hours. Men over age 36 spend about as much time per week regardless of age while women’s use drops with age. It is notable though that women over age 76 who use social media do so on average of 4 hours per week.

Swedes and social media – a part of Swedes and the Internet

Swedes and social media 2016 is a part of The Swedish Internet Foundation yearly survey “Swedes and the Internet” that will be released November 10^th.

Swedes and the Internet is based on primary data collection from The Swedish Internet Foundation, which surveys Swedes use of the internet. The total number of those interviewed are 3,000 people from age 12 and up during the period of February to April 2016.

Read the report on Swedes and social media 2016: http://www.soi2016.se

* With internet users provided those who answered that they occasionally use the internet and are 12 years or older.