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20 Snapchat Demographics That Matter to Marketers in 2024

Use these Snapchat demographics stats to build a data-driven strategy and effectively reach your target audience on the platform.

Alyssa Hirose July 11, 2022
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As far as social media platforms go, Snapchat is pretty casual. Taking a photo, typing out some text and sending it to a friend can be done in—well—a snap. But that’s social networking. When it comes to marketing on the app, strategy is key. Developing a successful plan for your brand requires knowing a lot about your audience, and that includes which social platforms they use, and how, and why.

Snapchat ads have the potential to reach 9% of the world’s population. That’s about 712 million people. But who are they? How old are they? Where do they live? Depending on whether your brand serves cool teens or hip grandparents (or both: see stat #10) you’ll want to do some research on the app before investing your hard-earned dollars on a marketing campaign.

Here are all the Snapchat stats and demographics you need to know.

Bonus: Find out what people really want from brands on social—including why they follow, engage, buy, and even unfollow them—in The Social Media Consumer Report.

General Snapchat demographics

1. Snapchat is the world’s 12th most popular social media platform.

It ranks below Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and TikTok, but above Pinterest and Twitter.

world's most used social media platforms in January 2022

Source: Digital 2022

2. Every minute, 2 million snaps are sent.

That’s an awful lot of mirror selfies, dog photos and pictures of people’s foreheads.

media usage in an Internet minute as of August 2021

Source: Statista

3. Snapchat has over 306 million daily active users.

That’s on any average day—a year over year improvement from 2021’s 249 million.

Snapchat daily active users

Source: Digital 2022

4. 1.4% of internet users ages 16 to 64 call Snapchat their favourite social media app.

That might not sound like a lot, but there’s 4.95 billion internet users in total—so 1.4% is plenty (over 69 million).

favourite social media platforms 2022

Source: Digital 2022

5. Advertisers on SnapChat have the potential to reach 557.1 million people.

All together, that adds up to 7% of the planet’s entire population. Of those people, 53.8% identify as female and 45.4% identify as male.

Snapchat advertising audience overview

Source: Digital 2022

(But ads are not the only way to do marketing on the platform. Learn more in our guide to using Snapchat for business.)

6. On average, Snapchat users spend 3 hours per month on the platform.

It’s tied with Facebook Messenger and Telegram.

time spent with social media apps

Source: Digital 2022

7. Almost 50% of Reddit users also use Snapchat.

Of the social platforms studied in our 2022 Digital Report, Reddit users were the most likely to also use Snapchat (on the other side, Snapchat users are most likely to also use Instagram—90% of them do).

Source: Digital 2022

Snapchat age demographics

8. 39% of Snapchat’s advertising audience is between the ages of 18 and 24.

18 to 24 year olds are the largest age group that use Snapchat, followed by ages 25 to 34 and ages 13 to 17. So if your brand targets Gen Z audiences, Snapchat should definitely be on your radar.

Snapchat advertising audience profile

Source: Digital 2022

9. 3.7% of Snapchat’s advertising audience is over the age of 50.

That might make you rethink using the app for advertising if you are targeting older audiences, but…

10. People over the age of 50 represent Snapchat’s fastest growing audience.

According to our October 2021 report, Snapchat usage amongst folks over the age of 50 grew by 25% in less than a year—it’s a community of Snapchatters that is increasing at a faster rate than any other age group. In particular, men over the age of 50 started snapping more.

quarterly change in Snapchat audience reach

Source: Digital 2021

11. Snapchat has the largest age gap in users compared to other social platforms.

According to Pew Research Center, there’s around a 63 year age difference between the youngest and oldest Snapchat users. That’s larger than Instagram’s age gap (58 years) and a lot larger than Facebook’s age gap (20 years).

age gaps in Snapchat, Instagram use are particularly wide, less so for Facebook
Source: Pew Research

12. 54% of Gen Z snappers use the app weekly.

In this case, Gen Z refers to folks aged 12 to 17. The stat remained stable over the last two years (while weekly Instagram users went down and weekly TikTok users went up, weekly Snapchat users stayed the same).

So it doesn’t look like Snapchat’s younger generation audience is shrinking, but it’s not necessarily growing, either—consistency is the name of the game.

graph of Gen Z social media usage

Source: Statista

13. In 2022, TikTok finally surpassed Snapchat as teenagers’ favourite social media app.

That’s according to an eMarketer survey published in April 2022. New kid on the block TikTok beat Snapchat out in the hearts of teens,

teen social network users in the US, by platform, 2020-2023

Source: eMarketer

14. But, 84% of teens say they use Snapchat at least once a month.

So on the engagement side, Snapchat still beats TikTok when it comes to teenagers (80% of teens said they use TikTok at least once per month).

Snapchat gender demographics

15. Globally, 52.9% of global Snapchat users identify as female.

And 46.3% identify as male. That’s a pretty equal gender match, meaning that advertising on this messaging app should reach all genders at around the same rate.

share of female versus male respondents Snapchat usage

Source: Statista

16. In the United States, 55.1% of Snapchatters identify as female.

And 44.9% identify as male, which aligns quite closely with the global numbers—but if we’re splitting hairs, the stats for Snapchat skew a little more female in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world. That means female-focused content does well on Snapchat, so consider using the platform if your brand makes products geared towards women.

share of female versus male respondents Snapchat usage US

Source: Statista

Snapchat income demographics

17. 29% of American adults who make between $50,000 and $74,999 a year use Snapchat.

It’s the highest percentage of all income levels, but Snapchat is actually quite consistent in this area: 25% of folks who make under $30k use Snapchat, 27% of folks who make between $30k and $49,999 use Snapchat and 28% of folks who make over $75k use Snapchat. This means that one income bracket isn’t necessarily better for advertising than any other.

(Although it’s fair to say that people in that $75k and up category likely have more cash to throw your way.)

use of online platforms, apps varies by demographic group

Source: Pew Research Center

18. 32% of college students (and those who have completed some college) use Snapchat.

Like the above, this is the largest stat in that category, but it’s still comparable to the others: 21% of folks who have completed high school or less have used Snapchat, and 23% of people who have a college degree use the platform.

Snapchat location demographics

19. At 126 million, India is the country with the largest Snapchat advertising audience.

The Snapchat user base in India adds up to 11.5% of the country’s total population over 13. Coming in at second place is America with an advertising reach of 107,050,000 people (and notably, a higher stat percentage-wise than India: 38% of Americans can be reached by Snapchat advertising). Then, it’s France with 24.2 million.

Snapchat ad reach ranking

Source: Digital 2022

favourite social media platforms 2022

20. 28.3% of Snapchat users are located in the Asia-Pacific region.

That makes it the region with the most users compared to the population, followed by North America (20.8% of North Americans use Snapchat) and the Middle East/Africa region (17.8% people use Snapchat). This demographic is projected to grow in the coming years, so consider Snapchat for marketing if you’re targeting that area of the world.

Snapchat user share worldwide, by region, 2020-2025

Source: eMarketer

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By Alyssa Hirose

Alyssa Hirose is a magazine editor, playwright, comedian and comic artist based in Vancouver, B.C. She attributes her great sense of humour to 9 years of braces and good ol' elementary school bullying (unrelated, unfortunately).

Read more by Alyssa Hirose

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