Use these Snapchat demographics stats to build a data-driven strategy and effectively reach your target audience on the platform.
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.
Download our Social Trends report to get data from over 10,000 marketers that you can use to plan a viral-worthy social strategy in 2023.
It ranks below Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and TikTok, but above Pinterest and Twitter.
Source: Digital 2022
That’s an awful lot of mirror selfies, dog photos and pictures of people’s foreheads.
Source: Statista
That’s on any average day—a year over year improvement from 2021’s 249 million.
Source: Digital 2022
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).
Source: Digital 2022
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.
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.)
It’s tied with Facebook Messenger and Telegram.
Source: Digital 2022
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
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.
Source: Digital 2022
That might make you rethink using the app for advertising if you are targeting older audiences, but…
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.
Source: Digital 2021
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).
Source: Pew Research
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.
Source: Statista
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,
Source: eMarketer
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).
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.
Source: Statista
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.
Source: Statista
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.)
Source: Pew Research Center
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.
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.
Source: Digital 2022
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.
Source: eMarketer
In this beginner’s guide, you'll learn how to use Snapchat and get all the information you need to start using the app like a pro.
Learn how to use Snapchat ads to connect with fans and build your brand identity on this powerful social platform.
Snapchat analytics or Insights helps you understand and prove the effectiveness of using Snapchat to grow your business.
Creating your social media marketing strategy doesn’t need to be painful. Create an effective plan for your business in 9 simple steps.
