10+ Interesting Social Media Statistics (2026)

There are 5.33 million active social media user identities in Singapore in 2026, equal to 90.6 percent of the population, according to DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report. The average user is on 7.4 different platforms every month, which is why no single network tells you much about this market on its own.

This page is the full 2026 dataset on social media statistics for Singapore: user numbers, platform-by-platform reach and demographics, time spent, what Singaporeans actually do on social media, and what brands spend to reach them. The figures blend DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report with survey data from GWI, app measurement from Similarweb, market data from Statista, official statistics from Singstat and IMDA, and independent research from the Reuters Institute, dotdigital, and AnyMind. Every source is listed at the end.

We rebuilt this page from the ground up on the October 2025 data behind the Digital 2026 series. Half the numbers on competing pages are two or three years old, and several widely quoted figures turn out to belong to different survey questions than the ones they get attached to.

What are the key social media statistics for Singapore in 2026?

Singapore is one of the most saturated social media markets in the world, and the numbers underneath that claim run as follows.

• Population: 5.88 million, median age 36.2, 100 percent urban, 98 percent adult literacy.
• Internet users: 5.78 million, a 98.4 percent penetration rate, up 0.9 percent year on year.
• Social media identities grew 3.3 percent year on year, adding 170 thousand.
• 92.2 percent of internet users are on social media, and mobile connections stand at 9.79 million, 166 percent of the population.
• The social media audience splits 47.5 percent female and 52.5 percent male.

The infrastructure underneath is close to total. 97 percent of Singapore residents own a smartphone, including 89 percent of seniors, according to IMDA’s Singapore Digital Society Report, built on its Annual Survey on Infocomm Usage.

Two definitions matter before quoting any of this. First, DataReportal counts “user identities,” not unique people, because one person’s accounts across platforms cannot be fully de-duplicated. Second, the population base: Singstat’s official count puts Singapore’s total population at 6.11 million as at June 2025 (4.20 million residents plus 1.91 million non-residents), while DataReportal computes its percentages on the United Nations estimate of 5.88 million. The penetration rates on this page follow the DataReportal base, so the two sets of figures stay internally consistent.

How much time do Singaporeans spend on social media?

Singaporeans spend 17 hours per week using social platforms, about 2 hours 26 minutes per day, on an average of 4.28 days out of every seven, according to GWI data in Digital 2026.

That sits inside a connected-media diet of 31 hours 27 minutes per week, and the diet has a new headline: online video now takes 10 hours 16 minutes of the average week, more than television’s 9 hours 2 minutes. Short-form video alone reaches 87.9 percent of internet users weekly.

Per app, the daily figures rank differently from the reach figures. According to Similarweb’s Android measurement for Singapore, TikTok users average 1 hour 39 minutes per day in the app, ahead of WhatsApp at 1 hour 31 minutes, YouTube at 1 hour 12 minutes, Facebook at 1 hour 5 minutes, and Instagram at 59 minutes.

Session length runs in yet another order. YouTube holds the longest average session at 13 minutes 12 seconds, against TikTok’s 10 minutes 12 seconds and WhatsApp’s 3 minutes 28 seconds. WhatsApp compensates with frequency: its short visits stack up to more total user time than any other app in Singapore on Similarweb’s index.

What do Singaporeans use social media for?

The top reason Singaporeans give for using social media is keeping in touch with friends and family, named by 47.7 percent, according to GWI data in Digital 2026. Filling spare time follows at 43.2 percent, then reading news stories at 36.2 percent, seeing what is being talked about at 30.4 percent, and finding content at 28.5 percent.

Commercial motives sit mid-table. 27.2 percent use social media for purchase inspiration, and 23.5 percent to find products to buy. Following celebrities or influencers ranks fourteenth of fifteen motives, at 18.3 percent.

The accounts people follow tell their own story. Friends and family lead at 48.5 percent, and then, in a country that treats lunch as a competitive sport, restaurants, chefs, and food personalities rank second at 26.6 percent, ahead of actors and performers (24.2 percent), influencers and experts (22.8 percent), musicians (22.1 percent), and the brands people buy from (20.5 percent).

Social media is also a research channel. 64.5 percent of internet users research brands and products on some form of social media, per GWI, with social networks specifically named by 37.1 percent.

Which social media platforms do Singaporeans use most?

WhatsApp is the most-used social platform in Singapore, reaching 81.3 percent of internet users monthly, according to GWI’s self-declared usage data in Digital 2026. Facebook follows at 72.0 percent, YouTube at 71.6 percent, Instagram at 65.9 percent, and TikTok at 56.5 percent.

Asked to name a single favourite, Singaporeans pick WhatsApp first, at 29.1 percent, ahead of Facebook (14.9 percent), Instagram (14.4 percent), and TikTok (13.4 percent). YouTube was not an answer option in that survey question, so its favourite share is unmeasured.

Advertising reach, reported by each platform’s own ad tools, gives a second measure and appears platform by platform below. One comparability note applies throughout: LinkedIn reports total registered members rather than monthly active users, so its headline figure is not directly comparable with the others.

How many people use WhatsApp in Singapore?

WhatsApp is used monthly by 81.3 percent of Singapore’s internet users, is the most-named favourite platform at 29.1 percent, and captures more total user time than any other app in the market, per GWI and Similarweb data in Digital 2026. Its users average 1 hour 31 minutes per day inside it, in visits of just 3 minutes 28 seconds each: high-frequency engagement rather than long sessions.

The most-used social platform in Singapore does not have a feed. It also barely registers in referral analytics, because what happens in WhatsApp stays in WhatsApp: sharing inside chats and groups is invisible to the public web, which is worth remembering whenever a “share count” claims to measure how content travels here.

How many people use Facebook in Singapore?

Facebook is Singapore’s second most-used platform, at 72.0 percent of internet users monthly, with an advertising reach of 3.80 million, equal to 64.6 percent of the population and 75.5 percent of adults, per GWI and Meta data in Digital 2026. Reach grew 5.6 percent year on year.

Its audience peaks in the 25 to 34 band and skews slightly male (51.4 percent), and its users average 1 hour 5 minutes per day. The platform’s quietest superpower is traffic: Statcounter data shows Facebook still drives 49.7 percent of all web traffic referred by social platforms in Singapore, down from 96 percent a decade ago but up 33 percent in the past year.

How many people use YouTube in Singapore?

YouTube has the widest advertising reach of any platform in Singapore, at 5.33 million, or 90.6 percent of the population, per Google’s ad data, and is used monthly by 71.6 percent of internet users. Adoption among adults runs at 95.3 percent.

Two things distinguish it. It has the flattest age profile in the market: its audience share barely moves between the 25 to 34 band and the 65 and over band, making it the one platform that reaches Singapore’s seniors at scale. And its sessions are the longest, at 13 minutes 12 seconds. The year’s top local YouTube searches, per Google Trends, run from “song,” “movie,” and “karaoke” to Tamil songs, anime, football, Cocomelon, and CNA, which is as tidy a portrait of the country as any census.

How many people use Instagram in Singapore?

Instagram is used monthly by 65.9 percent of Singapore’s internet users, with an advertising reach of 3.35 million, up 9.8 percent year on year, the strongest growth among Meta’s platforms, per GWI and Meta data in Digital 2026.

It is the most female-leaning of the major platforms: 67.8 percent of adult women are in its ad audience versus 59.6 percent of adult men, and the female share exceeds the male share in every age band. Its users average 59 minutes per day in sessions of 5 minutes 14 seconds, and instagram.com ranks as Singapore’s third most-visited website on Similarweb’s traffic data.

How many people use TikTok in Singapore?

TikTok is used monthly by 56.5 percent of internet users and reaches 3.80 million adults, 75.4 percent of Singapore’s adult population, per GWI and TikTok’s ad data (which reports users aged 18 and above only). Reported reach grew 11.5 percent year on year, the fastest of any major platform, though it slipped 2.4 percent in the most recent quarter.

Its audience is the most concentrated in the market: 40.5 percent of TikTok’s entire ad audience sits in the 25 to 34 band. Adoption skews female, at 81.3 percent of adult women versus 70.0 percent of adult men, and its users log the most in-app time per day of any platform, at 1 hour 39 minutes.

How big are Telegram and Messenger in Singapore?

Telegram reaches 45.9 percent of Singapore’s internet users monthly, a figure most Western markets would not recognise, per GWI data in Digital 2026. Its users average 16 minutes per day in the app, and telegram.org draws long web visits, averaging over 11 minutes per visit on Similarweb’s data.

Messenger runs the opposite direction. Used by 38.5 percent monthly, its advertising reach fell 5.4 percent year on year to 1.75 million, the only major platform in the market to shrink, per Meta’s ad data.

How many people use LinkedIn in Singapore?

LinkedIn reports 5.10 million registered members in Singapore, growing 8.5 percent year on year, per its advertising data; by self-declared monthly use, 37.3 percent of internet users are on it. The members figure exceeds Singapore’s entire internet population on paper (101.3 percent), which is the clearest illustration anywhere in this dataset of why registered accounts and active users are different things.

Its audience skews male (53.8 percent) and peaks at 25 to 34, adoption among adult men runs at 80.7 percent versus 74.0 percent of women, and its sessions are the shortest of any major platform at 1 minute 35 seconds. People check LinkedIn; they live elsewhere.

What about X, Reddit, Xiaohongshu, and the rest?

The next tier is livelier than its size suggests. Reddit is used monthly by 24.4 percent of internet users, yet reddit.com is Singapore’s fifth most-visited website, ahead of facebook.com, on Similarweb’s traffic ranking. X sits at 25.2 percent monthly use and drives 22.1 percent of social referral traffic, second only to Facebook, per Statcounter.

Xiaohongshu is used by 21.3 percent of internet users and is the fifth most-named favourite platform, at 4.5 percent, a marker of how large Singapore’s Chinese-language social layer is. WeChat adds 28.5 percent. Pinterest reaches 21.9 percent by declared use, Snapchat’s ad reach grew 13.0 percent to 1.24 million, and Threads reached 464 thousand in its first full reporting year.

Who uses social media in Singapore?

Singapore’s population peaks exactly where marketers point their budgets: the 25 to 29 band is the largest single age group, at 10.2 percent of the population, with 30 to 34 next at 10.0 percent, according to United Nations data in Digital 2026. Residents aged 65 and over together make up about 14 percent.

A base-rate note for anyone reconciling this with official statistics: Singstat puts the resident median age at 43.2 years, while DataReportal’s 36.2 covers the total population, including the younger non-resident workforce. Both are correct; they measure different groups.

The platform audiences layer over that base unevenly. Across Meta’s four platforms combined, the 25 to 34 band alone accounts for 30 percent of the entire de-duplicated ad audience. TikTok concentrates hardest in that band, Instagram leans female in every age group, YouTube and LinkedIn lean male, and YouTube alone holds its reach almost flat into the 65 and over band.

95.3 percent of Singapore adults are reachable on at least one social platform, which is the single number that describes the ceiling of the market.

How do Singaporeans get news on social media?

Online and social media are now the most common ways Singaporeans access news, while TV and print have declined significantly, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025. The shift runs toward video: use of YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for news each grew by three to four percentage points in the latest survey, and within social media, 36.2 percent of users name reading news as a main reason they are there at all, per GWI.

Trust runs higher here than in most markets. 45 percent of Singaporeans trust the news, and Singapore was one of only five surveyed markets where trust rose rather than fell, per the Reuters Institute. The most trusted brands are the established ones, the Straits Times (75 percent), Channel NewsAsia (74 percent), and Mediacorp’s Channel 5 (73 percent), while digital-native Mothership ranks as the second most-used news site at 46 percent.

The confidence has limits. 71.1 percent of online adults express concern about what is real versus fake on the internet, a figure Digital 2026 sources to the same Reuters study.

Do Singaporeans follow and trust influencers?

The influencer data in Singapore points in two directions at once, and both are well documented.

On reach, Singapore is a global outlier. 68 percent of Singapore consumers discovered a new brand through influencer content in the past six months, according to dotdigital’s Customer Trend Index survey of 1,000 Singapore consumers, against 43 percent in the US and 32 percent in the UK and Australia. That influence spreads unusually evenly by age, running from 83 percent among Gen Z down to 40 percent among shoppers aged 60 and over. AnyMind’s Singapore Digital Landscape 2025 survey found Singaporeans are 62 percent more likely to respond to influencer content than the regional average.

On weight, the same consumers rank influencers modestly. In GWI’s data, influencer recommendations rank eleventh of fifteen online purchase drivers, named by 14.9 percent, far behind free delivery (55.8 percent), coupons and discounts (45.2 percent), and customer reviews (35.4 percent). Regionally, the Cube and impact.com Southeast Asia influencer study reports consumer trust in influencers declining across every tier, with the sharpest fall at the celebrity end.

The spending keeps growing regardless. Influencer advertising in Singapore reached an estimated US$119 million in 2025, up 12.9 percent, or 5.6 percent of all digital ad spend, per Statista data in Digital 2026. Singaporeans discover brands through influencers at twice the Western rate, and rank following them fourteenth of fifteen reasons to be on social media at all.

How do Singaporeans shop through social media?

Shopping on social starts upstream of any checkout, in the brand research and inspiration behaviour covered above. It feeds a market where 58.8 percent of internet users make an online purchase in any given week, and where live streams, the engine of Asian social commerce, are watched weekly by 23.9 percent, per GWI data in Digital 2026.

The wider ecommerce base is deep. 4.70 million Singaporeans bought consumer goods online in 2025, spending US$5.63 billion, up 14.9 percent year on year, with 70.9 percent of that spend made on mobile phones, according to Statista data in the report.

Platform preference splits by generation. Statista’s Singapore social commerce research finds older buyers transact mostly on Facebook, younger buyers prefer Instagram, and TikTok is growing fastest as a shopping platform among Gen Z. What closes a sale is unglamorous: the same free delivery and discount incentives noted above lead the purchase drivers, while social likes and comments convince 20.2 percent.

How much is spent on social media advertising in Singapore?

Social media advertising in Singapore reached an estimated US$588 million in 2025, up 15.2 percent year on year, equal to 27.5 percent of all digital ad spend, according to Statista data in Digital 2026.

The wider money picture: total advertising spend hit US$2.80 billion, of which digital took US$2.14 billion, 76 percent of every advertising dollar in the market. Search remains the largest digital channel at US$816 million (38.1 percent of digital), ahead of social, banner ads (US$561 million), online video (US$316 million), and influencer spend (US$119 million). Averaged out, US$370 of digital advertising is spent per internet user per year.

The audience meets that spend with mixed enthusiasm. 13.5 percent of internet users clicked a sponsored social post in the past month, only 12.1 percent say they feel represented in the ads they see, and 28.7 percent use an ad blocker at least some of the time, with “there are too many ads” the top reason at 60 percent, per GWI.

Are AI tools changing how Singaporeans find content?

Measurably, yes. 37.1 percent of Singapore’s internet users use ChatGPT every month, according to GWI data in Digital 2026, and Similarweb ranks chatgpt.com as the fourth most-visited website in the country, ahead of facebook.com and reddit.com.

Among AI platforms referring traffic to websites, Statcounter data shows ChatGPT accounts for 76.4 percent of LLM referral traffic in Singapore, followed by Perplexity (8.5 percent), Microsoft Copilot (5.4 percent), DeepSeek (5.0 percent), Google Gemini (3.9 percent), and Claude (0.9 percent). Voice assistants are used weekly by 14.9 percent. Google, meanwhile, still takes 94.9 percent of conventional search engine referrals. The channels are new; the concentration is familiar.

Frequently asked questions

How many social media users are there in Singapore in 2026?

Singapore has 5.33 million active social media user identities, equal to 90.6 percent of the population and 95.3 percent of adults, according to DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report. The figure counts active identities rather than unique individuals and grew 3.3 percent year on year.

What is the most-used social media platform in Singapore?

WhatsApp is the most-used platform, reaching 81.3 percent of internet users monthly and topping the “favourite platform” survey at 29.1 percent, per GWI data in Digital 2026. By advertising reach, YouTube is the largest at 5.33 million, equal to 90.6 percent of the population.

How much time do Singaporeans spend on social media each day?

Singaporeans spend 17 hours per week on social platforms, about 2 hours 26 minutes per day, across an average of 4.28 days per week, per GWI data in Digital 2026. Per app, TikTok’s users log the most daily time at 1 hour 39 minutes, per Similarweb Android data for Singapore.

Is TikTok or Instagram bigger in Singapore?

It depends on the measure. More people use Instagram, at 65.9 percent of internet users monthly versus TikTok’s 56.5 percent, per GWI, while TikTok reports a larger adult advertising audience (3.80 million versus 3.35 million) and far more time per user, at 1 hour 39 minutes per day versus Instagram’s 59 minutes.

What do Singaporeans use social media for?

Keeping in touch with friends and family is the top reason, named by 47.7 percent, followed by filling spare time (43.2 percent) and reading news (36.2 percent), per GWI data in Digital 2026. Commercial uses rank lower: 23.5 percent use social media to find products to buy, and 18.3 percent to follow celebrities or influencers.

Do Singaporeans trust influencers?

Singaporeans engage with influencer content at unusually high rates, with 68 percent discovering a new brand through it in the past six months, according to dotdigital. The same market ranks influencer recommendations eleventh of fifteen purchase drivers, at 14.9 percent, behind free delivery and reviews, per GWI.

Where do Singaporeans get their news?

Online and social media are the most common ways Singaporeans access news, with YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok all growing as news sources, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025. Trust in news stands at 45 percent, and the most trusted brands are the Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, and Channel 5.

Sources

Core adoption, usage, and spend figures reflect data collected up to October 2025 and published in the Digital 2026 series; survey figures are attributed to their originating researchers (GWI, Similarweb, Statista, Statcounter, Google Trends) as republished in that report. Official statistics and independent studies are linked at their own pages.

• • DataReportal, We Are Social & Meltwater, Digital 2026: Singapore
  • DataReportal, We Are Social & Meltwater, Digital 2026: Global Overview Report
  • GWI (GlobalWebIndex), Q2 2025 survey data, as reported in DataReportal’s Digital 2026: Singapore. GWI methodology: gwi.com/our-data
  • Singapore Department of Statistics (Singstat), Population Trends 2025
  • Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore Digital Society Report
  • Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Digital News Report 2025: Singapore
  • dotdigital, Customer Trend Index 2026/27: Singapore findings
  • AnyMind Group, Singapore Digital Landscape 2025
  • Statista, Social commerce in Singapore: statistics and facts
  • impact.com & Cube Asia, Southeast Asia Influencer Marketing Report 2025 findings