Research institute · Pew Research Center
58% of UK Adults Use Facebook as Social Media Doubts Grow
Facebook is still the UK's most-used social platform, used by 58% of adults, but Snapchat is used by 58% of 18 to 34-year-olds and just 2% of over-50s. Pew's 37-country survey also finds UK adults turning against social media: 56% now say it has been bad for democracy.
Source published Summarised
Key findings at a glance
- 58% of UK adults use Facebook, the most-used of the five platforms Pew asked about (37-country median 69%)
- 52% of UK adults use Instagram
- 33% of UK adults use TikTok, below the 37-country median of 40%
- 22% of UK adults use X (formerly Twitter), above the 37-country median of 18%
- 20% of UK adults use Snapchat
- 58% of UK adults aged 18 to 34 use Snapchat
- 2% of UK adults aged 50 and over use Snapchat
- 74% of UK adults aged 35 to 49 use Facebook, its strongest age group in the UK
- 34% of UK adults use three or more of the five platforms
- 23% of UK adults use none of the five platforms
- 91% of UK adults say internet and social media access has made people easier to manipulate with false information and rumours
- 56% of UK adults say social media has been bad for democracy, up from 48% in 2022
What the report covers
Pew Research Center published Across the Globe, People Increasingly Say Social Media Is Harming Democracy on 1 October 2026. It draws on the Center's Spring 2026 Global Attitudes Survey of adults in 37 countries, including the UK, and covers two things: how people judge social media's effect on democracy and public life, and which of five platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and Snapchat) they use. For UK marketers it is a current, like-for-like read of UK platform reach, set against 36 other markets.
In the UK, 58% of adults use Facebook, 52% Instagram, 33% TikTok, 22% X and 20% Snapchat. That puts the UK below the 37-country median for Facebook (69%) and TikTok (40%), level with it on Instagram (51%) and above it on X (18%). Age shapes everything. Pew's own example is UK Snapchat, used by 58% of 18 to 34-year-olds and only 2% of those aged 50 and over, while UK Facebook use peaks among 35 to 49-year-olds at 74%, against 59% of under-35s and 51% of over-50s. Just over a third of UK adults (34%) use three or more of the five platforms, 43% use one or two and 23% use none. Pew's platform use chapter has the full country table.
Attitudes have hardened. 56% of UK adults now say social media has been more of a bad thing for democracy, up from 48% in 2022, while 41% say it has been good. 91% say internet and social media access has made people easier to manipulate with false information and rumours, the second-highest share of the 37 countries after the Netherlands (93%), and 79% say it has made people more politically divided, up from 66% in 2022. Most still see an upside: 77% say it has made people better informed about current events. The UK also has one of the widest age gaps in the survey: 60% of 18 to 34-year-olds say social media has been good for democracy, against 31% of over-50s. That sits alongside our earlier report on UK news trust and misinformation, which found UK trust in news at 35%.
What this means for UK marketers
Start with reach by age, because the UK split is sharper than most channel plans assume. Snapchat is effectively a youth channel here: 58% of 18 to 34-year-olds use it, against 2% of over-50s. Pew finds TikTok and Instagram skew young in virtually every country it polled, and our report on how US teens use TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat differently shows each platform doing a different job for younger audiences. Facebook runs the other way. It peaks with 35 to 49-year-olds at 74% and still reaches 51% of over-50s. For brands selling to homeowners, parents or business owners aged 35 and up, Facebook and Instagram advertising remains the default paid social buy. Snapchat earns a test budget only when the customer is under 35, and TikTok's young skew suggests the same caution for older audiences.
Second, 23% of UK adults use none of the five platforms, and Pew finds non-use is highest among older adults in nearly every country. That does not make them unreachable online. The survey did not ask about YouTube or WhatsApp, and our report on UK mobile internet use shows smartphones take 77% of adults' online time. It does mean a social-only plan misses roughly a quarter of the market, and that quarter skews older. Someone who never opens Instagram still searches for a supplier, which is where search engine optimisation and paid search earn their place.
Third, the trust backdrop is getting worse. When 91% of UK adults say social media makes people easier to manipulate, an advert or sponsored post lands in a feed many people read with suspicion. That rewards claims that can be checked. Name the source of any statistic, hold the evidence before you publish, as the CAP Code requires, and label paid creator content clearly in line with the ASA's influencer guidance. Finally, X reaches 22% of UK adults, above the 37-country median but still the second-smallest of the five here, so treat it as a specialist channel rather than mass reach.
How they got the data
Pew surveyed 42,151 adults across 36 countries between 8 February and 13 May 2026, using national samples designed to represent the adult population of each country. Interviews were a mix of telephone, face-to-face and online, conducted under the direction of Gallup, Langer Research Associates and the Social Research Centre. US figures come from two further surveys: Wave 190 of Pew's American Trends Panel (3,507 adults, 23 to 29 March 2026, margin of error plus or minus 1.9 points) and the National Public Opinion Reference Survey (5,511 adults, 30 January to 18 June 2026). Pew puts the attitude sample at 45,658 people in 37 countries, with the reference survey supplying US platform use on top. Pew documents country-level sample designs in its country-specific methodology database. The 2022 comparisons come from the same question asked in 19 mostly high-income countries that year, and Pew flags survey-mode changes for Hungary and Poland in its trend charts, not for the UK.
Two limits matter for marketers. The platform question asks only whether people use each of five platforms, so it measures reach, not frequency or time spent, and it leaves out YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Reddit. Results are self-reported, and the attitude questions concern democracy and public life rather than advertising or brands, so read them as a measure of the mood of the feed, not of ad effectiveness.
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From Pew Research Center · published 01/10/2026