Here’s How the Top Social Platforms Break Down by Generation, in One Chart

Jan 8, 2024—Snapchat has a higher share of Gen Z users than TikTok in the US. Does that surprise you? And did you know that the generational breakdown of Instagram users and X users is shockingly similar? (A good omen for Threads to take on X?)

This chart from my former colleague Paola Flores-Marquez's new Insider Intelligence report caught my eye, and it's a keeper if you want to understand the generational makeup of the major social platforms.

Sure, there are a few obvious insights:

• Facebook is old (it has the highest proportion of boomers --18.9%).

• Snapchat and TikTok are the youngest-leaning (Gen Z and millennials make up 85.4% and 78.4% of users, respectively).

But here are two other takeaways that aren't so obvious. These should grab your attention if you're looking to maximize your marketing and paid advertising spending by generation.

1️⃣ Reddit is more millennial-heavy than any other platform.

Instagram comes in second, but its share of millennial users is closer to that of Snapchat or TikTok than to Reddit.

2️⃣ YouTube and Netflix are the most generationally diverse platforms.

No platform has an evenly divided makeup of users (in other words, 20% of users from each of the five groups studied). But of the 11 properties in the forecast, YouTube and Netflix come the closest to being proportional. Disney+ is also somewhat proportional, but it runs out of steam at the boomer age group. (Maybe boomers don't realize there's more than just cartoons on Disney+?)