Social Media Statistics Updated November 2026

Human Written & Fact Checked · Updated

142 Social Media Statistics for Sweden in 2026

94% of internet users aged 8 and over in Sweden used social media in the past year and 83% used it daily in 2026, on the survey by the Swedish Internet Foundation (Internetstiftelsen). In the official statistics from Statistics Sweden (SCB), 74% of people aged 16-74 took part in social networking sites in 2026. YouTube, Facebook and Instagram reach the most people, and WhatsApp has grown the fastest.

This page gathers the latest figures on social media in Sweden: how many people use it, which platforms, by age, sex, education and region, children and teenagers, news and politics, wellbeing and the debate over an age limit, and the user counts platforms report to the EU. It also draws on the Swedish Agency for the Media (Mediemyndigheten), the Public Health Agency of Sweden (Folkhälsomyndigheten), Nordicom, Eurostat, the Reuters Institute, the platforms themselves and DataReportal. Every number links to the body that published it, with the date.

Swedish social media figures measure different things. Surveys report the share of people who say they use social media, each with its own ages and time window. Platform counts under the EU Digital Services Act and advertising reach count accounts, not people, and can exceed the population. Each figure here says what it measures, and figures on different bases are not compared.

Headline figures

How many Swedes use social media?

More than nine in ten Swedish internet users use social media, and the share has hardly moved since 2021. Statistics Sweden, which produces the official figures, measures active participation over three months across the whole population, so its share is lower.

84% 2021 84% 2022 85% 2023 84% 2024 85% 2025 83% 2026
View data table
Share of internet users aged 8 and over in Sweden who use social media daily, 2021-2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. The report calls the 2026 dip marginal.
PeriodValue
202184%
202284%
202385%
202484%
202585%
202683%
Share of internet users aged 8 and over in Sweden who use social media daily, 2021-2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. The report calls the 2026 dip marginal. (Swedish Internet Foundation (Svenskarna och internet 2026, social media), Sep 2026)

The Swedish Internet Foundation surveys internet users aged 8 and over about use in the past 12 months, week or day. SCB counts active participation in the past three months across the whole population aged 16-74 or 16 and over, and Nordicom measures use on an average day among people aged 9-85. The three are different measures and are not compared or combined.

Which social media platforms are biggest in Sweden?

YouTube reaches the most Swedish internet users in a year, ahead of Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Most platforms have barely changed since 2021: X and Twitch have lost users, and WhatsApp has gained the most.

  1. 1 YouTube 77%
  2. 2 Facebook 69%
  3. 3 Instagram 66%
  4. 4 Facebook Messenger 66%
  5. 5 WhatsApp 51%
  6. 6 Snapchat 38%
  7. 7 LinkedIn 27%
  8. 8 TikTok 22%
  9. 9 X 13%
Share of internet users aged 8 and over in Sweden who used each platform in the past 12 months, January 2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. (Swedish Internet Foundation (Svenskarna och internet 2026, social media), Sep 2026)

All figures are shares of internet users aged 8 and over in Sweden. The survey has used the same method since 2021; messaging apps were first asked of all ages in 2022, so their trends start then.

How often and how long do Swedes use social media?

Instagram and Facebook are the platforms most Swedes open every day, but Facebook's daily habit has been fading while its yearly reach holds. Time spent varies widely, and Swedish teenagers report the most.

  1. 1 Instagram 46%
  2. 2 Facebook 45%
  3. 3 Facebook Messenger 36%
  4. 4 YouTube 32%
  5. 5 Snapchat 24%
  6. 6 TikTok 15%
Share of internet users aged 8 and over in Sweden who use each platform daily, January 2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. Instagram has overtaken Facebook as the most used platform each day. (Swedish Internet Foundation (Svenskarna och internet 2026, social media), Sep 2026)

Daily-use shares are from the Swedish Internet Foundation's survey of internet users aged 8 and over. Nordicom's time bands cover people aged 9-85 on an average day, and the Swedish Agency for the Media's figures are self-reported by children aged 9-18 in a 2024 survey run by SCB, some of them as shares of social media users only. They are different surveys and are not compared.

How does social media use in Sweden differ by age?

Nearly all Swedes born in the 1990s and 2000s use social media every day, and most of the oldest internet users do too. Platforms split by generation: Facebook is an adult network, while Snapchat and TikTok belong to the young.

  1. 1 16-24 86%
  2. 2 25-34 84%
  3. 3 35-44 81%
  4. 4 45-54 75%
  5. 5 55-64 66%
  6. 6 65-74 49%
  7. 7 75-84 29%
  8. 8 85+ 13%
Share of people in Sweden who took part in social networking sites in the past three months, by age, 2026, from SCB's official statistics. Use falls sharply after 65. (Statistics Sweden (SCB, IT use by the population), Oct 2026)

The Swedish Internet Foundation groups people by decade of birth, not age, and counts internet users only. SCB groups by age across the whole population and measures active participation in the past three months; Nordicom measures an average day. The three are not compared.

Do Swedish men and women use social media differently?

Swedish women use social media a little more than men, and they use different platforms: women lead on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook, men on YouTube, Reddit, Discord and X.

  1. 1 YouTube, men 83%
  2. 2 YouTube, women 72%
  3. 3 Instagram, women 76%
  4. 4 Instagram, men 56%
  5. 5 Facebook, women 74%
  6. 6 Facebook, men 64%
Share of Swedish internet users aged 8 and over who used each platform in the past 12 months, by sex, January 2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. (Swedish Internet Foundation (Svenskarna och internet 2026, social media), Sep 2026)

The Swedish Internet Foundation's shares are of internet users aged 8 and over (the gender-role questions: 18 and over). SCB's shares are of the whole population aged 16-74 and measure active participation in the past three months. The two are not compared.

How many Swedish children use social media?

Fewer young Swedish children use social media each year, and the drop is largest among the youngest. Two separate surveys, from the Swedish Internet Foundation and the Swedish Agency for the Media, find the same direction.

88% 2021 92% 2022 92% 2023 91% 2024 86% 2025 83% 2026
View data table
Share of Swedish children and young people aged 8-19 who use social media daily, 2021-2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. Daily use has fallen each year since 2023.
PeriodValue
202188%
202292%
202392%
202491%
202586%
202683%
Share of Swedish children and young people aged 8-19 who use social media daily, 2021-2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. Daily use has fallen each year since 2023. (Swedish Internet Foundation (Svenskarna och internet 2026, social media), Sep 2026)

The Swedish Internet Foundation surveyed internet users aged 8-19 in January 2026; grades 1-3 in its sample are mostly 8- and 9-year-olds. The Swedish Agency for the Media surveyed children aged 9-18 from October 2024 to February 2025 through SCB, and some of its shares are of social media users only. The two surveys use different ages, years and questions and are not combined.

Which social media do Swedish teenagers use?

Snapchat and TikTok dominate among Swedish teenagers, and more girls than boys use both every day. Teenagers also report the most unwanted content, with disturbing images the most common form of online harm.

  1. 1 Snapchat 92%
  2. 2 YouTube 89%
  3. 3 Instagram 87%
  4. 4 TikTok 81%
  5. 5 Facebook 43%
Share of Swedish upper-secondary students (about ages 16-19) who used each platform in the past 12 months, January 2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. (Swedish Internet Foundation (Svenskarna och internet 2026, social media), Sep 2026)

The Swedish Internet Foundation's school-stage figures are from January 2026; the Swedish Agency for the Media's are from a 2024 survey of children aged 9-18; the Public Health Agency of Sweden's are from the 2021/22 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. They are separate surveys and are not compared.

How does Sweden compare with the EU and the Nordics?

Sweden is above the EU average for taking part in social networks but below its Nordic neighbours. Denmark, Norway and Finland all report higher shares in Eurostat's survey, which SCB runs in Sweden.

  1. 1 Denmark 89.66%
  2. 2 Norway 88.94%
  3. 3 Finland 81.32%
  4. 4 Sweden 74.72%
  5. 5 EU-27 67.26%
Share of people aged 16-74 who took part in social networks in the past three months, 2025, from Eurostat. Norway is in the EEA, not the EU. (Eurostat (isoc_ci_ac_i), Apr 2026)
  • The share of people aged 16-74 in Sweden taking part in social networks was 62.48% in 2015; after a break in the series it was 70.15% in 2016. (Eurostat (isoc_ci_ac_i), Apr 2026)
  • Between 2017 and 2024, Sweden's share moved between 70.36% (2018) and 73.43% (2023). (Eurostat (isoc_ci_ac_i), Apr 2026)
  • 78.57% of Swedish women aged 16-74 took part in social networks in 2025, against 71.0% of men; across the EU-27 the shares were 69.0% and 65.48%. (Eurostat (isoc_ci_ac_i), Apr 2026)
  • In Sweden, 89.1% of people aged 16-24 took part in social networks in 2025, 86.55% of 25-34s, 79.02% of 35-44s, 77.19% of 45-54s and 66.46% of 55-64s; for those aged 75-89, a group first reported for 2025, it was 28.56%. (Eurostat (isoc_ci_ac_i), Apr 2026)
  • Among Swedes aged 65-74 the share rose from 23.74% in 2015 to 45.69% in 2025, against 34.1% across the EU-27 in 2025. (Eurostat (isoc_ci_ac_i), Apr 2026)

Eurostat counts people aged 16-74 (the whole population, including people who do not use the internet) who took part in social networks in the past three months; SCB collects the Swedish data. SCB's own 2026 figures are newer and appear in other sections; Eurostat's 2025 figures are used here only to compare countries.

Which groups in Sweden use social networks least?

In Sweden's official statistics, people with less education, lower incomes and those living in sparsely populated areas take part in social networks less often. Students take part the most.

  1. 1 Stockholm 72%
  2. 2 Västsverige 70%
  3. 3 Övre Norrland 67%
  4. 4 Östra Mellansverige 66%
  5. 5 Norra Mellansverige 65%
  6. 6 Småland med öarna 64%
  7. 7 Sydsverige 64%
  8. 8 Mellersta Norrland 64%
Share of people in Sweden aged 16 and over who took part in social networking sites in the past three months, by region, 2026, from SCB. Most regional gaps fall within the margins of error. (Statistics Sweden (SCB, IT use by the population), Oct 2026)

SCB figures are shares of everyone aged 16 and over in each group who took part in social networking sites in the past three months; SCB publishes margins of error, and most regional differences fall within them. Education groups partly reflect age. LinkedIn figures come from the Swedish Internet Foundation's survey and are not compared with SCB.

How many Swedes get news on social media?

Social media is a major route to news in Sweden, though well behind online sources taken together. Facebook is the biggest social network for news, and Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok all gained news users in 2026.

  1. 1 Facebook 29%
  2. 2 Instagram 21%
  3. 3 YouTube 19%
  4. 4 TikTok 12%
  5. 5 Facebook Messenger 9%
  6. 6 X 8%
Share of online adults in Sweden who used each network for news in the past week, 2026, from the Reuters Institute. (Reuters Institute (Digital News Report 2026), Jun 2026)

Reuters Institute figures come from a YouGov online panel of adults in Sweden, so they may overstate online use. Its weekly news question differs from the Swedish Internet Foundation's political-information question in the next section, and the two are not compared.

How do Swedes use social media for politics?

Traditional media still reach far more Swedes with political information than social media, and Facebook's role has shrunk since the 2022 election. Young adults are the exception: they now get more political information from social media than from TV.

  1. 1 Facebook 29%
  2. 2 Instagram 25%
  3. 3 YouTube 16%
  4. 4 X 10%
  5. 5 TikTok 8%
Share of Swedish internet users aged 18 and over who took in political information or messages on each platform in the past 12 months, election year 2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. (Swedish Internet Foundation (election special 2026), Apr 2026)

The Swedish Internet Foundation asks about political information or messages in the past 12 months; 2022 and 2026 were both election years. The Reuters Institute asks about news use in the past week. The two are different measures and are not compared.

How does social media affect Swedes' wellbeing?

Most Swedes say they get stuck scrolling, and far more say it makes them feel worse than better. Young women report the worst effects, and many people have tried taking a break from social media.

  1. 1 All aged 12+ 80%
  2. 2 Aged 12-15 81%
  3. 3 Aged 16-19 93%
  4. 4 Aged 20-34 92%
  5. 5 Aged 76+ 52%
Share of Swedish internet users who felt they got stuck in passive scrolling on their phone in the past 12 months, by age group, January 2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. (Swedish Internet Foundation (Svenskarna och internet 2026, doomscrolling), Sep 2026)

Scrolling, wellbeing and detox figures are self-reported in the Swedish Internet Foundation's January 2026 survey and are not clinical measures. The Public Health Agency of Sweden's problematic-use figure counts pupils who answered yes to at least six of nine items on the Social Media Disorder Scale in the 2021/22 school survey, and the Swedish Agency for the Media's appearance figures come from its 2024 survey of children, which says it cannot show cause and effect. The surveys are not compared.

Do Swedes support an age limit for social media?

Most Swedish adults back a proposed ban on social media for children under 15, and support is strongest among parents of young children. Children themselves are far less keen, especially the 13-15-year-olds a ban would affect.

  1. 1 Grades 1-3 75%
  2. 2 Grades 4-6 65%
  3. 3 Grades 7-9 52%
  4. 4 Upper secondary 48%
Share of Swedish parents who mainly see advantages in banning social media for children under 15, by their child's school stage, 2026, from the Swedish Internet Foundation. (Swedish Internet Foundation (age limits report 2026), Jun 2026)

Adults aged 18-84, and parents and children aged 8-19, were surveyed separately for the Swedish Internet Foundation's 2026 age limits report. The parents' worry and screen-time figures come from its Barnen och internet 2025 report, a different survey.

How many accounts do platforms report in Sweden?

Large platforms must report their average monthly users in each EU country under the Digital Services Act. These are each company's own counts of accounts or sessions, not people, and YouTube's count is larger than Sweden's population, so they are not added up or set against survey shares.

  • Facebook had 7,215,982 average monthly active recipients in Sweden from January to June 2026, against 7,218,606 in July to December 2025, by Meta's own count. (Meta (Facebook EU DSA report H1 2026), Aug 2026)
  • Instagram had 8,137,389 average monthly active recipients in Sweden from July to December 2025, by Meta's own count. (Meta (Instagram EU DSA report H2 2025), Feb 2026)
  • Snapchat had 4,448,955 average monthly active recipients in Sweden from January to June 2026 (4,483,080 in the second half of 2025), against 2,691,677 in Denmark and 1,737,320 in Finland. (Snap Inc. (EU transparency report H1 2026), 2026)
  • TikTok had 3.8 million average monthly active recipients in Sweden from January to June 2026, up from 3.7 million in July to December 2025. (TikTok (EU DSA report H1 2026), Aug 2026)
  • YouTube also recorded an average of 28.3 million signed-out sessions a month in Sweden in the first half of 2026; Google does not de-duplicate accounts or sessions. (Google (EU DSA recipients report H1 2026), 2026)
  • LinkedIn had 2.2 million average monthly logged-in users in Sweden from January to June 2026, unchanged from the second half of 2025. (LinkedIn (EU DSA report Aug 2026), Aug 2026)
  • X had 1,722,494 average monthly active recipients in Sweden from January to June 2026. (X (EU DSA report H1 2026), Aug 2026)

Each figure is the platform's own six-month average for Sweden under the EU Digital Services Act. Definitions differ (accounts, logged-in users, sessions), none are de-duplicated people, and they can exceed the population. They are not summed, ranked against each other as user numbers, or compared with survey shares or ad reach.

What do advertising tools say about reach in Sweden?

Platform advertising tools, compiled by DataReportal, give YouTube the widest ad reach in Sweden, and X lost the most between late 2025 and late 2026. Ad reach counts audiences advertisers can target, not unique people, and platforms revise it often.

  1. 1 YouTube 8.69m
  2. 2 Facebook 5.45m
  3. 3 Instagram 5.25m
  4. 4 Reddit 5.15m
  5. 5 Snapchat 4.88m
  6. 6 Pinterest 3.14m
  7. 7 X 1.24m
  8. 8 Threads 568k
Advertising reach in Sweden by platform, late 2026, in millions, from each platform's ad tools as compiled by DataReportal. Ad reach is not a count of unique people. LinkedIn (members) and TikTok (18+ only) are left out because they count on a different basis. (DataReportal (Digital 2027: Sweden), Nov 2026)
  • 7.60 million of Sweden's social media user identities were aged 18 and over at the end of 2026, equal to 88.7% of adults; identities rose by 110,000 (+1.3%) on late 2025, and 49.1% were female. (DataReportal (Digital 2027: Sweden), Nov 2026)
  • LinkedIn had 6.90 million "members" in Sweden in late 2026, a count of registered members, and TikTok's ad tools reached 3.81 million users aged 18 and over. (DataReportal (Digital 2027: Sweden), Nov 2026)
  • X's ad reach in Sweden fell by 793,000 (-39.1%) between the end of 2025 and late 2026, and Reddit's by 1.25 million (-19.6%); DataReportal flags both changes as possibly affected by data revisions. (DataReportal (Digital 2027: Sweden), Nov 2026)
  • TikTok's ad reach in Sweden rose by 307,000 (+8.7%) and LinkedIn's by 700,000 (+11.3%) between the end of 2025 and late 2026; Facebook's fell by 200,000 (-3.5%) and Instagram's by 300,000 (-5.4%) between October 2025 and October 2026. (DataReportal (Digital 2027: Sweden), Nov 2026)
  • Instagram's ad reach equalled 49.0% of Sweden's total population in late 2026, Reddit's 48.0%, Snapchat's 45.6%, Pinterest's 29.3% and X's 11.5%. (DataReportal (Digital 2027: Sweden), Nov 2026)
  • 10.6 million people in Sweden used the internet at the end of 2026, an online penetration of 98.5%, on DataReportal's estimate. (DataReportal (Digital 2027: Sweden), Nov 2026)

DataReportal compiles ad audiences from each platform's advertising tools; user identities are its own modelled estimate. Neither is a count of unique people, and neither is compared with survey shares or with DSA figures. DataReportal warns against working out growth from its older reports.

Glossary

Swedish Internet Foundation
Internetstiftelsen, which runs the annual Svenskarna och internet survey of internet users aged 8 and over in Sweden.
SCB
Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån), which publishes the official statistics on IT use by the population and collects Sweden's data for Eurostat.
Swedish Agency for the Media
Mediemyndigheten, the government agency behind the Ungar & medier survey of children aged 9-18.
Public Health Agency of Sweden
Folkhälsomyndigheten, which runs the Swedish part of the WHO school survey on children's health habits.
HBSC
Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, the WHO study of pupils aged 11, 13 and 15 (Skolbarns hälsovanor in Sweden).
Nordicom
A Nordic media research centre at the University of Gothenburg that publishes the Media Barometer.
DSA
The EU Digital Services Act, which requires large platforms to publish user numbers and moderation data for each EU country.
Monthly active recipients
The EU users a platform reports under the DSA, averaged over six months. Each company defines them its own way; they are not de-duplicated people.
Ad reach
The audience advertisers can target with a platform's ads, from its own ad tools as compiled by DataReportal. It is not a count of unique people.
User identities
DataReportal's modelled estimate of social media users, which may not equal unique people.
Birth decade
The Swedish Internet Foundation groups people by decade of birth, so "born in the 2000s" means born 2000-2009.
School stages
Grades 1-3 (lågstadiet, about ages 7-9), grades 4-6 (mellanstadiet, about 10-12), grades 7-9 (högstadiet, about 13-15) and upper secondary (gymnasiet, about 16-19).
Flashback
A Swedish web forum, counted as a social platform in the Swedish Internet Foundation's survey.
BankID
The digital identity used by most adults in Sweden to log in to banks and public services.

Methodology and sources

Figures come from the Swedish Internet Foundation's Svenskarna och internet 2026 report, its 2026 election special and age limits report and its Barnen och internet 2025 report; Statistics Sweden (SCB) and Eurostat official statistics; the Swedish Agency for the Media; the Public Health Agency of Sweden; Nordicom; the Reuters Institute; platforms' own EU Digital Services Act reports; and DataReportal. Each figure links to the body that published it, with the date. Survey shares, official participation rates, DSA monthly active recipients and advertising reach measure different things: they are kept apart, never added together, and never compared with each other. DSA counts and ad reach count accounts or audiences, not people, and can exceed the population. Every figure states its ages, base and year, and only figures checked on the publisher's own page are used. The page is reviewed monthly and the date is shown at the top.