Social Media Usage: 2005-2015

Nearly two-thirds of American adults (65 percent) use social networking sites, up from 7 percent when Pew Research Center began systematically tracking social media usage in 2005. Pew Research reports have documented in great detail how the rise of social media has affected such things as work, politics and political deliberation, communications patterns around the globe, as well as the way people get and share information about health, civic life, news consumption, communities, teenage life, parenting, dating and even people’s level of stress. Across demographic groups, a number of trends emerge in this analysis of social media usage:

Age differences: Seniors make strides – Young adults (ages 18 to 29) are the most likely to use social media – fully 90 percent do. Still, usage among those 65 and older has more than tripled since 2010 when 11 percent used social media.
Gender differences: Women and men use social media at similar rates -- Women were more likely than men to use social networking sites for a number of years, although since 2014 these differences have been modest. Today, 68 percent of all women use social media, compared with 62 percent of all men.
Socio-economic differences: Those with higher education levels and household income lead the way.
Racial and ethnic similarities: There are not notable differences by racial or ethnic group: 65 percent of whites, 65 percent of Hispanics and 56 percent of African-Americans use social media today.
Community differences: More than half of rural residents now use social media -- Those who live in rural areas are less likely than those in suburban and urban communities to use social media, a pattern consistent over the past decade. Today, 58 percent of rural residents, 68 percent of suburban residents, and 64 percent of urban residents use social media.