Northern Africa has the highest social media presence in Africa, accounting for over 50% of African users on platforms like Messenger and Instagram

Key takeaways:

  • Northern Africa makes up 65.6% of all Messenger users in Africa.
  • On Instagram, more than half (55.8%) of African users are from Northern Africa.
  • TikTok has its largest African user share in Northern Africa at 48.0%.
  • Western Africa leads the African presence on X (formerly Twitter) with 35.4% of total users.
  • LinkedIn usage is more evenly distributed
  • Facebook users are most concentrated in Northern Africa (37.8%), followed by Western Africa (25.7%).
  • Central Africa contributes the least to every platform, consistently under 8% in all cases.
  • Eastern Africa contributes 20% on X, showing stronger engagement on text-based platforms over visual-heavy ones like Instagram.

Northern Africa stands out as the social media powerhouse of the continent, accounting for the largest share of users across nearly all major platforms in Africa as of January 2025. From Facebook and TikTok to Instagram and Messenger, the region consistently leads in user base share, with especially strong dominance on Messenger (65.6%) and Instagram (55.8%). This pattern underscores Northern Africa’s more mature digital ecosystem, higher internet penetration, and wider access to affordable smartphones and mobile data.

Many users in Morocco, Egypt, and Algeria—countries within Northern Africa—have benefited from long-standing mobile infrastructure and urban digital lifestyles, which fuel their presence on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. These usage patterns not only reflect regional tech accessibility but also cultural integration of social media into daily life, be it for content creation, business, or communication.

Source:

Datareportal

Period:

2025
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