The number of Belgians on social media went up in 2022, according to figures published on Thursday by analysis firm NapoleonCat. After a slight drop in user numbers in 2021, Facebook and Instagram saw increases last year while Messenger's user base remained stable.
Facebook had 8,546,600 users in Belgium in 2022, recording a slight increase of 3.3%. About seven out of 10 Belgians have accounts on Facebook, which remains the most popular of the social media in the country.
The number of Belgians chatting via Messenger – owned, like Facebook, by Meta – remained stable compared to 2021. More than six million Belgians are active on it, almost half the population.
Instagram, another application owned by the Meta group, enjoyed the biggest gain in users. The social network based on photo and video sharing lost almost half a million Belgian users between 2020 and 2021 but recorded an increase of 14.3% in 2022. There are 4,885,100 active Instagram profiles in Belgium.
The professional network LinkedIn also recorded a significant increase in the number of its users (+8.41%) and now has 4,650,000 Belgian members.
The figures published by NapoleonCat do not include the TikTok social network, which is extremely popular among young people.
Last year, 63% of young Belgians consulted TikTok on a daily basis, according to the Social Media & Influencer Marketing Barometer produced by the Belgian trade federation Comeos and the Arteveldehogeschool.
