If you’ve searched how many people get their news from social media, you’ve probably noticed something frustrating: every source gives you a different number. One study says 53%. Another says 62%. A third claims 71%, and yet another says 85%. None of these are wrong — they’re just measuring different things, at different times, from different populations.
The Short Answer
As of the most recent Pew Research Center survey (August 2025), about 53% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get news from social media. That number has stayed roughly stable over the past few years. But when you ask how many people get their new from social media using a broader definition — “ever,” not “regularly” — the number jumps to 71% or higher. And among teenagers, the figure is far higher still, with more than half getting news from social platforms daily.
So the honest answer to how many people get their new from social media isn’t one number. It’s a range that depends entirely on how the question is asked, who is being asked, and what “getting news” actually means to the researcher.
Why the Numbers Don’t Match: A Methodology Breakdown
Before diving into the statistics, it’s worth understanding why so many articles report wildly different percentages when addressing how many people get their news from social media. Three factors drive the variation:
- Frequency threshold — “Ever” vs. “sometimes” vs. “often” vs. “daily” produce very different results from the same population.
- Survey population — Some studies survey all adults; others survey internet users only, or teens specifically, or global populations rather than just the U.S.
- Definition of “news” — Some surveys count any exposure (a headline in a feed) as “getting news,” while others only count active seeking behavior.
| Study | Question Type | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Pew Research (2025) | “At least sometimes” get news from social media | 53% |
| Pew Research (2020, older methodology) | “At least some” news from social platforms | 71% |
| Media Insight Project | Get news from social media “at least once a day” | 36% (adults), 57% (teens 13-17) |
| Reuters/Oxford Digital News Report | Used social media for news “in the last week” | 54% globally |
| CBS/Pew (older survey) | Get news “on social media” broadly | 62% |
This table alone explains most of the confusion you’ll find when researching how many people get their news from social media — the underlying survey design matters just as much as the headline percentage. security camera system news 2026 why trending
Current U.S. Statistics: Platform by Platform
Understanding how many people get their news from social media also means understanding which platforms are actually driving that number. Not all social platforms function the same way for news consumption.
According to Pew Research’s most recent fact sheet, the share of each platform’s own users who regularly get news there looks like this:
| Platform | % of Platform’s Users Who Get News There |
|---|---|
| X (formerly Twitter) | 57% |
| Truth Social | 55% |
| TikTok | 55% (up from 22% in 2020) |
| ~50%+ | |
| YouTube | Rising steadily year over year |
| Rising steadily year over year | |
| 15% |
A few things stand out here. First, TikTok’s growth as a news source has been dramatic — more than doubling since 2020. Second, X and Truth Social have unusually high news-consumption rates among their own users, even though their total user bases are smaller than Facebook’s or Instagram’s. This is an important nuance that most articles covering how many people get their new from social media skip entirely: total reach and news-usage rate are two very different metrics.
Separately, Stagwell’s National Research Group data shows a slightly different lineup when ranked by overall platform usage for news:
- YouTube — 62%
- Facebook — 55%
- Instagram — 45%
- Podcasts — 40%
- TikTok — 38%
- AI agents/chatbots — 36%
- X — 34%
- Reddit — 30%
- Twitch — 17%
Notice that AI agents and chatbots are now being tracked as a news source category — something almost no article discussing how many people get their news from social media has caught up with yet.
The Generational Divide
If there’s one factor that changes the answer to how many people get their news from social media more than any other, it’s age. The gap between teenagers and older adults is enormous.
Teenagers (ages 13-17):
- 57% get news from social media at least once a day
- 43% get information on national issues from independent creators or influencers “sometimes”
- Only 12% say they have “a great deal of confidence” in information from independent creators
- Primary interests: celebrities, music, movies, sports, entertainment
Adults (18+):
- 36% get news from social media at least once a day
- 43% get information from influencers or creators at least “sometimes”
- 6% have “a great deal of confidence” in creator-sourced information
- Primary interests: political news, business, economy
Young adults specifically (18-24), per the Reuters/Oxford Digital News Report:
- 52% say social media or video networks are their main source of news — 32 points higher than the next most popular source
This generational split is one of the most underreported angles when people search for how many people get their news from social media. The story isn’t really “how many Americans” — it’s “how many of which Americans,” and the answer shifts dramatically by cohort.
Preferred Source vs. Incidental Exposure
Here’s a distinction almost no competing article makes clearly, and it matters enormously for anyone trying to understand how many people get their news from social media in a meaningful way.
Pew’s News Platform Fact Sheet draws a line between people who prefer social media as a news source and people who simply encounter news there while using the platform for other reasons:
- Only 14% of U.S. adults say they prefer getting news from social media
- 21% prefer news websites or apps
- 10% prefer search engines
- 6% prefer podcasts
- 3% prefer email newsletters
Compare that 14% “preference” figure to the 53% who “at least sometimes” get news from social media, and you get the real story: most people aren’t choosing social media as their news source — they’re passively absorbing news while scrolling for something else. This is the single biggest nuance missing from most content answering how many people get their new from social media, and it changes how you should interpret every other statistic in this article.
Global Context: The U.S. Isn’t an Outlier
While this article focuses on the U.S., it’s worth noting how American numbers compare globally, since many searches for how many people get their news from social media pull in international data without labeling it clearly.
According to the 2026 Oxford/Reuters Digital News Report, surveying 100,000 people across 48 countries:
- 54% of global respondents used social media for news in the last week (vs. 51% for legacy media — the first time social media has overtaken traditional sources globally)
- 30% say social media/video platforms are their main news source, up from 22% in 2020
- Social media use for news grew in 22 of 48 markets studied
- India, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia show some of the highest social-media-for-news usage rates worldwide, several exceeding 60-80%
Statista’s global tracking backs this up, finding that in 24 of 40 countries measured, more than half of adults use social media as a general news source, with Kenya, South Africa, Malaysia, and the Philippines all exceeding 70%.
The U.S., by comparison, sits in the middle of the global pack — high, but not exceptional, when it comes to how many people get their new from social media.
Trust and the Misinformation Problem
Any honest answer to how many people get their news from social media has to address trust, because usage and trust are not the same thing.
Pew’s research has found that a meaningful share of Americans — particularly younger adults and Republicans — now place almost as much trust in social media information as they do in traditional national news organizations. That’s a significant shift from a decade ago, and it comes with real consequences:
- Teenagers show very low confidence in creator/influencer news (12%), despite heavy usage
- Adults show even lower confidence (6%) in the same category
- Yet usage keeps climbing across nearly every demographic
This gap between usage and confidence is one of the more revealing patterns in the data. People are increasingly getting their news from platforms they don’t fully trust — a contradiction that’s rarely explained clearly, even though it’s central to understanding the real answer to how many people get their new from social media.
Historical Trend: How the Numbers Have Shifted
To put current figures in context, here’s how the topline U.S. statistic has moved over roughly a decade:
| Year | % of U.S. Adults Getting News from Social Media |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 49% |
| 2018 | 68% |
| 2020 | 71% |
| 2023-2025 | 53% (using stricter “regularly” definition) |
The apparent “drop” after 2020 isn’t really a decline in usage — it reflects Pew tightening its survey methodology and definitions. This is exactly the kind of context missing from most pages that rank for how many people get their news from social media, and it’s why simply quoting one year’s number without explanation is misleading.
Key Takeaways
- There is no single correct answer to how many people get their news from social media — the range runs from about 36% (daily use, strict definition) to 71%+ (any exposure, looser definition)
- Roughly 53% of U.S. adults currently get news from social media at least sometimes, per the latest Pew data
- Only 14% actually prefer social media as their news source — most usage is incidental
- Teenagers and young adults use social media for news at dramatically higher rates than older adults
- TikTok, X, and Truth Social have the highest news-usage rates among their own user bases
- Globally, social media has now overtaken traditional media as the world’s top news source for the first time
- Usage keeps rising even as trust in creator-sourced news remains low
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people get their news from social media in the U.S.?
About 53% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get news from social media, according to Pew Research’s most recent 2025 data.
What percentage of teenagers get news from social media?
57% of U.S. teens aged 13-17 get news from social media at least once a day, compared to 36% of adults.
Which social media platform has the highest news usage?
X has the highest share of its own users getting news there, at 57%, closely followed by Truth Social and TikTok, both at 55%.
Do more people get news from social media than traditional media?
Globally, yes — the 2026 Oxford/Reuters Digital News Report found 54% used social media for news in the past week, compared to 51% for legacy media, marking the first time social media has overtaken traditional sources worldwide.
Do people trust the news they see on social media?
Trust remains mixed; only about 6% of adults and 12% of teens say they have “a great deal of confidence” in news from independent creators or influencers, despite heavy usage.
Why do statistics on how many people get their news from social media vary so much?
Different surveys use different frequency thresholds (“ever” vs. “daily”), different populations (teens vs. adults, U.S. vs. global), and different definitions of what counts as “getting news,” which produces a wide range of reported percentages.
