Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advised ministers to be more active on Instagram. The strategy behind this is clear. India is the world’s largest market for Instagram, where there are 48 to 55 crore active users. About 76% of these users are below 34 years of age. In comparison, X has only between 22 to 4 crore users in India and its influence is mainly limited to politicians, journalists and policy makers. Instagram has had the fastest growth in the last few years. About 66 million new users were added between January 2025 and October 2025, while by June 2026 it had achieved 42.4% share of India’s social media traffic. 18 to 24 years i.e. Gen Z users on Instagram are 38.3%. This is the reason why PM Modi posted short selfie videos on Insta for 2 consecutive days to target Gen Z.
In the Union Cabinet meeting held on Friday, amid the ongoing student agitation over the NEET paper leak and the ongoing protests at Jantar Mantar, Prime Minister Modi asked a direct question to the ministers that how many of them are active on Instagram. According to sources, he told the ministers not to limit themselves to just X, but also to be continuously active on youth-related platforms like Instagram and convey their message to the people through reels.
How big is the base of Instagram in India?
According to statistics, there are around 48 to 55.3 crore users of Instagram in India, making India the world’s largest market for this platform. At the same time, according to different metrics of ad-reach and active profile, the scope of Facebook is considered to be around 40 to 70 crore users. In contrast, the user base of X is quite small in India. According to different estimates, it is between 2.2 to 4 crores and its impact remains mainly limited to a limited section like politicians, journalists and policy makers.
How many new users joined in recent years
The growth of Instagram has been the fastest in the last few years. Only between January 2025 and October 2025, about 6.6 crore new users were added in India. By June 2026, Instagram had captured 42.4% of India’s total social media traffic, which shows how fast its hold has strengthened compared to other platforms.
If we look around the world, the number of monthly active users of Instagram has also increased continuously.
|
Year
|
Monthly Active Users (Worldwide) |
| 2021 | 2 billion |
|
2022
|
2.3 billion |
|
2023
|
2.4 billion |
|
2024
|
2.4 billion |
| 2025 | 3 billion |
(Source: Statista, BusinessOfApps, DataReportal)
This means that in just five years, the global users of Instagram have more than doubled and India’s contribution in this has been the biggest.
How many users are using Instagram according to age
According to the data of 2026, there are more than 55 crore users of Instagram in India, out of which the largest portion are youth. Maximum 38.5% users are in the age group of 25-34 years, whose number is around 21.28 crores. After this, the share of users aged 18-24 years is 38.3%. That means users between 18 and 34 years of age together make up about 76% of Instagram’s total user base. There are 14.3% users in the age group of 35-44 years, 5.3% in the age group of 45-54 years, 2.2% in the age group of 55-64 years and 1.4% users are above 65 years of age. This is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advised ministers to be more active on Instagram to reach the youth effectively.
If we look at it in terms of gender, male users dominate on Instagram. Of the total users, 69.5% are men and 30.5% are women. The biggest difference is seen in the age group of 25-34 years, where the number of male users is about 14.84 crore more than female users. It is clear from this that the largest and most active user group of Instagram in India are young men.
Why Instagram is Gen Z’s first choice
There are many reasons for Instagram becoming popular among Gen Z. Short video formats like Reels have linked the platform to entertainment and trends, which the youth like the most. Apart from this, visual storytelling, influencer culture and algorithmically personalized content makes it different from other platforms. While platforms like This is the reason why the youth use it the most and the government now also wants to connect directly with the youth through this platform.
Also read- PM Modi’s selfie video created a stir, created a new record with 303 crore views in just 24 hours
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