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YouTube Users by Country 2024
In 2005, friends and former PayPal co-workers Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karem introduced YouTube to the world. At first, the concept of the site was much more social than the “anything and everything goes” format it is today. The creators initially wanted it to be a place where amateurs could easily upload and share their videos and maybe even connect with other video makers, like a matchmaking site.
Of course, today, the service has expanded to a great degree. YouTube is now owned by Alphabet, the high-tech powerhouse that controls Google, Gmail, and several other integrated online services. It’s now seen around the world, and when ads were introduced, made it possible for some video makers to make money from their contributions.
As of 2023, YouTube has more than 2.70 billion active users, and is considered the second most visited site worldwide – Facebook is still first with about 2.9 billion. About 52 percent of YouTube users access it at least once a month and 720,000 hours of new content are uploaded daily.
Breaking down who’s watching, India currently has the most annual viewers, with 1.428 billion. China is approaching this number with 1.425 billion annual users – this number is interesting because the service is banned by the Chinese government.
India is also dominant from another perspective: the number of residents in a country that watch YouTube regularly. In this case, as of September 2023, India has about 467 million unique monthly users, representing about 18 percent of total YouTube users.
This number is followed by the United States with 247 million users. Next comes Indonesia with about 139 million users, Brazil with 138 million users, and Russia with about 106 million users. These numbers shift slightly over time: as of July 2023, the number of users still had India at 247 million but the United States at 246 million, Brazil at 142 million, and Indonesia at 139 million. Besides China, YouTube is officially banned in Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, South Sudan and Eritrea.
YouTube’s “penetration rate” varies country by country. This is the figure for how much of the population uses it. Although India and the United States have high viewership based on their large populations, the Netherlands and South Korea are at the top of the list with 94% penetration apiece. New Zealand follows with 93.8% and Sweden with 93.7%.
- Penetration rates are measured as percentages. However, penetration rates higher than 100% are not uncommon in the digital and telecommunications industry. Factors that can lead to greater than 100% penetration include users with multiple accounts (which could account for them being counted multiple times), non-resident users logging in from other countries, and visitors or tourists accessing the site while in the country.
Country | YouTube Penetration | YouTube Users |
|---|---|---|
| Lebanon | 112.3% | 4.91 |
| Bahrain | 109.5% | 1.46 |
| Oman | 107.6% | 4.17 |
| Qatar | 102.5% | 2.62 |
| United Arab Emirates | 98.5% | 8.99 |
| Netherlands | 92.6% | 15.50 |
| United Kingdom | 91.9% | 57.10 |
| Norway | 91.9% | 4.62 |
| South Korea | 91.6% | 46 |
| Kuwait | 91.4% | 3.59 |
| Hong Kong | 91.3% | 6.73 |
| Israel | 91% | 7.06 |
| Saudi Arabia | 90.8% | 29.10 |
| Canada | 90.6% | 33.10 |
| Spain | 90.1% | 40.70 |
| Sweden | 90% | 8.70 |
| Denmark | 90% | 4.94 |
| Germany | 89.9% | 70.90 |
| France | 88.8% | 52.10 |
| Finland | 88.6% | 4.62 |
| New Zealand | 88.6% | 4.24 |
| Ireland | 88.5% | 4.02 |
| Switzerland | 88.4% | 7.29 |
| Iceland | 88.4% | 0.29 |
| Belgium | 87.6% | 9.44 |
| Taiwan | 87.4% | 20.20 |
| Estonia | 87.3% | 1.07 |
| Australia | 87% | 21.30 |
| Austria | 86.8% | 7.34 |
| Latvia | 86.6% | 1.48 |
| Singapore | 85.8% | 5.08 |
| Chile | 85.3% | 15.40 |
| Czech Republic | 83.5% | 8.07 |
| Paraguay | 83.4% | 4.47 |
| Slovenia | 83% | 1.64 |
| Lithuania | 82.4% | 2.12 |
| Costa Rica | 80.9% | 3.83 |
| Malaysia | 79.6% | 23.90 |
| United States | 78.3% | 246 |
| Italy | 78.3% | 43.90 |
| Uruguay | 78% | 2.45 |
| Hungary | 77.9% | 7.40 |
| Argentina | 77.6% | 31.80 |
| Dominican Republic | 77.4% | 7.39 |
| Slovakia | 76.8% | 4.16 |
| Croatia | 76.5% | 2.94 |
| Greece | 76.2% | 7.49 |
| Ukraine | 76.1% | 26.70 |
| Portugal | 75.5% | 7.43 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 74.1% | 2.20 |
| Ecuador | 74% | 11.70 |
| Jordan | 74% | 6.61 |
| Turkey | 73.9% | 57.90 |
| Brazil | 72.9% | 142 |
| Romania | 72.9% | 13.50 |
| Puerto Rico | 72.7% | 2.22 |
| Serbia | 72.2% | 5.01 |
| Iraq | 72% | 24.30 |
| Poland | 71.4% | 27.50 |
| Tunisia | 71.3% | 7.24 |
| Mexico | 71.1% | 81.80 |
| Japan | 70.8% | 78.40 |
| Bulgaria | 69.2% | 4.42 |
| Morocco | 68.3% | 21.30 |
| Vietnam | 68.1% | 63 |
| Algeria | 65.1% | 22.70 |
| Colombia | 64.2% | 30.70 |
| Panama | 63.5% | 2.48 |
| Thailand | 63.3% | 43.90 |
| El Salvador | 62% | 3.51 |
| Philippines | 61.4% | 57.70 |
| Bolivia | 58.1% | 5.88 |
| Peru | 57.3% | 17.60 |
| South Africa | 56% | 25.80 |
| Indonesia | 55% | 139 |
| Nicaragua | 53.6% | 2.97 |
| Guatemala | 53.4% | 7.64 |
| Honduras | 51.4% | 4.39 |
| Egypt | 50.6% | 45.90 |
| Pakistan | 38.9% | 71.70 |
| Sri Lanka | 36.9% | 7.04 |
| India | 36.2% | 467 |
| Senegal | 34.7% | 3.71 |
| Ghana | 32.7% | 6.92 |
| Kenya | 25.4% | 9.44 |
| Nigeria | 25.2% | 31.60 |
| Bangladesh | 23.2% | 34.40 |