Pew's 2026 survey finds 95% of US adults aged 18 to 29 ever use YouTube, falling to 65% at 65 and over, and Alphabet's 10-K puts YouTube ads revenue at $40.367 billion for 2025. Across 48 markets, the Reuters Institute's 2026 report has 69% of people using it for any purpose.
The finding I'd quote is the split between teens and adults. YouTube is the only platform in Pew's 2025 teen survey that 13 to 14 year-olds and 15 to 17 year-olds are equally likely to use, and roughly three-quarters of US teens are on it every day. Adults look far less even: Pew has 77% of people in households under $30,000 ever using it, against 90% at $100,000 and over. Rural adults sit at 78%, urban adults at 87%.
So "everyone's on YouTube" is close to true for American teenagers and too loose for American adults. If your audience is lower-income or rural, that gap matters more than any global headline.
Where YouTube ranks against other apps
This table puts YouTube beside its rivals wherever the same publisher asked the same question. The teen rows come from Pew's survey of 1,458 US teens aged 13 to 17, run 25 Sep to 9 Oct 2025. The global rows come from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, which averages 48 markets.
| What's measured | YouTube | Other platforms | Publisher, date |
|---|---|---|---|
| US teens who use it every day | Roughly three-quarters | TikTok 61%, Instagram 55%, Snapchat 46%, Facebook 20% | Pew, 2025 |
| People using it for news, 48 markets | 34% | Facebook 43%, Instagram 26%, TikTok 20% | Reuters Institute, 2026 |
On the teen row YouTube comes first. On the global news row it's second, behind Facebook. Two more teen numbers are worth having: roughly nine in ten US teens ever use YouTube, and about one in five say they're on it "almost constantly", Pew's wording.
The Reuters Institute also has 69% of people using YouTube for any purpose in 2026, and says that figure has stayed above 60% throughout this decade. And of the people who access news on YouTube, 21% watch live news.
US news habits, three years running
Americans' use of YouTube for news has barely moved. Pew's Social Media and News Fact Sheet surveyed 5,166 US adults from 24 to 30 Aug 2026.
| Year | US adults who regularly get news on YouTube | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 32% | Pew |
| 2025 | 35% | Pew |
| 2026 | 34% | Pew |
Who's watching, cut by age, income and place
These all come from Pew's Americans' Use of Social Media in 2026, a survey of 5,511 US adults fielded 30 Jan to 18 Jun 2026, margin of error plus or minus 1.8 points. Each figure is the share who say they ever use YouTube.
- Age: 95% of 18 to 29s, 91% of 30 to 49s, 85% of 50 to 64s, 65% of those 65 and over.
- Household income: 77% under $30,000, 84% at $30,000 to $69,999, 86% at $70,000 to $99,999, 90% at $100,000 and over.
- Education: 77% with high school or less, 87% with some college, 90% of college graduates.
- Area: 87% urban, 86% suburban, 78% rural.
- Gender: 85% of men, 83% of women. That's a two-point gap with a margin of plus or minus 1.8 on the full sample, so I wouldn't build a claim on it.
Teenagers split differently, and it's frequency that separates them. Pew's teen survey has 20% of boys and 13% of girls saying they use YouTube almost constantly. By race and ethnicity, it's 35% of Black teens, 23% of Hispanic teens and 8% of White teens.
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Ad money in Alphabet's filing
This is the only hard money number here, and it's from Alphabet's 10-K for 2025, filed with the SEC on 5 Feb 2026.
- YouTube ads revenue: $40.367 billion in 2025, against $36.147 billion in 2024. That's about 12% growth, by simple arithmetic on those two lines.
- Alphabet puts the increase at $4.2 billion and credits direct response advertising first, then brand advertising.
- Alphabet's total revenue was $402.836 billion, so YouTube ads are about 10% of the company (40.367 divided by 402.836). In the same year, its Google Network revenue fell $567 million.
Blind spots in the YouTube data
- Different things are being counted. Pew counts US adults who ever use YouTube, not how often. Reuters averages any-purpose use over 48 markets. Alphabet reports revenue, not people.
- The two 34% figures aren't the same fact. One is regular news use among US adults, the other is news use averaged across 48 markets. Don't read anything into the match.
- Teen data is a year older. It's from autumn 2025, and the adult data is from 2026. Don't put them in one chart as if they were one survey.
- Ad revenue isn't total YouTube income. It covers ads only.
- None of this is watch time. Nothing on this page is a subscriber count, hours watched, monthly users or a Shorts figure, and Alphabet's 10-K doesn't give a YouTube user count. If a number like that turns up in a deck, ask who published it and what it counts.
Which figure I'd pick for each job
| The job | The number | Cite it as |
|---|---|---|
| Showing young adult reach in the US | 95% of 18 to 29s | Pew, 2026, ever use |
| Warning against assuming everyone's there | 77% under $30,000 vs 90% at $100,000 and over | Pew, 2026, ever use |
| Making the case for reaching teens | Roughly three-quarters every day | Pew, 2025, US teens 13 to 17 |
| Global reach in one line | 69% across 48 markets | Reuters Institute, 2026 |
| Sizing YouTube as an ad business | $40.367 billion | Alphabet 10-K, FY2025 |
My blunt view: if you only take one, use the age row from Pew. It's recent, it's a clear measure, and the drop from 95% to 65% tells a reader more than any global average does.
Pew asks the same questions about other apps, and I've set those answers out in Facebook statistics and Snapchat statistics.
Quick YouTube questions
How many people use YouTube?
It depends on the base. Pew has 95% of US adults aged 18 to 29 and 65% of those 65 and over ever using it in 2026. The Reuters Institute has 69% using it for any purpose across 48 markets. Alphabet's 10-K reports YouTube ad revenue, not a user count.
How much money does YouTube make from ads?
Alphabet reports $40.367 billion in YouTube ads revenue for 2025, up from $36.147 billion in 2024. That's ads only, so don't describe it as everything YouTube earns.
Do teens use YouTube more than TikTok?
Yes, on Pew's 2025 daily measure. Roughly three-quarters of US teens use YouTube every day, against 61% for TikTok.
Is YouTube a big source of news?
Yes. Pew has 34% of US adults regularly getting news there in August 2026, and the Reuters Institute also has 34% using it for news across 48 markets. Same number, different bases, so name the one you mean.
