34 LinkedIn Statistics for 2020

February, 2020

LinkedIn is a powerful channel for establishing thought leadership, an inevitable part of a marketer’s digital strategy, and a nearly inexhaustible source of long-form, high-quality content. Let’s see how all of this translates into numbers by analyzing the statistics listed below.
If you don’t know this fact:  LinkedIn was started as a Job Search platform and is still strong in that area.

LinkedIn Statistics to Know in 2020

  • LinkedIn had 100,000 members a year after it was founded.
  • LinkedIn has 303 million active users per month, 40% of which visit it daily.
  • 77% of recruiters are on LinkedIn.
  • 90% of LinkedIn members use Facebook.
  • 27% of Americans use LinkedIn.
  • 45% of LinkedIn users earn $75,000 per year.
  • 33% of millionaires use LinkedIn.
  • LinkedIn’s second-largest user base is in India.
  • More than half of all LinkedIn traffic comes from a mobile device.
  • In 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $27 billion.
  • LinkedIn is the 25th most popular site in the world.

LinkedIn User Statistics

LinkedIn is one of the fastest-growing social media networks. On average, two people create an account on this platform every second. Coming from LinkedIn’s About page, the platform sees 172,800 new users every day and about 62 million new users every year. Check out the following statistics to learn more about the platform’s user base.

 

1. LinkedIn now has over 610 million members.

Due to the network’s rapid growth, a common question is, How many LinkedIn users are there? In 2017, the platform celebrated expanding its user base to half a billion members. Two years later, the largest professional network in the world has over 610 million members.

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

2. In 2011, there were 640 million professionals, and 135 million of them were on LinkedIn.

So what percentage of professionals are on LinkedIn? We came across a source estimating that, in 2011, there were around 640 million professionals worldwide. LinkedIn, on the other hand, had 135 million members at the time. Based on these figures, roughly one-fifth of all professionals were using LinkedIn.

LinkedIn’s user base is four times larger today, and the number of professionals worldwide has undoubtedly seen significant growth as well. With this in mind, it’s safe to assume that the ratio has stayed somewhat constant.

(Source: Business Insider)

 

3. LinkedIn has 303 million active users per month, 40% of which visit it daily.

How many monthly active users does LinkedIn have? In an attempt to answer this, we stumbled upon different figures relating to the network’s MAUs. The most cited number is 260 million, but this stat is from 2018. The most recent and accurate number of LinkedIn’s monthly active users is 303 million.

On the other hand, when it comes to the platform’s daily visitor count, around 121 million users visit the site daily.

(Source: DataReportal, Kinsta)

 

4. 92% of Fortune 500 companies use LinkedIn.

LinkedIn stats from 2017 show that nearly all Fortune 500 companies use LinkedIn, which isn’t a surprise since the platform, unlike other social media, is primarily business oriented. The second most popular platform among Fortune 500 companies was Twitter (88%), followed by Facebook (85%).

Last year, the results were slightly different. LinkedIn retained its place as the leading social media platform of choice for Fortune 500 companies (92%). However, it shared the lead position with Facebook (92%). Twitter dropped to third place (79%), while the least popular network among Fortune 500 companies was YouTube (38%).

(Sources: UMass Dartmouth, Market US)

 

5. In 2013, 57% of companies had a LinkedIn company page.

According to the latest LinkedIn statistics coming straight from the world’s largest professional network itself, LinkedIn is home to over 30 million companies today. However, not every company manages a page. LinkedIn automatically generates company pages when a user adds work experience within an organization or when an organization posts a job.

In 2013, 57% of companies on LinkedIn had a company page. That same year, the platform celebrated the milestone of 3 million company pages. Just four years later, the number of company pages reached 17 million. The latest figure from the LinkedIn Pages Playbook puts the number of company pages at 19 million out of a total of 26 million companies.

LinkedIn stats from 2018, compared to 2013’s findings, show an increase of 18 percentage points (at 73.07%) when looking at the number of companies with a LinkedIn page.

(Sources: LinkedIn, SlideShare)

 

6. 90 million senior-level influencers and 63 million decision makers use LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn audience is quite different from other social media platforms, with more than one-third of its members in upper management positions. According to the latest LinkedIn statistics, 2019 counts 90 million senior-level influencers, 63 million decision makers, and another 6 million decision makers from the IT sector. Among LinkedIn’s members, there are also 17 million opinion leaders, 10 million C-level executives, and 40 million mass affluent members.

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

7. 77% of recruiters are on LinkedIn.

For those looking for work, it’s important to be able to answer, What percentage of recruiters use LinkedIn? We found that it’s the platform of choice for 77% in relation to their social media–based recruitment efforts. A somewhat lower percentage of recruiters have turned to Facebook (63%). What’s interesting is that LinkedIn’s popularity among job recruiters has decreased from 2017, when 92% of them used it.

(Source: Jobvite)

 

8. Job seekers spend up to 30 minutes a day on LinkedIn.

Unlike the average LinkedIn user, those looking for a new position spend anywhere from 20 minutes to half an hour on this professional network every month. These LinkedIn statistics only prove that LinkedIn is a powerful job searching tool among heavy, moderate, and casual job seekers alike.

(Source: comScore)

 

9. 90% of LinkedIn members use Facebook.

The times when social media users had only one account are long gone. Today, the average internet user has 8.9 active social media accounts. So let’s see what the favorite networks among LinkedIn users are.

The highest percentage of LinkedIn members uses YouTube (94%). The second most popular network among LinkedIn users is Facebook (90%), followed by Instagram (57%), and Pinterest (49%).

(Source: DataReportal, Pew Research Center)

 

10. 39% of LinkedIn users are Premium (pay for extra connection requests, saved searches)

Once they set up a LinkedIn account, every new member must decide whether they’ll use one of the platform’s four premium plans. In 2016, the vast majority of users—i.e., 79% of LinkedIn members—used a free account, while only one-fifth of them paid for a premium membership. Today, the numbers are slightly different. The percentage of premium LinkedIn users currently stands at 39%, while 61% of members are still satisfied with the basic free accounts.

(Sources: Kinsta, Statista)

 

LinkedIn Demographics

11. 27% of Americans use LinkedIn.

The 2019 Pew Research Center survey results are in, and here’s what we’ve discovered. More than one-quarter of US adults use LinkedIn, while YouTube has the largest audience in the country with 73% of Americans using it. Facebook isn’t too far behind the Google-owned company, with 69% of US adults using it.

Comparing this year with Pew’s study from 2018, there’s been an increase of 2 percentage points in LinkedIn usage among US adults (from 25% in 2018 to 27% in 2019).

(Source: Pew Research Center)

 

12. 50% of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn.

LinkedIn ranks third among social media networks with the most educated audiences according to LinkedIn user demographics data from the Pew Research Center. Half of all US adults that use LinkedIn have a college degree, and another 22% of LinkedIn users have some college. In contrast, only 9% of LinkedIn users have a high school education or less.

LinkedIn users are an educated bunch, which is not that much of a surprise since the network enjoys the greatest popularity among college students.

(Source: Pew Research Center)

 

13. 45% of LinkedIn users earn $75,000 per year.

Apart from being highly educated, LinkedIn stats reveal that the network’s users are also high-income earners. 45% of LinkedIn’s user base has an annual income of $75,000, and another 24% of users have an income between $50,000 and $74,999 per year.

The average income in the US currently stands at $46,644 per year, meaning 69% of LinkedIn users have above average incomes.

(Sources: Pew Research Center, The Street)

 

14. 44% of all LinkedIn users are women.

While there are slightly more male users overall, this stat shows that men and women more or less equally use LinkedIn. About the same goes for social media in general. Facebook’s audience is 43% female and 57% male. One of the networks where women represent a smaller portion of the user base is Twitter (34.5%), where roughly two-thirds of the users are male.

(Source: DataReportal)

 

LinkedIn Age Demographics

15. 38% of 25–34-year-olds use LinkedIn.

The largest portion of LinkedIn’s user base falls into the 25 to 34 age group, which translates to more than 228 million LinkedIn users. As for people between the ages of 35 and 54, they make up 30% of LinkedIn’s user base (180 million LinkedIn members).

18–24-year-olds account for 24% of LinkedIn’s global audience, with 140 million people representing this group on the platform. Finally, we get the answer, What age group uses LinkedIn least? These are LinkedIn members aged 55 and older (9%).

(Sources: DataReportal)

 

16. 87 million millennials are on LinkedIn.

There are around 2 billion millennials in the world, and 87 million of them have an account on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has indicated that 11 million millennials are in decision-making positions. As we’ve previously mentioned, there are 69 million decision makers on LinkedIn, and millennials account for nearly 16% of them.

(Source: LinkedIn, Credit Suisse)

 

17. 33% of millionaires use LinkedIn.

This is the last bit we wanted to share with you before we dive into the next section on more incredible LinkedIn user demographics: 2018 counted 42 million millionaires. We were curious to see how they use social media.

A 2018 study shows that one-third of millionaires use LinkedIn, which is a decrease of 4 percentage points since 2016. The most popular social media channel among millionaires is Facebook (55%). LinkedIn ranks second, followed by YouTube (29%). Twitter isn’t that interesting to millionaires—only 12% uses this network. Nevertheless, Twitter performs better compared to Instagram and Snapchat with only 8% and 3% of millionaires using these social networks, respectively.

(Source: Spectrem)

LinkedIn Traffic Source Statistics

18. Nearly 28% of LinkedIn visitors come from the US.

According to current LinkedIn stats, 2019 recorded the highest percentage of desktop traffic to LinkedIn as coming from the US (27.92%). 6.42% of all traffic to LinkedIn came from India, 5.77% from the UK, and 4.48% from Brazil.

(Source: Similar Web)

 

19. 46% of the social media traffic visiting B2B company sites comes from LinkedIn.

This stat proves that LinkedIn is more than just a powerful job search tool. The network is also responsible for generating nearly half of all social media traffic to B2B sites. Additionally, LinkedIn provides different tools for audience targeting, which is why website visits originating from LinkedIn are more likely to increase conversion rates on B2B sites.

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

20. More than half of all LinkedIn traffic comes from a mobile device.

As much as 57% of LinkedIn members use a mobile device to access the site. This stat explains why the LinkedIn app is ranked in the top five social networking apps in the App Store, and why it has nearly 1.4 million downloads from the Google Play store.

(Source: Hootsuite)

LinkedIn Profile Statistics

21. For 76% of LinkedIn members, Who’s Viewed Your Profile is the top feature on the site.

LinkedIn provides its users with some fascinating tools to help them connect with like-minded professionals, find and apply for job positions, and much more. One of the features that LinkedIn members like the most is Who’s Viewed Your Profile, with 76% of users ranking it as one of the most helpful features. People You May Know also ranks as one of the network’s most useful features (61%).

(Source: Power Formula)

 

22. 27% of LinkedIn members have between 500 and 999 connections.

Based on the data from a 2016 Power Formula study, we tried to answer the question: What is the average number of connections on LinkedIn? The study results showed that the highest percentage of LinkedIn members, at 28%, had between 0 and 300 connections. Those with 301 to 499 connections stood at 15%, and 27% of survey participants said they had between 500 and 999 connections. Only 1% of respondents identified themselves as Super Connectors with more than 10,000 connections, while 10% of LinkedIn users said they have more than 3,000 connections.

(Source: Power Formula)

 

23. Members of the staffing and recruiting industry have 702 connections on average.

Staffing and recruiting tops LinkedIn’s list of the most connected industries. LinkedIn members from the venture capital and private equity sector have 423 connections on average, while the third most connected industry is human resources, with 380 connections.

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

24. Who is the most connected LinkedIn user?

One of the common questions about LinkedIn members is, Who is the most connected person on LinkedIn? Steven Burda was probably the most famous for having such a high number. However, if you visit Burda’s profile today, you’ll see that he has 500+ connections. So what happened?

First, LinkedIn limited the number of connections to 30,000.
Second, the number of connections is not as important now as the number of followers.

Premium members can message their followers even if they aren’t connected, and as LinkedIn describes, the option of allowing users to follow you creates an opportunity to reach a broader audience. So the next logical question is, 
Who has the most followers on LinkedIn?

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

25. Bill Gates has over 20 million followers on LinkedIn.

The co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is LinkedIn’s most-followed member, with 20,033,291 followers. Richard Branson of the Virgin Group was the first LinkedIn influencer to reach a million followers. He currently has over 15 million, while LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner’s follower count sits at 9.4 million.

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

26. Only 2% of LinkedIn users haven’t joined any LinkedIn group.

LinkedIn groups are one of the ways members can share their thoughts and interests with professionals from their industry, reach out to their target audience, and keep up with the latest LinkedIn trends. With this mind, it’s no wonder a survey revealed that only 2% of LinkedIn members aren’t part of any LinkedIn group.

Meanwhile, 36% of survey participants are members of anywhere between 1 and 9 LinkedIn groups, and 18% are members of between 10 and 19 groups. 15% of the survey’s participants said their group membership ranges from 30 to 49 groups. Finally, it’s fascinating that as much as 16% of LinkedIn’s users are members of 50 to 99 groups.

(Source: Power Formula)

LinkedIn Content Statistics

Publishing content on LinkedIn has proved to be a very successful marketing strategy, as well as an effective way for authors to establish themselves as thought leaders among their peers. The audience is quite broad too. Just take a look at the number of LinkedIn users: 2018 ended with 590 million members, and only four months later, that number increased by more than 20 million. So by targeting the right audience and writing high-quality content relevant to readers, LinkedIn publishers can gain a lot from posting content on this network.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the essential LinkedIn content stats.

 

27. 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn as a content distribution channel.

B2B marketers rely heavily on LinkedIn for distributing their content. Twitter is also popular among B2B marketers, ranking as the second most popular platform for content distribution (87%).

What’s interesting among these LinkedIn statistics is that the percentage of marketers who use LinkedIn as their main content distribution channel has increased from 94% in 2017 to 97% in 2018. Twitter, on the other hand, has seen a small decrease in this aspect. It was the top content distribution platform for 89% of B2B marketers in 2017, but that number has since dropped to 87%.

(Source: Content Marketing Institute)

 

28. For 91% of marketing executives, LinkedIn is the top place to find quality content.

Other social media networks rank significantly lower as sources of high-quality content. Only 29% of executives see Twitter as a leading platform in this area, while Facebook has an even smaller audience among content distributors (27%). These other social platforms represent quite a contrast, considering LinkedIn stats like these.

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

29. 36% of LinkedIn users rely on their LinkedIn feed to get the latest news.

If we look at social media channels only, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the top three choices for staying up-to-date with the latest news, according to a 2016 survey. The majority of internet users (76%) rely on their Facebook feeds for news. Twitter is the second most popular option among social media users (41%), while for 36% of users, LinkedIn is the place to go for the most recent news.

Even though LinkedIn ranks third on this list, the percentage of users who use their LinkedIn feeds for getting fresh content from the internet has increased from 16% in 2014 to 36% in 2016. So is LinkedIn still popular? The answer is yes.

(Source: Hubspot)

 

30. In 2016, LinkedIn users published 130,000 posts a month.

LinkedIn has established itself as one of the leading platforms for publishing and finding top-quality content. The network is also known for featuring long-form content, and over the years, LinkedIn members have become more active in producing it.

This particular set of LinkedIn statistics showed impressive growth in just a few years. In 2014, LinkedIn users generated around 1,000 articles per month. The following year, the same number skyrocketed to 80,000 articles. Finally, 2016 saw even more increased publishing activity on LinkedIn, reaching 130,000 articles per month. The latest figures reveal that the LinkedIn feed sees more than 2 million posts, articles, and videos every day.

(Source: Content Marketing Institute, LinkedIn)

 

31. Only 3 million LinkedIn users share content on a weekly basis.

The number of LinkedIn members who publish their content weekly sits at 3 million, indicating that the publishing rate on LinkedIn is rather low. The LinkedIn growth trends we’ve explored at the beginning of this piece showed a 610+ million user base. If only 3 million members publish content weekly, that’s 0.5% of LinkedIn’s global user base. Even if we considered LinkedIn’s monthly active users only, the percentage of people publishing on this platform would be 1.15%—which is still low.

With all the potential LinkedIn publishing tools and the platform’s wide audience base, there aren’t many reasons, if any, not to post on the top professional network.

(Source: Business of Apps)

LinkedIn Company Stats and Facts

32. LinkedIn employs 14,000 people.

Ever wondered, How many employees does LinkedIn have? A year after its official launch, the world’s largest professional network had only 12 employees. In 2010, LinkedIn’s user base grew to 90 million, and so did the company’s team, employing 1,000 people at the time. Today, LinkedIn has 14,000 full-time employees.

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

33. There are over 20 million open positions on LinkedIn Jobs.

The number of open jobs on LinkedIn reached 20 million this year. Out of those 20 million job openings, 3 million are posted every month in the US.

Jobs-wise, here are a few interesting LinkedIn facts: 2019 counts over 25,000 job openings for data scientists in the US alone, and it’s one of the most promising job opportunities in the country. The sales category lists over 3.6 million jobs worldwide, while the highest number of jobs comes from the management category, with 4.9 million open positions.

(Source: LinkedIn)

 

34. LinkedIn’s revenue more than doubled in 2018 to reach nearly $5.3 billion.

According to these recent LinkedIn facts, 2018 saw the company increasing its 2017 revenue by 131.57%. LinkedIn ended 2017 with $2.2 billion in revenue, whereas last year, the company’s revenue grew to nearly $5.3 billion.

(Source: Statista)

 

LinkedIn’s Vision – CEO Jeff Weiner wants everyone to be on LinkedIn.

In one of his earlier interviews, Jeff Weiner shared his vision of getting everyone on LinkedIn. However, his vision didn’t focus on increasing the network’s user base, but rather on finding jobs for every user who joins. Jeff’s goal is to create economic opportunity for everyone in the global workforce.