Digital wellbeing combines how much time people spend online with what they do, how they feel about it, and whether digital activity supports or disrupts daily life. The statistics below cover observed use, self-reported perceptions, teen outcomes, digital learning and public-health guidance across the UK, U.S. and OECD countries.
Key Digital Wellbeing Statistics
These are the most useful headline figures across the available digital wellbeing data:
- In May 2024, UK online adults spent an average of 4 hours 20 minutes online per day across smartphones, tablets and computers.
- In May 2024, UK online adults aged 18–24 spent 6 hours 1 minute online per day.
- In May 2024, UK online adults aged 65 and over spent 3 hours 10 minutes online per day.
- In 2025, UK adults averaged 4.5 hours online per day, according to Ofcom’s rounded annual measure.
- In 2025, UK adults used an average of 41 smartphone apps per month.
- In May 2024, Alphabet- or Meta-owned services accounted for 48% of UK adults’ online time.
- In May 2024, YouTube reached 94% of UK online adults and averaged 47 minutes per day among adult visitors.
- In May 2024, Reddit reached 48% of UK online adults, up from 33% in May 2023.
- In June 2024, 67% of UK adult internet users said they had a good online-offline balance.
- In the UK 2023 tracker, 68% of adult internet users had at least one strategy for managing online time and wellbeing.
- In 2025-6, 32% of UK parents of children aged 3–17 said they found screen time hard to control.
- In 2025-6, 68% of UK parents of children aged 3–17 said their child had a good balance between screen time and other activities.
- In 2025-6, 37% of UK children aged 8–17 said they spent too much time on screens.
- From July 2021 to December 2023, 50.4% of U.S. teenagers aged 12–17 reported at least 4 daily screen hours, excluding schoolwork.
- In the same U.S. period, 27.1% of teenagers with at least 4 daily screen hours had anxiety symptoms, compared with 12.3% below 4 hours.
- In the same U.S. period, 25.9% of teenagers with at least 4 daily screen hours had depression symptoms, compared with 9.5% below 4 hours.
- In PISA 2022, 30% of students across OECD countries reported distraction from digital devices in mathematics lessons.
- In PISA 2022, 25% of OECD students spent at least 4 hours per day on digital leisure outside school.
- In PISA 2022, 70% of boys and 38% of girls spent at least one hour per typical school day gaming outside school.
- WHO guidance recommends no more than 1 hour of sedentary screen time for children aged 2–4, with less being better.
Contents
- How much time people spend online
- Platforms and digital activities
- Perceptions and wellbeing strategies
- Children, families and screen-time balance
- Teen screen-time and wellbeing outcomes
- Digital learning, leisure and guardrails
How Much Time People Spend Online: Digital Wellbeing Trends
Ofcom’s Ipsos iris measurement provides a device-based view of online activity among UK internet users. It is not interchangeable with survey questions about typical weekday screen time, and the May 2024 measure excludes non-internet users and other device categories.
| UK population | Period | Average online time |
|---|---|---|
| Online adults | May 2024 | 4 hours 20 minutes per day |
| Ages 18–24 | May 2024 | 6 hours 1 minute per day |
| Ages 65+ | May 2024 | 3 hours 10 minutes per day |
| Women | May 2024 | 4 hours 36 minutes per day |
| Men | May 2024 | 4 hours 3 minutes per day |
Source: Online Nation 2024 report. The figures are Ipsos iris digital-audience measurements, and sex categories follow the source reporting.
Across the UK nations, Scotland’s online adults averaged 4 hours 44 minutes per day in May 2024, while Wales averaged 4 hours 43 minutes. England and Northern Ireland each averaged 4 hours 16 minutes.
Ofcom’s 2025 annual summary reported that UK adults’ average daily online time rose to 4.5 hours, up 10 minutes from the previous year. UK adults also used an average of 41 smartphone apps per month, while children aged 8–14 spent almost 3 hours online per day, excluding games consoles.
These are rounded annual figures and use different age and device definitions from the Ipsos iris results.
Source: From apps to AI search: how the UK goes online in 2025.
Platforms and Digital Activities Shaping Online Wellbeing
Time is concentrated among major services, but reach and time-on-service are different measures. In May 2024, Alphabet- or Meta-owned services accounted for 48% of UK adults’ online time, equal to 2 hours 4 minutes per day.
- Alphabet services reached 99% of UK online adults. YouTube reached 94% and averaged 47 minutes per day among adult visitors; the reach and time figures use different denominators.
- Meta services reached 96% of UK online adults, while 70%, or 33 million adults, visited Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. The audience figure is rounded.
- WhatsApp reached 87% of UK online adults, and 64% accessed it daily.
- Reddit reached 22.9 million UK online adults, or 48%, in May 2024, compared with 15.6 million, or 33%, in May 2023. Ofcom reported a 47% year-on-year increase in adult reach.
- Reddit reached 71% of UK online adults aged 18–24 and 63% of those aged 25–34 in May 2024; these are monthly reach measures, not daily active use.
Among visitors aged 18–24, TikTok averaged 64 minutes per day in May 2024. Women visitors in that age group averaged 77 minutes, compared with 48 minutes for men, while Snapchat visitors aged 18–24 averaged 55 minutes and visitors aged 65 and over averaged 4 minutes.
Source: Online Nation 2024 report. Visitor averages are based on monthly time divided by days in the month.
Digital Wellbeing Perceptions and Self-Management Strategies
Usage data describes exposure, while survey data captures how people judge their own balance. In June 2024, 67% of UK adult internet users said they had a good balance between online and offline lives, while 14% said they did not.
Age differences were clear: 21% of adults aged 18–24 disagreed that they had a good balance, compared with 7% of adults aged 55 and over. These are self-reported perceptions, not clinical wellbeing scores.
In Ofcom’s 2023 tracker, 68% of UK adult internet users reported at least one strategy for managing online time and wellbeing. The most common listed strategies included setting aside time when not online, disabling notifications or using do-not-disturb settings, and avoiding phones or tablets in bed.
- 27% set aside time for themselves when they were not online.
- 26% disabled notifications or used do-not-disturb settings.
- 21% chose not to take phones or tablets to bed.
These strategy figures measure reported behavior, not intervention effectiveness or sleep outcomes. Among UK social-media-using 16–24-year-olds, 48% thought they spent too much time on social media, compared with 8% of those aged 65 and over.
Ofcom’s 2025 survey found that 33% of UK adults said the internet was good for society, down from 40% in 2024. The year comparison may reflect questionnaire or sample changes.
Source: Online Nation 2024 report; From apps to AI search: how the UK goes online in 2025.
Children, Families and Screen-Time Balance Statistics
The UK 2025-6 parent and child data shows both broad adoption of supervision and persistent difficulty controlling screen time. Ofcom flags trends as indicative where methodology changes affect interpretation.
| UK population, 2025-6 | Reported result |
|---|---|
| Parents of children aged 3–17 finding screen time hard to control | 32% |
| Parents of children aged 13–15 finding it hard to control | 41% |
| Parents of children aged 16–17 finding it hard to control | 49% |
| Parents saying their child had a good screen-time balance | 68% |
| Parents of 13–17-year-olds reporting good balance | 58% |
| Parents of children under 8 reporting good balance | 78% |
Parents and children also viewed screen exposure differently. In 2025-6, 37% of UK children aged 8–17 said they spent too much time on screens, compared with 55% of parents of children the same age; the child share rose from 28% at ages 8–9 to 44% at ages 16–17.
Supervision was widespread: 93% of UK parents of children aged 3–17 reported at least one form of online supervision, 78% reported ongoing supervision such as checking history or asking what a child had been doing online, and 77% reported device-management tools such as parental controls or app limits. These figures measure reported use, not effectiveness.
Source: Children and Parents Media Use and Attitudes Report 2025-6.
Teen Screen-Time Distribution and Wellbeing Outcomes
The U.S. National Health Interview Survey–Teen measured typical weekday screen time from July 2021 through December 2023, excluding schoolwork. Among U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized teenagers aged 12–17, 50.4% reported 4 or more hours per day.
| Daily screen time | Share of U.S. teenagers aged 12–17 |
|---|---|
| Less than 1 hour | 3.0% |
| 1 hour | 6.1% |
| 2 hours | 17.8% |
| 3 hours | 22.8% |
| 4 or more hours | 50.4% |
The 4-or-more-hour share was 55.0% among teenagers aged 15–17, versus 45.6% among those aged 12–14. It was 48.3% for boys and 52.5% for girls; the CDC reported that this observed sex difference was not statistically significant.
Other reported differences included 60.4% for Black non-Hispanic teenagers, 52.8% for Hispanic teenagers, 43.5% for Asian non-Hispanic teenagers and 47.9% for White non-Hispanic teenagers. Metropolitan teenagers reported 51.4%, compared with 43.3% in nonmetropolitan areas; the share was 55.0% where the highest parental education was some college or less, versus 45.2% where a parent had a college degree or higher.
Among teenagers with at least 4 daily screen hours, 27.1% had anxiety symptoms in the prior 2 weeks, compared with 12.3% among those below 4 hours. Depression symptoms were reported by 25.9% of the 4-or-more-hour group and 9.5% of the below-4-hour group.
These are cross-sectional associations, not proof that screen time caused anxiety or depression; anxiety was measured with GAD-2 and depression with a symptom scale. The family-income comparison was 51.7% below 200% of the federal poverty level versus 49.6% at or above 200%.
Source: Products – Data Briefs – Number 513 -October 2024.
Digital Learning, Leisure and Healthy Screen-Time Guardrails
PISA 2022 adds an education setting to digital wellbeing. Across OECD countries, 30% of students reported being distracted by digital devices in mathematics lessons, while 25% spent at least 4 hours per day on digital leisure before and after school.
- Among students in schools banning cell phones, 29% reported using a smartphone several times a day at school, and another 21% used one every day or almost every day. These figures describe self-reported use and policy context, not policy effectiveness alone.
- Schools serving 15-year-olds had about 0.8 computers and 0.4 tablets or e-readers available per student for educational purposes. This is school-reported availability, not ownership or actual use.
- 70% of boys spent at least one hour per typical school day gaming before or after school, compared with 38% of girls.
- 43% of girls spent more than 3 hours per day browsing social media before or after school, compared with 32% of boys.
The OECD measures are student-reported, and the digital-leisure dashboard excludes school-time use. They should not be treated as equivalent to Ofcom’s online-audience measurement or the CDC’s self-reported typical-weekday screen-time categories.
For younger children, WHO’s 2019 guidance sets sedentary screen time at no more than 1 hour for 2-year-olds and no more than 1 hour for children aged 3–4 years, with less being better. This is an evidence-informed public-health guideline threshold, not an estimate of observed population behavior or individualized advice.
Sources: Investments in a solid foundation for learning and well-being: PISA 2022 Results (Volume II); Digital leisure outside school; To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more.