Screen Time Statistics 2026

UK adults spend an average of 4 hours 30 minutes a day online on their personal smartphones, tablets and computers, 10 minutes more than a year earlier.

Ipsos iris passive meter panel. Excludes work devices, TV sets and games consoles.

UK 18- to 24-year-olds spend 6 hours 20 minutes a day online, almost twice as long as people aged 65 and over (3 hours 20 minutes).

Smartphones account for 77% of UK adults' time online; 18- to 24-year-olds spend 5 hours 5 minutes a day online on their phones alone.

UK women spend 4 hours 43 minutes a day online, 26 minutes more than men.

People in France spend more than 3 hours a day online, a record, and 15- to 24-year-olds nearly 5 hours; mobile accounts for 80% of time online.

Médiamétrie's audience measurement panels across mobile, computer and tablet.

People spent 5.3 trillion hours in iOS and Google Play apps in 2025, roughly 3.6 hours per mobile user per day.

Industry estimate modelled from Sensor Tower's panel data. App time only.

57% of US adults estimate they spend at least five hours a day looking at screens, work screens included.

Opt-in online panel. A self-estimate, not measured time.

91% of US adults own a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011; 98% own a cellphone of some kind.

Address-based probability sample (NPORS).

97% of US adults under 50 have a smartphone, compared with 78% of those aged 65 and over.

95% of US teens aged 13 to 17 have access to a smartphone.

UK smartphone ownership jumps from 56% of 10-year-olds to 83% of 11-year-olds, the year most children start secondary school.

Nearly 1 in 4 US children have their own cellphone by age 8, and 40% have their own tablet by age 2.

91% of people in France aged 12 and over own a smartphone, including 96% of 12- to 17-year-olds and 70% of those aged 70 and over.

Ownership held at 91% in the 2026 edition (June 2025 fieldwork).

Tracked by an app on their phones, US teens picked up their smartphones a median of 51 times a day, ranging from 2 to 498.

Small, Android-only sample; teens aged 13+ were more likely to check over 100 times a day.

Teens in a phone-tracking study received a median of 237 notifications a day; about a quarter arrived during school hours and 5% at night.

97% of teens in the same study used their phones during school hours, for a median of 43 minutes.

Before the recent wave of US school phone bans.

40% of Americans say they check their phone more often than they would like, including 20% who do so much more often.

Opt-in online panel.

64% of US adults check their smartphone as soon as they wake up, and 72% keep it near them while they sleep.

Probability-based Gallup Panel.

43% of Americans always or often use their phone within 10 minutes of falling asleep, including 61% of adults under 30.

Opt-in online panel.

Between 15% and 24% of the time UK 8- to 14-year-olds spend on YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp falls between 9 pm and 5 am.

Across 20 studies of 125,198 children, using a media device at bedtime was associated with more than double the odds of inadequate sleep (OR 2.17).

Meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies: poor sleepers may also reach for their phones.

Screen time was linked to worse sleep, mainly later bedtimes and shorter sleep, in 90% of 67 studies of school-aged children and adolescents.

Among 844 Belgian adults, texting or calling after lights out predicted worse sleep quality, more insomnia symptoms and more fatigue.

Reading on a light-emitting e-reader before bed, compared with a printed book, delayed sleep, suppressed melatonin and reduced next-morning alertness.

About 4 hours of reading at full brightness in a lab; light is only one mechanism.

When Geneva teenagers cut screen use after 9 pm on school nights, they fell asleep earlier, slept longer and were more alert during the day.

Within-subject intervention without a randomized control group.

Half of US teenagers aged 12 to 17 (50.4%) have 4 or more hours of daily screen time, not counting schoolwork: 45.6% of 12- to 14-year-olds and 55.0% of 15- to 17-year-olds.

Nationally representative federal survey; weekdays only.

In a phone-tracking study, US teens used their smartphones for a median of almost 4.5 hours a day; some averaged over 16 hours.

Small, Android-only sample.

US teenagers report spending an average of 4.8 hours a day on social media, and 51% spend at least four hours.

Hours are summed across seven apps, which can double-count multitasking.

Teen social media time rises from 4.1 hours a day at age 13 to 5.8 hours at 17, and girls report nearly an hour more than boys (5.3 vs 4.4 hours).

US teens averaged 8 hours 39 minutes of entertainment screen media a day in 2021, up from 7 hours 22 minutes in 2019; tweens averaged 5 hours 33 minutes.

Pandemic-era data; still the latest edition of this census.

UK children spend about 2 hours a day online at age 8 to 9, 3 hours at 10 to 12 and 4 hours at 13 to 14.

Excludes games consoles.

UK 8- to 14-year-olds spend an average of 48 minutes a day on YouTube and 45 minutes on Snapchat, together more than half of their time online.

4 in 10 US teens say they are online "almost constantly", up from 24% in 2014–15 but down from 46% in 2024.

US children aged 8 and under average 2 hours 27 minutes of screen media a day: 1 hour 3 minutes for under-2s and 3 hours 28 minutes for 5- to 8-year-olds.

Parent-reported. Several roundups misquote the 5–8 figure as 3:38.

US children aged 8 and under now watch 14 minutes of short-form video a day, rising to 22 minutes for 5- to 8-year-olds.

The WHO recommends no sedentary screen time for children under 2 and no more than 1 hour a day for 2- to 4-year-olds.

The WHO rates the certainty of the underlying evidence as low.

The American Academy of Pediatrics' 2026 policy moves away from hour limits and says most platforms are designed to boost engagement and profit, not child health.

Replaces the 2016 statement behind the widely quoted "1 hour a day at 2–5" rule.

France's expert Commission écrans recommends no screens before 3, no phone before 11, no internet-connected phone before 13 and social media only from 15.

Policy recommendations; the report itself says evidence of cognitive effects is weak.

In 2,441 Canadian children, more screen time at ages 2 and 3 predicted slightly poorer developmental screening scores a year or two later.

Small effect; both measures were reported by mothers.

In nearly 14,000 French children, having the TV on during family meals at age 2 was linked to lower language scores; total screen time mattered less once family factors were controlled.

Online adults worldwide spend an average of 18 hours 36 minutes a week on social media and video platforms, and women aged 16 to 24 spend 25 hours 45 minutes.

GWI survey data, reported by DataReportal. Online population only.

The average TikTok user spends 1 hour 37 minutes a day in the Android app, about 14% longer than the average YouTube user; Instagram users average 1 hour 13 minutes.

Similarweb panel data. Per user of each app, not per person.

UK adults spend an average of 51 minutes a day on YouTube, not counting TV sets.

92% of US teens use YouTube, 68% TikTok, 63% Instagram and 55% Snapchat.

About three-quarters of US teens use YouTube every day; 61% use TikTok and 55% Instagram daily.

21% of US teens say they are on TikTok "almost constantly", and 36% say this of at least one of the five major platforms.

US teens report spending 1.9 hours a day on YouTube, 1.5 hours on TikTok and 0.9 hours on Instagram.

41% of US adults say they are online "almost constantly", including 63% of 18- to 29-year-olds and 14% of those aged 65 and over.

53% of US adults say they spend too much time on their smartphone, rising to 70% of adults under 30.

Probability-based American Trends Panel.

The share of US adults who say they use their smartphone "too much" rose from 39% in 2015 to 58% in 2022.

A different question from Pew's, so the two series should not be joined.

45% of US teens say they spend too much time on social media, up from 36% in 2022.

38% of US teens say they spend too much time on their smartphone (44% of girls vs 33% of boys).

47% of US parents of teens say they spend too much time on their own smartphone.

40% of UK adults say their screen time is too high every day or most days, including 61% of 16- to 24-year-olds and 10% of those aged 75 and over.

53% of Americans say they want to reduce the time they spend looking at screens, rising to 69% of adults under 30.

Opt-in online panel.

45% of US adults tried to cut back on their smartphone use over the past 12 months; a quarter of them say they were extremely or very successful, and 52% somewhat successful.

44% of US teens say they have cut back on social media, and the same share on their smartphone, up from 39% and 36% in 2023.

24% of UK adults have deleted an app because they were spending too much time on it, up from 19% the year before.

Ofcom changed its method this year, so the comparison is indicative.

36% of Americans intentionally tried to reduce their screen time in the past year, and 17% have used an app to track or limit it (37% of adults under 30).

Opt-in online panel.

42% of people in France aged 12 and over say they spend "too much" or "far too much" time on screens for personal use; only 11% say they spend little time on them.

56% of French 12- to 17-year-olds think they spend too much time on screens, as do 54% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 22% of people aged 70 and over.

The 12–17 subsample is about 200 people.

41% of people in France say they spend more than three hours a day on screens outside work, and 20% more than five hours.

Covers all screens: TV, phone, computer, tablet and console.

The median French smartphone user estimates spending 14 hours a week (2 hours a day) on their phone; 19% of 18- to 24-year-olds say more than 5 hours a day.

People tend to underestimate phone time compared with logged data.

65% of French smartphone owners say they can only go a few hours without their phone before missing it.

80% of people in France use a mobile phone every day, close to the 2019 record of 82%.

68% of people in France use social media or messaging apps every day, including 84% of 15- to 24-year-olds.

French 15- to 24-year-olds spend 61% of their time online on social media and messaging apps, and 11- to 14-year-olds 63%.

French 7- to 19-year-olds spend 3 hours 1 minute a day on screens in their free time, down 10 minutes since 2024; 16- to 19-year-olds spend 5 hours 6 minutes.

Opt-in access panel; excludes school and study time.

More than 4 in 5 French 11- to 17-year-olds use at least one very large online platform every day, and teens connect to nearly four different platforms a day.

76% of French 15- to 17-year-olds say they are "hyperconnected" often or sometimes, meaning repeated, compulsive use that eats into daily activities; 63% of 11- to 12-year-olds say the same.

"Hyperconnection" is Arcom's own composite measure, not a clinical one.

The average age of first social media use in France is 12, and 44% of young people start before 13.

French children aged 6 to 17 averaged 4 hours 11 minutes of screen time a day outside school, the most recent national figure of its kind.

Esteban survey data that is now 10 years old; Santé publique France says it is below today's reality.

In France's national Elfe birth cohort, children averaged 56 minutes of screen time a day at age 2 and 1 hour 34 minutes at age 5½.

Parent-reported; the data predates TikTok.

French 10½-year-olds spent an average of 2 hours 36 minutes a day on screens in 2022, including 19 minutes on a smartphone.

Elfe cohort data as reported by the Commission écrans; no standalone publication of the figure was found.

Average daily screen time of French 15- to 17-year-olds rose from 3 hours 27 minutes in 2006–07 to 5 hours 24 minutes in 2014–16, across successive national surveys.

Compiled by the Commission écrans from Anses and Santé publique France surveys with different methods: read it as a trend, not an exact change.

Three quarters of French internet users (75%) check social media every day or almost every day, about two thirds of the population.

The share of French adults spending three or more hours a day on screens outside work rose from 53% in 2006–07 to 80% in 2014–16.

In a 24-country meta-analysis, France and Germany had the lowest levels of problematic smartphone use, even as levels rose worldwide between 2014 and 2020.

In a two-week study of 40 information workers, the median time people stayed on one screen before switching was 40 seconds.

Computer screens only. The source of the popular "47 seconds" figure, which comes from a book, not a paper.

Just receiving a call or text notification, without answering it, disrupted performance on an attention task about as much as actually using the phone.

A single lab study showing a short-term cost.

In a week-long experiment with 221 adults, keeping phone alerts on led to more self-reported inattention and hyperactivity than a week with alerts off.

Self-reported symptoms in a non-clinical sample.

The 2017 "brain drain" study found that simply having your phone nearby reduced working-memory capacity.

Contested: see the replication below.

A pre-registered direct replication of the "brain drain" experiment found no difference in performance whether the phone was on the desk, in a bag or outside the room.

Across three datasets covering 355,358 adolescents, digital technology use explained at most 0.4% of the variation in well-being.

Critics argue averaging all screen use hides larger effects of social media on girls.

Depressive symptoms and suicide-related outcomes among US adolescents rose between 2010 and 2015, especially among girls, alongside increased time on new media.

Contested: a time trend that cannot show cause.

US adolescents using social media for more than 3 hours a day had a higher risk of later internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression (adjusted risk ratio 1.60 for 3–6 hours, 1.78 for over 6 hours).

The study behind the US Surgeon General's "3 hours" warning.

In UK data on 84,011 people, higher social media use predicted lower life satisfaction a year later at specific ages: 11 to 13 for girls and 14 to 15 for boys.

Small effects that run both ways.

A meta-analysis of experiments that asked people to cut or quit social media found an effect on mental health statistically indistinguishable from zero.

Disputed by Haidt and Rausch, who find benefits in multi-week studies.

Across 32 randomized trials with 5,544 people, restricting or abstaining from social media improved well-being with a small effect (g = 0.17).

The authors call this only weak support.

Across 41 studies of 41,871 children and young people, about 1 in 4 (23.3%) showed problematic smartphone use, which was linked to higher odds of depression, anxiety and poor sleep.

Measured with self-report scales. "Smartphone addiction" is not a clinical diagnosis.

A meta-analysis of 504 studies across 64 countries estimated the prevalence of "smartphone addiction" at 27%.

Rates depend heavily on the scale used and vary widely by region; do not apply the figure to a single country.

In a randomized trial with about 2,000 adults, letting people set their own app limits cut time on the most tempting apps by 22 minutes a day (16%) over 12 weeks, and 78% kept binding limits.

The authors' model attributes 31% of social media use to self-control problems.

Blocking mobile internet on smartphones for two weeks improved sustained attention, mental health and well-being in a randomized trial with 467 adults.

No placebo condition, and only 25.5% complied fully.

Deactivating Facebook for four weeks freed up about 60 minutes a day and raised well-being by 0.09 standard deviations.

Participants were paid to deactivate.

Students limited to about 30 minutes of social media a day for three weeks reported significant drops in loneliness and depression compared with controls.

Small, unblinded sample.

Cutting smartphone use by 1 hour a day reduced depression and anxiety symptoms more durably over 4 months than a week of total abstinence.

Capping smartphone use at 2 hours a day for three weeks improved depression, stress and sleep in a randomized trial, but screen time crept back up afterwards.

A delay with an option to back out before opening an app reduced actual app openings by 57% over six weeks.

Co-authored by one sec's founder; the field study had no control group.

A grayscale screen cut daily screen time by 20 minutes but did not change how often people unlocked their phones, a sign of deep-rooted checking habits.

Small sample without a separate control group.

Batching notifications three times a day made people feel more attentive and in control of their phones; turning them off entirely raised anxiety and FOMO.

Locking people out of apps once they hit a self-set limit reduced use more than warnings did, but caused more frustration.

Gentle phone vibrations while staying on an app past a daily limit cut use by more than 20%, but the effect disappeared once the nudge was removed.

After English schools banned phones, test scores rose by 6.4% of a standard deviation, with the biggest gains among the lowest-achieving students.

Quasi-experimental; contrast with the result below.

In 30 English secondary schools, restrictive phone policies cut phone use during school hours but were not linked to better well-being or less phone use overall.

A systematic review of 21 digital detox studies found mixed results: some showed benefits, some none, and some harms.

Among Detox users who had switched off their anti-doomscrolling nudge, 46% of those prompted turned it back on, and they roughly doubled their engagement with it (29.7% to 58.5%).

Quasi-experimental study co-authored by Detox's founders. It measured engagement, not screen time.