I recently came across a fascinating and detailed poll from Kantar that asked a cross section of 1,000 UK residents about the social media accounts they hold. This report was like manna from heaven for me as many of the up-and-coming social media channels have been very shy about reporting their user numbers on a country-by-country basis. More than that, this report also helps us to mark out the most active users of each channel according to their age, education, work and family status.

As a snapshot, here are some of the big stats that have bubbled up from the data.

Facebook may have lost 1.5 million users in the UK in the past year, but it’s still the most popular channel in the UK. There has been much speculation in the media that youngsters are leaving Facebook in their droves but this data indicates that 91% of all 18-24 year olds and 82% of all 25 – 34 year olds still hold a Facebook account.
Facebook account numbers are also high amongst people who have children (72%) and who work full time (68%) against an average for the total poll of 56%.
Twitter account numbers are highest amongst 18 – 24 year olds (64%), 25 – 34 year olds (41%), those who work full or part time (33%) and those who are educated to A Level or equivalent (33%) against an average usage of 26% for the total group.
Google Plus accounts are highest amongst 18 – 24 year olds (43%), those who don’t work (29%), those who have been educated to Further Education standard (26%) and 25 – 34 year olds (26%).
LinkedIn is most popular with those who have University degree or higher (36%), 35 – 44 year olds (31%) and those who are in full time work (28%)
Pinterest is now used by 8% of the females against 3% of males interviewed. Pinterest usage rises to 12% amongst 24 – 35 year olds, 10% amongst those who are working full time and 10% for those who have a university degree or higher.
YouTube is most popular with 18 – 24 year olds (76%), those educated to A Level or equivalent (51%) and those who are not working (50%).
Instagram is most popular with 18 – 24 year olds (45%), those who are working part time (20%) and who have children (20%) versus an average population usage of 13%.
Flickr users are most likely to be in the 18 - 24 year old age group (15%), educated with university degree or higher (12%) and working full time (10%) versus an average user total of 8%.
The Greater London area also comes up as a social media hotspot with consistently higher than average social media usage across Facebook (61%), Twitter (35%), LinkedIn (34%) and Instagram (21%)
Last but not least, the data swung a final left hook when it revealed that 33% of those interviewed didn’t use a single social media account. This number certainly indicates that this is a way to go before social media acquires universal usage. But looking at the numbers in more depth it's no surprise to see that of those who reported no social media usage, 70% were retired and 62% have only primary or no formal education.

For those of you who are more visually orientated, I’ve also generated the following charts from the original Kantar data which you can also read at your leisure (with a magnifying glass!) here.