YouTube: distribution of U.S. audiences 2024, by gender
At the beginning of 2024, approximately 51.2 percent of YouTube users in the United States were women. By comparison, men made up around 48.8 percent of the platform's user base.
From video-hosting to social media
YouTube has come a long way from its early 2000s launch as a video-hosting site. As of today, thanks to its social features and the possibility to interact directly with content creators, YouTube is one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide. At the beginning of 2022, the platform counted almost 2.6 billion global users, making it second only to Facebook. A large part of YouTube’s audience is located in the United States, with the country being the second largest market for the popular video platform. In the United States, approximately eight in 10 social media users access YouTube for videos, renting movies and TV shows, live streaming sessions, as well as short-form videos.
Video content creators and YouTubers
With its proper introduction in English dictionaries around 2016, the term YouTuber has increasingly acquired professional recognition in the media industry. In 2020, it was estimated that YouTube facilitated or supported the creation of 394 thousand jobs in the United States, contributing to the country’s gross domestic product a whopping 20.5 billion U.S. dollars. Despite only a small fraction of content creators on the platform acquiring notoriety and fame, 78 percent of U.S. creators agreed that YouTube had a positive impact on their professional goals. In 2022, the company announced further plans to help creators monetize their efforts on the platform, including a possible marketplace for video NFTs, after iconic YouTube videos like “Charlie Bit my Finger,” and “Nyan Cat” have already been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
