Contents
- teen social media use in Canada statistics: How often do Canadian teens use social media?
- teen social media use in Canada statistics: How many hours do Ontario students spend on social media?
- teen social media use in Canada statistics: How do teen social media statistics in Canada differ by age and gender?
- teen social media use in Canada statistics: What does problematic use look like?
- How is teen social media use in Canada associated with sleep?
- teen social media use in Canada: How does social media use relate to Canadian teens’ relationships and connections?
- Sources
teen social media use in Canada statistics: How often do Canadian teens use social media?
Social media use is common among Canadian adolescents, though the available surveys measure it in different ways. One Statistics Canada graphic reports that 92% of Canadians aged 15 to 19 used social media apps or websites in 2018/2019. That broad indicator identifies whether respondents used social media; it does not describe daily duration, frequency of checking, or whether use felt difficult to control. [Statistics Canada: Canadians’ reported experiences using social media, 2018/2019]
The Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study offers a more specific measure for ages 11 to 15. It defines intensive use as communicating with others online almost all the time. In 2017/2018, 38% of girls and 30% of boys in that age range reported intensive use. This definition concerns the near-constant social communication experience, not simply having an account or using a platform at some point during the day. [Statistics Canada: Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections]
These measures answer different questions. The 92% figure covers social media apps or websites among 15- to 19-year-olds, while the HBSC figures describe intensive online communication among 11- to 15-year-olds. They also come from different survey periods. Read together, they show both broad adoption among older teens and a substantial share of younger adolescents reporting near-constant communication, without implying that every user has the same routine or experience.
teen social media use in Canada statistics: How many hours do Ontario students spend on social media?
The 2023 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS) asked students in Grades 7 to 12 how many hours per day they usually spent on social media. The distribution ranged from less than 1 hour to 10 or more hours. The largest listed group was students reporting 3–4 hours, at 27.6%. Another 23.7% reported 2 hours, and 12.4% reported about 1 hour. [CAMH: The Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students 1991–2023]
| Usual social media time per day | Ontario students, Grades 7–12, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Less than 1 hour | 7.4% |
| About 1 hour | 12.4% |
| 2 hours | 23.7% |
| 3–4 hours | 27.6% |
| 5–6 hours | 14.0% |
| 7–9 hours | 6.1% |
| 10 or more hours | 3.2% |
| Use social media, but not daily | 2.0% |
| Don’t use social media | 3.6% |
The categories show why a single “average” can hide meaningful variation. In the same survey, some students reported less than 1 hour or no daily use, while others reported 5–6, 7–9, or 10 or more hours. The wording asks about usual daily time, so the responses describe students’ reported habits rather than observed screen logs. The figures apply to Ontario students in Grades 7 to 12 in 2023; they should not be presented as a national estimate or as a current-year measurement. [CAMH: The Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students 1991–2023]
teen social media use in Canada statistics: How do teen social media statistics in Canada differ by age and gender?
Statistics Canada’s 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth asked adolescents aged 12 to 17 about social networking frequency. Among girls, 50.2% said they used social networking several times a day, while 19.7% said they used it constantly. Among boys, the corresponding figures were 41.5% several times a day and 11.8% constantly. The categories are the survey’s reported frequency labels; “several times a day” and “constantly” are distinct responses. [Statistics Canada: Online digital media use and adolescent mental health]
| Social networking frequency, 2019 | Girls, ages 12–17 | Boys, ages 12–17 |
|---|---|---|
| Several times a day | 50.2% | 41.5% |
| Constantly | 19.7% | 11.8% |
Age-specific findings from the 2017/2018 HBSC study add another view. Intensive social media use was reported by 45.4% of 15-year-old girls, the highest age-and-gender estimate described in that analysis. Among 11-year-old boys, 21.0% reported intensive use, the lowest estimate described. These figures use the HBSC definition of intensive use: online communication with others almost all the time. They concern students aged 11 to 15 and should not be treated as the same measure as the 2019 frequency categories. [Statistics Canada: Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections]
The age and gender patterns are descriptive. They identify differences within particular surveys and age groups, but do not establish why the differences occur. The surveys also use different questions and populations, so combining their percentages into one ranking would obscure what each measure captures.
In the 2017/2018 Canadian HBSC study, 10.3% of 15-year-old girls reported problematic social media use, the highest age-and-gender estimate reported in the article. Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections: Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, 2017/2018
teen social media use in Canada statistics: What does problematic use look like?
Problematic use is measured differently from time spent. In the 2023 OSDUHS, 8.8% of Ontario students in Grades 7 to 12 met the study’s criterion: reporting 6 or more of 9 symptoms. The report gives sex-specific estimates of 12.1% for female students and 5.5% for male students. By grade, the reported estimate was highest for Grade 8 students at 12.2%, and lower for Grade 12 students at 5.5%. These are survey classifications, not a count of all students who use social media heavily. [CAMH: The Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students 1991–2023]
Individual symptoms were more commonly reported than the 6-of-9 threshold. Among Ontario students answering the symptom questions, 44.5% said that during the past year they had tried to spend less time on social media but failed. A further 44.0% said they had often used social media to avoid thinking about unpleasant things. These responses refer to individual symptoms during the past year, not to the share meeting the overall problematic-use criterion. [CAMH: The Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students 1991–2023]
Other reported symptoms included regularly being unable to think about anything else but when they would use social media again (21.8%), regularly feeling dissatisfied because they wanted more time on social media (19.0%), often feeling bad when they could not use it (18.0%), and regularly losing interest in hobbies or other activities because they would rather use social media (19.4%). The survey asked about these experiences over the past year. [CAMH: The Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students 1991–2023]
The reported symptoms also included social or family conflict. In the same Ontario student survey, 16.3% said they regularly had arguments with others because of social media use during the past year, 17.0% said they regularly lied to parents or friends about time spent on it, and 11.6% reported serious conflict with parents or siblings because of their use. These indicators describe different experiences; none alone is equivalent to the study’s 6-or-more-symptom classification. The symptom table’s total sample is identified as n=5,091. [CAMH: The Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students 1991–2023]
A separate 2022 Canadian HBSC report provides figures for students in Grades 6 to 8: problematic use was reported by 12% of cisgender girls and 21% of TGD youth. For Grades 9 to 10, the reported figure for cisgender girls was 15%. These groups and grade bands are specific to the report’s categories and should not be combined with OSDUHS estimates, which cover Ontario students in Grades 7 to 12 and use a different survey. [Public Health Agency of Canada: The health of young people in Canada: Focus on mental health]
How is teen social media use in Canada associated with sleep?
A Canadian HBSC analysis of students aged 11 to 17 in 2017–2018 classified 6.7% as problematic social media users, 35.4% as intense users, 43.7% as active users, and 14.2% as non-active users. The study included 12,557 participants. These categories describe patterns of social media use used in the analysis and are not interchangeable with the OSDUHS symptom threshold. [Public Health Agency of Canada: Social media use and sleep health among adolescents in Canada]
Among the adolescents classified as problematic users, 33.5% reported insomnia symptoms and 61.3% reported daytime wakefulness problems. In this same group, 93.9% used screens before bed on at least 3 nights per week, and 54.5% did not meet sleep-duration recommendations. These are outcomes reported for the problematic-user group in the 2017–2018 sample; they do not establish that social media use caused the sleep experiences. [Public Health Agency of Canada: Social media use and sleep health among adolescents in Canada]
| Sleep measure among problematic social media users | 2017–2018 Canadian HBSC result |
|---|---|
| Insomnia symptoms | 33.5% |
| Daytime wakefulness problems | 61.3% |
| Screens before bed on at least 3 nights per week | 93.9% |
| Not meeting sleep-duration recommendations | 54.5% |
The analysis also compared problematic use with active use in adjusted models. Relative to active use, problematic use was associated with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 2.67 for daytime wakefulness problems (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.15–3.31), 2.76 for screen use before bed at least 3 nights per week (95% CI 1.86–4.08), and 2.43 for not meeting sleep-duration recommendations (95% CI 2.01–2.93). For late bedtimes, the aOR was 2.89 on school days (95% CI 2.20–3.79) and 3.24 on weekends (95% CI 2.61–4.02). Active use was the reference category. These are associations from adjusted statistical models, not estimates of cause and effect. [Public Health Agency of Canada: Social media use and sleep health among adolescents in Canada]
teen social media use in Canada: How does social media use relate to Canadian teens’ relationships and connections?
The 2017/2018 Canadian HBSC analysis of students aged 11 to 15 examined social media use alongside support from friends, family, teachers, and classmates. Its results distinguish intensive use from problematic use. Intensive use meant online communication with others almost all the time; problematic use was a separate category. The reported relative risks describe associations with high support in the study’s models, rather than proving that one kind of use creates or reduces support. [Statistics Canada: Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections]
For girls, intensive use was associated with a relative risk of 1.40 for high friend support in Model 2 (95% CI 1.28–1.54). That model adjusted for problematic social media use. This finding indicates an association between intensive use and the measured high-friend-support outcome in that model; it does not mean that intensive use guarantees more support for an individual teen. [Statistics Canada: Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections]
Problematic use showed associations with several measures of high support in Model 2, which adjusted for intensive use. Among boys, problematic use was associated with a relative risk of 0.58 for high family support (95% CI 0.42–0.79) and 0.74 for high classmate support (95% CI 0.62–0.89). Among girls, the relative risks were 0.48 for high family support (95% CI 0.36–0.63), 0.56 for high teacher support (95% CI 0.43–0.72), and 0.75 for high classmate support (95% CI 0.62–0.91). [Statistics Canada: Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections]
The findings show why “social media use” is too broad a label for a single relationship pattern. Intensive communication was associated with higher friend support for girls in the specified model, while problematic use was associated with lower relative risks for selected high-support outcomes. These results apply to the 2017/2018 Canadian HBSC sample of 11- to 15-year-olds and to the study’s measured support categories and model adjustments. They are associations, and the survey evidence does not establish the direction of influence.
Sources
- Canadians’ reported experiences using social media, 2018/2019
- Online digital media use and adolescent mental health
- Cyberbullying Public Awareness Research 2024
- The health of young people in Canada: Focus on mental health
- The Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students 1991–2023: Findings from the OSDUHS
- Social media use and sleep health among adolescents in Canada
- Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections: Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, 2017/2018