LinkedIn statistics you'll want at your fingertips - 2021/22

LinkedIn is often described as the world's biggest professional network. And look how it has grown in the last few years.

When I signed up in 2005 the platform had 4 million members. Back then it was mostly a jobs board. Now, its membership is 200 times higher and it encompasses content publishing, news, CRM, learning, plus jobs.

As a social media consultant and trainer, I'm often looking for a stat or two to present to clients to demonstrate LinkedIn's relevance, especially when it comes to leadership communications or social selling.

The problem is that while there are plenty of "mind-blowing statistics you need to know" blog posts out there, so many of them aren't referenced or are a bit old.

So, here's my own referenced guide with all the important numbers for LinkedIn, as of November 2021*.

Questions about LinkedIn's usage, answered

1. How many people use LinkedIn? 800 million. Well "nearly" 800 million are on LinkedIn, according to the earnings announcement in October 2021. We don't know how close they are to the magic number. And we don't know how many are active users.
2. How many countries is LinkedIn present in? 200. LinkedIn's own marketing materials sometimes say "more than 200 countries and territories", but we don't know how many more. Suffice is to say it's in a lot of places. Although not China, which is soon to sunset and convert to a jobs app.
3. How many companies are on LinkedIn? As of November 2021, LinkedIn claims that 57 million companies are listed on the platform (whether that includes government departments, schools, not for profits etc., I don't know).
4. Who owns LinkedIn? Microsoft. It bought LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion.
5. How much money does LinkedIn make? In 2020 LinkedIn's revenue was $8 billion, up from $6.7 billion in 2019 and $5.8 billion in 2018 (Business of Apps).
6. Is LinkedIn growing? Yes. Across almost every measure, you'd describe LinkedIn as growing (although numbers can sometimes be hard to unpick). Sessions (how much it is used) are 30% year on year (July 2021), revenues up 42% year on year, and confirmed hires up 160% year on year (October 2021). There was also a 55% year-over-year increase in conversations among connections on LinkedIn from March 2019 to March 2020, with a 60% increase in content creation in the same period.
7. Who uses LinkedIn? LinkedIn's gender breakdown is 56.6% male 43.4% female, while the most popular age group on the platform is 25-34 years old (based on advertising reach WeAreSocial/Hootsuite October 2021).
8. How many people use Sales Navigator? I couldn't find a definitive number, but LinkedIn claims it has seen a 60% Sales Navigator increase in the last year, with?59% of Forbes Global 500 companies, and 64% of the Forbes Fastest growing companies are Sales Navigator users (LinkedIn State of Sales Report 2021).
9. Which social media platform is most trusted? LinkedIn comes out top amongst the major players. eMarketer’s?Digital Trust Benchmark Report 2021 puts LinkedIn ahead of the likes of Facebook, Snap and Twitter, based on a survey of over 1,700 users in the US.
10. Is LinkedIn effective for B2B marketing? Yes (although this question requires a longer answer!). Here's a quick stat to get you started. 40% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn is the most effective platform (eMarketer 2019). According to LinkedIn, marketers see 2x higher conversion rates on LinkedIn and brand and acquisition rates are 6x more likely to convert.
11. What difference does a strong LinkedIn profile makes to salespeople? Apparently 79% of buyers are more likely to consider a brand if the salesperson they’re working with has an informative LinkedIn profile. Similarly, 73% of buyers are more likely to consider a brand if the salesperson reaches out via LinkedIn (LinkedIn State of Sales Report 2021).?
12. How many business leaders are on LinkedIn? There are different stats our there. 62% of Fortune 500 CEOs are on social media, of which LinkedIn is number one choice, with 92% coverage (Influential Executive 2020). According to FTI Consulting research (February 2021) only 51% of FTSE 100 CEOs are on LinkedIn.
13. How many CEOs publish regularly on LinkedIn? If you're looking at large companies, then not a lot. According to FTI, only 26% of FTSE 100 CEOs are posting regularly on at least one of LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram (FTI, January 2021). A look at Sales Navigator (November 2021) showed that only 25% of UK CEOs of companies employing more than 200 people have posted in the past 90 days.
14. How many SMB users are on LinkedIn? LinkedIn calculates that there are 94 million SMB (1-200 employees) users globally on the platform (my Sales Navigator search came out at 5 million in the UK). LinkedIn also noticed a 24% increase in engagement globally from this audience since April 2020 (LinkedIn, August 2021).
15. How many people are using LinkedIn Services Marketplace? LinkedIn opened up its Services page functionality, primarily aimed at the freelancer market, in October 2021. Since its soft launch it has seen 2 million members - including me! - sign up (LinkedIn, October 2021).
16. How much do employees engage with company page posts? When a company page posts, 30% of the engagement comes from employees, who are 14x more likely to share that content vs. other content types (LinkedIn, January 2021).
17. How many LinkedIn Groups are there? 2.9 million (LinkedIn, August 2021). I can't muster any more enthusiasm than that for LinkedIn Groups - which have never been as good as they should be.
18. How big is LinkedIn Learning? LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com in 2015 and this May completed the full transition to LinkedIn. In its May 2021 announcement it revealed there are over 16,300 courses in seven languages, with 60 new courses a week. I saw a LinkedIn blog which claimed that learners watch 1.2 million hours of LinkedIn Learning content per week.

Please let me know if this set of stats is helpful and feel free to Save it in the LinkedIn bookmarks (on "My Items" on the left of your profile page).

* I know I'm not perfect, so if you spot any errors or have anything to add, either leave a comment or drop me a direct message.

[UPDATE - 9 MAY 2022: Since publishing this article, LinkedIn has grown further still, now up to 830 million uses, so check here for more figures on the platform]