Universities on Instagram

2024 Instagram University Rankings

Introduction

What are the most popular universities on Instagram? uniRank answers this question by publishing the 2024 Instagram University Rankings, featuring higher education institutions worldwide ranked by the number of their Instagram page followers and meeting the following uniRank selection criteria:

being chartered, licensed or accredited by the appropriate higher education-related organization in each country
offering at least three-year bachelor's degrees or postgraduate master's or doctoral degrees
delivering courses predominantly in a traditional, non-distance education format

This uniRank page features the most extensive list of universities by country with an official presence on Instagram (choose a country below). It also provides valuable data and insights on the adoption of Instagram among higher education institutions. Read also our article about the importance of Social Media for Universities and prospective students.

Instagram University Rankings by Country

Overview

Instagram Adoption Rate

Currently 8,732 out of a total of 13,888 higher education institutions included in the uniRank database have adopted an official institutional Instagram page:

	Sep 2018	Apr 2019	Sep 2019	Apr 2020	Oct 2020	May 2023	Feb 2024
Total number of Universities in uniRank	13,590	13,598	13,612	13,723	13,813	13,837	13,888
Number of Universities on Instagram	5,103	5,247	6,041	6,472	6,767	7,753	8,732
uniRank Instagram Adoption Rate^™	37.55%	38.59%	44.38%	47.16%	48.99%	56.03%	62.87%

Popularity and Engagement factors

University Instagram pages reach different levels of adoption, popularity and engagement depending on various factors including:

Micro Factors

the University's reputation and size
the University's overall level of online presence, web popularity and distance education adoption rate
the University's level of adoption and use of Instagram as an additional channel to the institutional website

Macro Factors

the Country's Tertiary Education size
the Country's level of Internet usage and connection speeds
the Country's level of adoption and use of Instagram as a social media platform

Instagram University Rankings aim and methodology

Some large Universities have adopted multiple Instagram pages associated, for example, to each Faculty and/or to each administrative area (i.e. Admissions, Marketing and Communications, Alumni, etc.). uniRank has chosen the most general institutional Instagram page for each University in order to publish its uniRank Instagram University Ranking^™ for each country and for the top 200 Universities on Instagram listings.
The uniRank Instagram University Ranking's aim is to provide an approximate popularity index of each University in the Instagram social media platform based on the total number of followers; it is not intended to rank higher education organisations or their programs, by the quality of education or level of academic services provided.

Statistical snapshot

Below it is shown the average number of Instagram followers for all University Instagram pages included in the uniRank database and the highest number of Instagram followers achieved by a single University (Harvard University; data February 2024).

	Sep 2018	Apr 2019	Sep 2019	Apr 2020	Oct 2020	May 2023	Feb 2024
World Average number of Instagram followers:	8,336	11,488	8,944	10,365	11,649	17,474	18,090
World Highest number of Instagram followers:	861,711	1,111,129	1,349,343	1,561,999	1,734,975	2,191,112	2,396,138