Financial Tribune- A new study has revealed that six out of ten Iranians are on social media with Telegram messaging application holding the lead in terms of popularity.

The study was conducted in the month ending February 18 by Iranian Student Polling Agency affiliated to the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research or� 'Jihad Daneshgahi' which is a subsidiary of the non-governmental Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution. It shows that thousands of users are joining Telegram and Instagram while the number of users on other social media platforms is on the decline, local tech website ICTPRESS reported.

Of social media platforms used in Iran, Telegram messenger has a 55% share and Instagram23%.

Last year, the same study revealed that 38% of Iranians were using Telegram, the number has increased by 17%.

As for Instagram, 17% of Iranians were members of the photo sharing app in the month ending February 18 last year, the figure increased by 6% this year.

As for other social media applications the number of users has been falling in the past twelve months. Whatsapp has a 14% share this year followed by Facebook (4%), Viber (2%) and Google Plus (2%) and social media networks such as Tango, Twitter and WeChat each have less than a 1% share.

The study was titled an evaluation of social media usage and public opinion and worked with a statistical sample of 1,500 people; with 72% living in urban areas and 28% in rural parts of the country.

In terms of gender, the same number of men and women were questioned; 69% of the participants were married, 27.5% were single and 3.5% either widows or divorced. The study found that 50% of the participants were 38 years old on average.

In terms of education, 61% of all the 1,500 participants had a high school diploma or a lower degree while 39% were university graduates.

The study shows that 59.7% of those polled over 12 years of age are using at least one social media platform. Compared to women, men comprise 5% more of the social network users.

Of the different age groups that were questioned the younger generation (18 to 29) comprised the bulk of users with 81% share.

This is followed by the age group 12-19 (67%), 30-49 (63%) and 50 and up (25%) respectively.

Of all the people actively using social media, a total of 84% of the social network users hold a university degree while 44% hold a high school diploma or have lower education.

At 76.6%, the unmarried population on social networks outnumbers their married cohort which account for 54.7% of the total users.

Each user spends an average 72 minutes on social media per day the study says. This is while ISPA believes the true number to be 120 minutes per day for every user.

The major part of users (90.8%) log on to social media websites using smart phones. Computers and laptops (10%) and tablets (4.2%) come a distant second and third.