International Organizations on Social Media 2025
In 2025 international organizations continue to diversify their social media presence on a growing number of platforms including Bluesky, Threads and WhatsApp as their audiences decline on Facebook and X and thrive on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok.
LinkedIn is slowly becoming the platform of choice where organisations have seen their biggest growth in followers over the past year. While other platforms such as Snapchat or Mastodon have fallen by the wayside.
There is still uneasiness with the atmosphere and the changes on X, but there hasn’t been any notable exodus from the platform. Most organizations are still active on the platform, although some have reduced their posting frequency. @Eurocontrol is the only organization which has gone silent since July 2024.
In this study, we analyse the social-media activity of 113 international organizations and the personal accounts of their leaders on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, WhatsApp, X and YouTube. The study includes multilateral organizations, leading non-profit and non-governmental organizations, and their chief executives.
Data was captured on September 1, 2025, using Audiense.com for X and a manual count on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube.
The Most Followed International Organizations
The 10 most followed organizations are in a league of their own. All have more than 10 million followers across all platforms combined.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is by far the most followed organization, with 82 million followers and subscribers on all platforms combined. UNICEF is in second position with 64 million followers, followed by the main United Nations account which clocks up an audience of 43 million followers and subscribers. The World Economic Forum and the UN Refugee Agency complete the Top 5 list with 29 and 14 million followers respectively.
The double-digit growth of the leading organizations is largely part due to their newfound audiences on WhatsApp.
Bluesky
Three quarters of the leading international organizations have set up a presence on Bluesky, but most of them are still small with a median average account size of 1,295 followers. The WHO and Human Rights Watch are the only two organizations with more than 100,000 followers on the platform. For the vast majority the engagement does not match the efforts of the social media teams, and therefore many organizations are still standing on the side lines.
The audiences on the Facebook pages of international organizations have flatlined in 2025 with a median average growth of only 2.2%. With the notable exception of the UN and UNHCR which both saw a modest growth of 1.5% and 1% the rest of the 10 most followed international organizations have seen their followers decline on Facebook over the past 12 months. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has bucked the trend, doubling their follower numbers year-on-year to reach 638,000. The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) also doubled their followers to reach 23,000 and other smaller agencies have registered 20% growth over the past year including the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) – each having less than 75,000 followers while the median average on Facebook stands at 358,000.
Almost all leading international organizations have a presence on Instagram where the median average of the accounts is just above 100,000 followers. The two leading organizations, the World Health Organization and UNICEF with more than 11 million followers are with the WWF the only organizations which have seen their numbers decline. Most other organizations continue to grow on Instagram with a median average growth rate of 13.63%. The International Criminal Court grew by 77% reaching 262,864 followers. The African Union, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Mercosur, the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the UN Youth Office all grew by more than 50% year on year.
Threads
Sixty-five organizations have set up accounts on Threads, Meta’s attempt to compete with X. On average 16% of their Instagram followers also follow them on Threads. The median average of the 65 accounts stands at 30,000 followers and the average growth stands at 16.5% over the past 12 months. The WHO is leading with close to 2 million followers, followed by UNICEF and the United Nations with 1.5 and 1.4 million respectively. The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has doubled its followers year on year to reach 18,00 which is slightly less than they have on Instagram.
The United Nations (UN) has overtaken the World Health Organization (WHO) in the top spot on LinkedIn. Both organizations have more than 6 million followers respectively. They are followed by the World Economic Forum and UNICEF with more than 5 million followers each. Most of the international organizations have pages on LinkedIn and all 101 pages have seen an average growth of 15% year on year. The account of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) grew by 38% to reach 878,253 followers. The account of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) grew by 33% reaching 746,181 followers and the African Union and the International Criminal Court (ICC) also grew by 33% reaching 386,167 and 321,274 followers respectively.
TikTok
The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken the lead in the TikTok rankings with 4.4 million followers, a growth of 57% compared to last year. The International Federation of the Red Cross is in second place with 3.1 million followers. The International Organization for Migration, the World Economic Forum, the UNHCR and the World Food Programme (WFP) all have more than a million followers while the median average of the 47 accounts stands at only 21,900. The World Food Programme has more than doubled their followers with a growth of 158% while the average growth of the accounts stands at 16.5%. The World Economic Forum leads in terms of likes on their videos with 18.8 million and counting.
Twenty-nine international organizations have set up channels on WhatsApp. The World Health Organization leads the WhatsApp rankings with 8.4 million followers, followed by UNICEF with 6.7. The World Economic Forum, the World Food Programme and UNESCO complete the Top 5 list of the most followed organizations with over a million followers. These organizations were the precursors of Meta’s new broadcast channel which was initially reserved for organizations with more than a million followers on Facebook or Instagram. But despite an explosive start a year ago their follower numbers have been declining steadily since January. The World Economic Forum has shed 29% of their followers UNICEF lost 22% and the WHO by 14%. It remains to be seen whether more organizations will join the platform and if their channels will be available globally.
X
X is still the social media channel of choice for most international organizations. All 113 X organizations surveyed have a channel and are active on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
For most organizations the number of followers is flatlining with a very modest growth of average 0.41%. And half of the organizations have seen their followers decline including the Top 10 most followed organizations. The UN Volunteers and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seemed to have bucked the trend registering double-digit growth of 11% reaching 300,000 and 271,00 followers respectively.
The United Nations is leading the X rankings with 16.5 million followers ahead of the World Health Organization (WHO) with 12 million followers. UNICEF is in third place with 9.1 million followers. Twenty other organizations have more than a million followers each while the median average number of followers of the 113 accounts stands at 232,259.
YouTube
Organizations continue to grow on YouTube with a median average increase of subscribers of 9.61% year on year. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has registered an outstanding growth of 65% year on year reaching 182,000 subscribers. The median average of subscribers for the 106 channels stands at 23,100.
The United Nations leads the rankings on YouTube with 3,16 million subscribers more than twice as many as the European Space Agency (ESA) with 1.27 million subscribers. The World Economic Forum is just short of a million subscribers on YouTube. Although only in 10th place in terms of subscribers, Greenpeace has the best average video views of 92,875 for each of their 1,087 videos on the platform. Amnesty International, UNICEF and the European Space Agency (ESA) average more then 60,000 views per video while the videos of the United Nations only average 11,621 views per video.
The Most Followed Leaders of International Organizations 2025
The three most followed leaders of international organizations all have more than 4 million followers. Dr Tedros Adhanom, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), is still the most followed leader of any international organization with 4.6 million followers on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X combined. Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank is in second position with 4.2 million followers. UN Secretary General António Guterres is in third place ahead of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director General of the World Trade Organization with 4.1 and 3.1 million followers respectively.
The Top 10 ranking is largely dominated by women with Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, and Louise Mushikiwabo, Secretary General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie making their entry into the Top 10 list.
Facebook does not necessarily come to mind as the platform of choice for executive communications, but 43 leaders of international organizations have either official pages or personal profiles on Facebook.
WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom, leads the group with 1.4 million followers well ahead of the WTO’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala with 447,000 followers. The median average number of followers of the 43 personal pages and profiles stands at just 3,600.
Germany’s Annalena Baerbock is the most followed leader on Instagram with 685,000 followers as of September 1 a week before her taking office as the 80th President of the UN General Assembly. She tends to share her posts in collaboration on her personal @ABaerbock and the institutional @UN_PGA account which has only 30,000 followers.
Fifty-four leaders of international organizations have a personal presence on Instagram account, however, 11 of these are private accounts. UN Secretary General António Guterres is the second most followed, with 602,898 followers more than twice as many as the WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom, with 278,044 followers. The ECB’s Christine Lagarde, and Alain Berset the new Secretary General of the Council of Europe complete the Top 5 list of the most followed leaders accounts. All leader accounts have a combined following of 2.4 million followers and have been growing on average by 17% year-on-year which is exceptionally good.
Threads
So far only 19 leaders of international organizations have activated their Threads account which have witnessed remarkable growth over the past year. UN Secretary General António Guterres is the most followed with 139,491 followers far ahead of WFP’s Cindy McCain with 56,239 followers.
LinkedIn – self-proclaimed “the world’s largest professional network” – is the perfect fit for the leaders of international organizations; 80 have personal LinkedIn profiles.
Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), is by far the most followed leader with 2.9 million followers. UN Secretary General António Guterres, who joined LinkedIn at the end of March 2023, makes it into 2nd place. Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director, and Dr Tedros Adhanom, Director General of the WHO, complete the Top 5 list of the most followed leaders of international organizations on LinkedIn.
Embarrassingly, 50 executives have still not created a custom URL for their LinkedIn profiles and have kept the number combination at the end of their profile URLs such as Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director and Sania Nishtar, the CEO of GAVI. Seventeen executives are part of the Top Voices program, an invitation-only group of experts across the professional world who are being promoted on the platform. It is no surprise therefore that the first nine leaders on the list above have the Top Voices label.
X
Almost all leaders of international organization have personal or institutional personal accounts on X. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, is the most followed leader with 2.5 million followers ahead of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus with 2.4 and 2 million followers respectively.
The 102 personal accounts have a combined following of 16,333,838 and the median average stands at 19,667 followers for each personal account.
Interestingly, Analena Baerbock, the 80th President of the UN General Assembly has archived her personal account @Al_Baerbock and uses the @UN_PGA which also has more than 300,000 followers. Several leaders have mothballed their account since 2024 including the Mirjana Spoljaric, the @ICRCPresident and Raúl Medina Caballer, the @DGEurocontrol.
The full data sets are available here: https://luefkens.gumroad.com/l/IntOrgSocialMedia2025
Geneva
18.09.2025
