Australia's Creator Economy in 2026

Key findings

The Australian creator market in numbers. Each finding has its own link, so a single statistic can be cited on its own.

1. 46.1% of Australian Instagram creators have already run branded content#

   26,585 accounts, the 4th highest rate of the 12 markets measured, against 28.8% worldwide. Very few Australian creators are a brand's first.

2. Australian Instagram engagement ranks 9th of the 11 markets with a published median#

   The median creator at 10K to 50K followers engages at around 0.73%, below the United Kingdom at around 0.86% and Canada at around 0.79%. The lowest is Turkey at around 0.44%.

3. 132,022 creator accounts above 10K followers#

   66,880 on TikTok, 57,713 on Instagram and 7,429 on YouTube, plus 1,106,281 nano accounts below the line.

4. Australian Instagram creators hold their home audience better than Canadian ones#

   41.1% keep at least 40% of their audience in Australia, against 25.6% in Canada. Distance from the American feed is worth something.

5. Only 4.3% of Australian Instagram creators average 100K+ Reel views#

   That ranks 11th of the 12 markets measured, with only Colombia below it. The market median is around 5,300 views per Reel.

6. Australians post: 64.8% of Instagram accounts published in the last 30 days#

   The 3rd highest activity rate of the 12 markets measured, against 55.9% worldwide. Low engagement here is not dormancy.

7. 60,354 Australian TikTok accounts have never run a brand deal#

   9.8% of the TikTok pool shows detected branded content against 46.1% on Instagram, and TikTok is the larger platform of the two.

8. Only 660 Australian Instagram accounts pass every quality filter at once#

   1.1% of the base combines an Australian audience, a 3% engagement rate and six-figure average views. On TikTok it is 355 accounts.

9. Australian Instagram is 61.4% women, YouTube is 60.8% men#

   35,419 of 57,713 Instagram accounts are run by women and 59.0% of TikTok accounts. YouTube runs the other way.

How many influencers are there in Australia?

Australia holds 132,022 creator accounts with 10,000 or more followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and 1,106,281 more between 1,000 and 10,000.

TikTok is the largest pool at 66,880 accounts, 50.7% of the base, ahead of Instagram at 57,713 and YouTube at 7,429. On Instagram alone Australia is 10th of the 12 markets measured, smaller than Canada at 62,935 and well behind the United Kingdom at 142,382, the English-language market Australian brands are most often benchmarked against.

The bench underneath differs sharply by platform. Instagram holds 10.3 nano accounts for every account already above 10K and TikTok 7.5, but YouTube holds only 1.3. Australian YouTube has almost no feeder tier: the channels above 10,000 subscribers are close to the whole industry.

78.6% of Australian Instagram creators sit between 10K and 50K followers and 9.5% between 100K and 500K. Only 284 Instagram accounts and 458 TikTok accounts have passed a million.

First, who is actually running those accounts.

Who Australian creators are

61.4% of Australian Instagram accounts are run by women, 35,419 of 57,713, and 59.0% of TikTok accounts.

Instagram is the more female-skewed of the two large Australian platforms, which is the reverse of the pattern in several other markets we have measured, where TikTok leads. YouTube runs the other way entirely at 60.8% men, 4,520 of 7,429 channels, which is the usual YouTube shape everywhere.

Creator gender is inferred from the profile. Accounts with no identifiable individual creator, such as brands, shops and media outlets, are outside the measured population rather than counted separately. This study reports creator gender, not audience gender. Creator demographics should not be used as a substitute for follower demographics.

Next, the number that decides how much of that pool is still available.

How many Australian influencers have already worked with brands?

46.1% of Australian Instagram creators have run branded content, 26,585 accounts. That is the 4th highest rate of the 12 markets measured, in the same band as Sweden at the top of the table.

Against the global Creator Economy Report figure of 28.8% on Instagram, Australia is one of the most heavily worked creator markets we have counted. Practically, that means a brand shortlisting Australian Instagram creators is usually not the first advertiser in the feed, and should expect creators who already know their own rate card.

TikTok is the opposite situation on the larger platform. 9.8% of Australian TikTok accounts show detected branded content, leaving 60,354 with none at all, and YouTube sits between the two at 16.7%. The cheapest untouched inventory in Australia is on the platform with the most accounts.

The funnel below is the number to keep. Combining an Australian audience, a 3% engagement rate and six-figure average views leaves 660 Instagram accounts, 1.1% of the base, and 355 on TikTok. That figure counts the accounts that pass all three filters together, not an estimate built from the separate filters.

So what does that well worked market actually deliver?

Engagement rate benchmarks for Australian influencers

18.3% of Australian Instagram creators clear a 3% engagement rate, the 9th highest share of the 12 markets measured.

41.6% exceed 1%, 18.3% exceed 3% and 11.2% exceed 5%. The median Australian Instagram creator at 10K to 50K followers engages at around 0.73%, falling to around 0.56% at 50K to 250K. Across the whole market the median is around 0.69%.

That median ranks 9th of the 11 markets with a comparable measurement, below the United Kingdom at around 0.86%, Canada at around 0.79% and far below France at around 1.3%. An engagement floor written in a European office rejects most of a perfectly normal Australian shortlist.

TikTok is a different instrument and should not be read against the same bar: 91.7% of Australian TikTok accounts clear 3% and 73.3% clear 5%, so the threshold filters almost nothing there. YouTube sits in between at 54.7%.

Engagement is a ratio. Reach is the number the invoice is really for.

Views and reach in the Australian market

33.0% of Australian Instagram creators average at least 10,000 Reel views and only 4.3% average 100,000.

That six-figure rate ranks 11th of the 12 markets measured, under the United Kingdom at 5.2% and Germany at 6.8%. The median Australian Instagram creator averages around 5,300 views per Reel.

The size bands explain the shape. On TikTok the median runs around 1,500 views at 10K to 50K followers and around 4,500 at 50K to 250K, then jumps to around 20,000 above 250K. YouTube behaves the same way, around 1,500 at 10K to 50K against around 30,000 above 250K.

Reach arrives late in an Australian campaign. A median TikTok or YouTube creator at 10K to 50K followers is measured at around 1,500 views a video, so a ten-creator micro activation here buys conversation rather than reach, and the budget should be written for that.

A view only counts if the account is still posting.

How many Australian creators are active, and which are growing

64.8% of Australian Instagram accounts posted in the last 30 days, the 3rd highest rate of the 12 markets measured, against 39.2% on TikTok and 40.3% on YouTube.

That is the counterweight to the engagement figures above. Australian creators are not quiet, they are publishing more consistently than almost any market here and simply getting less back per post. The dormancy sits on TikTok instead: 40,649 Australian TikTok accounts and 4,434 YouTube channels have not published in a month.

Growth is middling and concentrated on Instagram. 10.3% of Australian Instagram creators grew by at least 20% over six months, placing Australia 5th of 12, and 1,484 accounts doubled. On TikTok only 4.5% grew by a fifth and on YouTube 3.4%.

One question is left: how much of that audience is in Australia at all?

Where Australian creators' audiences are actually located

41.1% of Australian Instagram creators keep at least 40% of their audience in Australia. On TikTok it is 20.0% and on YouTube 7.4%.

Measured separately across the whole Instagram market, the median Australian creator has 29% of their audience in Australia. Australia ranks 9th of 12 on this measure, which sounds poor until it is read against the other English-language markets: Canada manages 25.6% and the United Kingdom 41.3%. Being twelve time zones from the American feed protects an Australian audience that a Canadian creator loses outright.

59.7% of Australian Instagram creators clear even a 20% domestic threshold and 26.6% clear 60%. The platforms diverge hard: 80.0% of Australian TikTok accounts are watched mostly from abroad, and on YouTube 92.6% are.

For a domestic retail campaign that makes Instagram the only platform here where audience location can be taken for granted at all, and even there it has to be checked creator by creator.

Every figure above, side by side, in one table.

Every Australian creator market metric in one table

Every published figure from the Australian study, as an account count and a share of its own platform base.

Every share uses its own platform base (57,713 Instagram, 66,880 TikTok, 7,429 YouTube).

Numbers mean little until you know whether they are high or low. Next, Australia against the global market.

Australia against the global creator economy

We compared these Australian figures against Click Analytic's Creator Economy Report 2026, a separate study of 23.6M creator accounts globally using a full-year 2025 snapshot. Its published 25-market breakdown covers a subset of that cohort.

Australia is ahead of the world on the two things that cost a brand nothing and behind it on the one that costs the most. 46.1% of Australian Instagram creators carry brand-deal history against 28.8% worldwide, and 64.8% posted in the last month against 55.9% globally. Both are good news for finding a professional partner quickly.

Reach is where it turns. 5.7% of Australian YouTube channels average 100,000 views against 11.2% globally, and Instagram engagement at 10K to 50K followers runs around 0.73% against a global 0.8%. The platform mix is also flatter than the world's: TikTok takes 50.7% of the Australian base against 67.0% globally, with Instagram correspondingly larger at 43.7%.

Here is what that changes about planning an Australian campaign.

What this means for marketers working in Australia

Seven rules for planning influencer campaigns in Australia, each grounded in a figure above.

Want to see the creators behind these numbers?

Browse ranked Australian influencer lists

Every number on this page comes from live creator profiles. Here they are, ranked and filterable.

Other country studies

The same measurement, repeated market by market.

Methodology

Account totals count profiles matching the stated filters in the Click Analytic creator database. Percentages use the population specified for each metric. Medians are estimated from threshold queries and published as rounded benchmarks.

Population

Creator accounts with 10,000-100,000,000 followers (subscribers on YouTube) located in Australia, with an inferred gender.

Base per platform

57,713 Instagram, 66,880 TikTok, 7,429 YouTube. Every share on this page uses its own platform base.

Nano tier

Accounts with 1,000 to 10,000 followers, counted separately under the same location rules and excluded from every 10K+ total and share: 595,775 Instagram, 500,786 TikTok, 9,720 YouTube.

Measured

Instagram in September 2026, TikTok in September 2026, YouTube in September 2026.

Counting, not sampling

Account totals count profiles matching the stated filters in the Click Analytic creator database, which indexes over 400 million public profiles. These totals are database counts, not survey estimates.

Accounts, not people

Accounts are counted per platform. A creator active on two platforms appears in both totals, so the cross-platform figure is a count of creator accounts rather than of individuals.

Engagement rate

Calculated per platform. The definitions differ, so a rate is comparable within a platform and not across platforms.

Medians

Each median is published rounded, as a benchmark rather than an exact value.

Notes and limits

• This study covers creator gender and audience location, not audience gender or audience quality. Creator demographics do not substitute for follower demographics.
• Fewer than 30 YouTube channels combine a domestic audience, a 3% engagement rate and six-figure views, too few to publish as a share.
• Instagram medians here are engagement rates, and TikTok and YouTube medians are average views. Neither is converted into the other.

Still have questions? Most of them are answered below.

Frequently asked questions