Canadian institutions post into a different market: provincial systems, two official languages, and no athletics machine to carry reach. Engagement here runs well below American peers of the same size, in every follower band we track.
Medians across 220 tracked Canadian Instagram accounts · last 30 days
0.9%
-0.8 pt vs main accountsengagements ÷ followers
3.5
+0.3 posts/wk vs main accountsposts / week
Athletic
1.3% median ER · 267 posts
+1.4%
on par with main accountsfollowers, last 30 days
Across 219 tracked Canadian Instagram accounts, the median engagement rate is 0.9 percent, and across 220 the median cadence is 3.5 posts per week.
Follower-growth figures cover the Canadian accounts we have held long enough to measure, and the newest additions join as their history accrues.
Canadian accounts post most on Thursdays between 10 AM and 2 PM local time, across 220 tracked accounts.
Across 267 Athletic posts in the last 30 days, tracked Canadian Instagram accounts earn a median engagement rate of 1.3 percent — the highest of any content type.
Across 267 posts in this category, Athletic posts have a median engagement rate of 1.3 percent.
Across 80 posts in this category, Aesthetic Content posts have a median engagement rate of 1.0 percent.
Across 102 posts in this category, Orientation posts have a median engagement rate of 0.9 percent.
Among the 14 tracked institutions with Under 1K students, the median follower count is 3,886 followers.
Among the 43 tracked institutions with 1K – 5K students, the median follower count is 11,463 followers.
Among the 27 tracked institutions with 5K – 10K students, the median follower count is 19,560 followers.
Among the 34 tracked institutions with 10K – 20K students, the median follower count is 35,692 followers.
Among the 9 tracked institutions with 20K – 30K students, the median follower count is 33,674 followers.
Among the 18 tracked institutions with 30K+ students, the median follower count is 87,059 followers.
Figures cover the last 30 days of posts. Last updated October 10, 2026.
Explore the full Instagram benchmarks →Canadian accounts grow a median +1.4 percent in 30 days on Instagram, across 220 accounts.
On Instagram, the median 30-day follower growth across 220 tracked accounts is +1.4 percent.
Universities, colleges, polytechnics and Quebec's cégeps — funded and regulated province by province rather than nationally. Their accounts recruit domestically and internationally at once, and many of them run in French, English, or both.
Peer comparison runs against Canadian institutions rather than a continent-wide average, so a provincial college is read against its own market. French and English accounts are planned and scheduled side by side in one calendar.
Reach plans these alongside the rest of a campus's accounts, and Canada's college half reads much like the American two-year cohort.
Canadian universities, colleges and cégeps track their accounts in Reach and compare against Canadian peers rather than an American average. Named accounts follow as institutions are ready to share them.
Partly structure: there is no NCAA-scale athletics program generating weekly content with a built-in audience. The gap holds at matched follower counts, so it is not simply that Canadian accounts are bigger or smaller.
Both. The catalog now carries the college, polytechnic and cégep sector alongside universities, which is what makes a Canadian median representative rather than a read on large research institutions.
Yes. Institutions running parallel French and English accounts, or one bilingual account, plan and schedule them in the same calendar and see them beside each other in reporting.
Canadian institutions, not a North American average the far larger American sample would dominate. You can also compare against a peer list you pick yourself.
Reach measures how higher education social teams actually post, so you can compare your own accounts against the cohorts these figures come from and see the gap in your own numbers.