Squad goals with bae: Instagram's biggest trends of 2016

Taylor Swift poses with friends on Halloween. (Instagram: taylorswift)

If Drake and Selena Gomez were to snap a selfie at Niagara Falls, apply a blue-hued Clarendon filter and pepper the post with the hashtags #swag, #goals and #love, they would have reached peak Instagram circa 2016.

New data released from Instagram on Thursday reveals some of the biggest trends on the social media platform in Canada and beyond. The information sheds light on which celebrities had the biggest followings, which emojis topped the charts and what new slang terms cracked into the mainstream lexicon.

Canada’s most-liked posts

It comes as little surprise that Toronto rapper Drake – who boasts Canada’s most-followed Instagram account, @champagnepapi -- had two of the three most-liked Canadian celebrity posts of 2016.

The top post (with 1.5 million likes) is a selfie of Aubrey Graham planting a kiss on the cheek of his and on-again, off-again flame Rihanna at base of the CN Tower.

The second-most popular post goes to 18-year-old crooner Shawn Mendes, who snapped a photo on a yacht outside the iconic Sydney Opera House. It earned 1.3 million likes.

Drake rounded out the list with a dreamy shot of him standing in a driveway in polka-dot pajamas. (Like count: 1.2 million.)

Most-followed Canadians of 2016

Most-followed celebrities of 2016 (worldwide)

 

Most Instagrammed Canadian locations of 2016

It appears the majority of Canada’s Instagram photos are snapped in Ontario, with six of the top ten geotagged locales in Toronto. But the top spot goes to Niagara Falls – one of Canada’s most visited destinations.

 

Top Canadian hashtags:

Top global hashtag of 2016:

#love

Most-used Instagram filters:

Most Instagrammed days of 2016:

Most Instagrammed locations of 2016:

Top food-related hashtags:

Top millennial hashtags: