Indoor tanning is most popular with white females, 16–25 years old, with low-to-moderate skin sensitivity, who know other tanners. Studies seeking to link indoor tanning to education level and income have returned inconsistent results. Prevalence was highest in one German study among those with a moderate level of education (neither high nor low).
The late teens to early–mid 20s is the highest-prevalence age group. In a national survey of white teenagers in 2003 in the US (aged 13–19), 24% had used a tanning facility. Indoor-tanning prevalence figures in the US vary from 30 million each year to just under 10 million (7.8 million women and 1.9 million men).
The figures in the US are in decline: according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, usage in the 18–29 age group fell from 11.3 percent in 2010 to 8.6 percent in 2013, perhaps attributable in part to a 10% "tanning tax" introduced in 2010. Attitudes toward tanning vary across states; in one study, doctors in the northeast and midwest of the country were more likely than those in the south or west to recommend tanning beds to treat vitamin D deficiency and depression.
Tanning bed use is more prevalent in northern countries. In Sweden in 2001, 44% said they had used one (in a survey of 1,752 men and women aged 18–37). Their use increased in Denmark between 1994 and 2002 from 35% to 50% (reported use in the previous two years). In Germany, between 29% and 47% had used one, and one survey found that 21% had done so in the previous year. In France, 15% of adults in 1994–1995 had tanned indoors; the practice was more common in the north of France. In 2006, 12% of grade 9–10 students in Canada had used a tanning bed in the last year. In 2004, 7% of 8–11-year-olds in Scotland said they had used one. Tanning bed use is higher in the UK in the north of England. One study found that the prevalence was lower in London than in less urban areas of the country.