No less than nine out of 10 people in the Netherlands have installed WhatsApp on their smartphones, according to new research by Telecompaper.

The app has been installed on almost 9.7 million phones in the Netherlands, making it the most popular app. A year ago, 82% of smartphone users made use of the free messaging service.

The research also shows Facebook is declining in popularity among the young Dutch while Snappchat is picking up users. Snappchat, which allows users to send photographs which then vanish, has been installed on 1.7 million phones, Telecompaper says.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Amsterdam say about 5% of young Dutch teenagers can be classified as addicted to social media.

The average teenager spends about three hours on social media platforms and another three hours playing computer games, Horizon Magazine reports.

The Netherlands was one of the first European countries to get broadband internet,  which professor Patti Valkenburg says could make it slightly ahead of the trend.

However, she told Horizon Magazine it is only a matter of time before the same behaviour catches on elsewhere.