Web Business by Ken Burbary

Facebook Demographics Revisited – 2011 Statistics

Approximately a year ago, I published "Dispelling the Youth Myth – Five Useful Facebook Demographic Statistics" on this blog. It’s been one of the most visited posts ever since, so clearly there is a lot of interest in understanding the demographics of the Facebook user population. A year later, Facebook is bigger than ever, now the most visited site on the internet. So, I’ve updated the statistics below, and included some new ones, so that we can all be informed, and dispel any myths about Facebook user demographics. Like the original post, I’m writing this one to help avoid the need for us to explain over and over again, who uses Facebook, and instead direct people to this post. Here is the most recent data on Facebook that you can use to enlighten yourself and others on just who uses Facebook and where they come from.

1) Facebook.com average user figures and facts:

• Average user has 130 friends on the site
• Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
• Average user spends an average 15 hours and 33 minutes on Facebook per month
• Average user visits the site 40 times per month
• Average user spends an 23 minutes (23:20 to be precise) on each visit
• Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
• 200 million people access Facebook via a mobile device each day
• More than 30 billion pieces of content are shared each day
• Users that access Facebook on mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook compared to non-mobile users
• Facebook generates a staggering 770 billion page views per month

Source: facebook.com, pingdom.com

2) Breakdown by country: More than 70% of Facebook users come from outside the United States

Global User Population: 629,982,480

Sources: checkfacebook.com and facebook.com

3) Global User Demographics: The global breakdown of users on Facebook by gender and age

Sources: insidefacebook.com

4) Breakdown of US users (gender and age):

As the chart above illustrates, the total US Facebook population is made up of millions of people across a range of ages groups. While young adults (18-25) lead the way with a combined ~50 million users (almost double the size from a year ago), the 26-34 group is now well behind with ~29 million users. According to the data from Facebook there a combined ~28 million people over the age of 45 active on Facebook. These are impressive user numbers from an older demographic that continue to grow. It’s important to note that the 55-64 age group is almost the size of the 13-17 group, further evidence that Facebook isn’t limited to "young" people.

A visual look at the US users by age (using data from above):

Sources: facebook.com

5) Facebook.com – a top destination site for the majority of online Americans, but some states more so than others.

Source: Socialbakers

The most important takeaway from the list above is probably the degree of penetration Facebook has relative to the population of each state. Over 50% for many!

The Complete List of Facebook Social Ads for 2011

Facebook continues to experience explosive growth, recently pushing the total number of worldwide users past 610 million, according to checkfacebook.com. An incredible accomplishment considering 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day.  Facebook revenue continues to climb with its user base, surpassing expectations by finishing 2010 at $1.86 billion, largely credited to a boost in growth between August and the end of the year. Some people may be surprised to learn where all that revenue is coming from…….Advertising.

A few interesting statistics about Facebook Advertising:

• Approximately 60% of revenue comes through their self-service advertising platform – http://www.facebook.com/advertising/
• Facebook is now serving more than 50 billion display ads per month
• 60% of advertising revenue in 2010 came from SMBs (small & medium businesses)
• 740 million in 2010 revenue came from big brand advertising (companies like Coca-Cola)

Facebook has gradually increased the different types of social ads that companies can choose to run on their platform. Currently, here is the run down of different social ad types for 2011.

• Standard Ad Unit – This basic ad unit can be used to drive visitors to either a page within or outside of Facebook.
• Like Ad Unit – This ad unit can be used to drive engagement to pages within Facebook and visitors to owned media properties outside of Facebook. It provides social context to the user, indicating any friends that have already liked the brand. If none have the total number of Facebook users that have liked is shown. It increases the likelihood that the user will trust and engage with the ad/brand.
• Poll Ad Unit – This ad unit can be used to capture user feedback on any desired topic, while then driving traffic to any page within Facebook. The poll generates a story on the poll’s brand page, and can appear in news feed of the users that liked the brand. When a user engages with the ad, the poll story can appear on the user’s wall and in their friends’ News Feeds.
• Event Ad Unit – This ad unit is used to increase awareness about events created in Facebook. Friends who are attending the event are listed in the ad unit, as well as the total number of Facebook attendees. Responding will automatically create a story on a user’s profile page and may also show the story in their friends’ News Feeds, increasing distribution and reach.
• Video Ad Unit – This ad unit is used to drive user engagement. It allows for users to watch a video inline, read and share comments, and even like the video. The interaction (commenting or liking) is public and automatically appears on users’ page and may also show in their friends News Feeds.
• Gift Ad Unit – This ad unit can be used to increase user engagement, and drive visitors to pages within and outside of Facebook. It allows users to send a gift to a friend within Facebook, along with a custom message. Messages are public and can appear on the user’s page, as well as in their friends’ News Feeds.
• Sampling Ad Unit – This ad unit can be used to drives product trial and adoption. It prompts the user to provide information to receive product samples, and then publishes a notification allowing the user’s friends to see they have requested a sample, which increases trust and likelihood of further sampling.
• Sponsored Stories Ad Unit -This ad, the newest, has raised some controversy by turning user interactions with brands into ads. Currently defined into 4 different types: application plays, likes, location check-ins and page posts. It can be used to drive engagement and visitors to brand pages within Facebook. It can best be described as taking the interactions happening across Facebook every day, and extending the life and distribution of them as display ads.

This is the most comprehensive list I could find to date. I would like to segment spend by ad type (if you’ve seen such data, please share below in the comments). Or if you’ve seen an ad unit/type not listed here, let me know and I’ll be happy to update the list (which is bound to happen eventually as Facebook is constantly changing the platform). Which ad units are you using? Which have worked best, or not? Feel free to share with the community.

Dispelling the Youth Myth – Five Useful Facebook Demographic Statistics

Facebook is huge. Depending on the day, it is the most visited site in the US (an accomplishment that Facebook recently achieved for the first time during Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years’ Day at the end of 2009). Yet despite all the Facebook success and its integration into mainstream culture, there are still some misunderstandings about the people that use facebook.

Just yesterday I was having a conversation with someone about Facebook in which a comment was made that “kids and younger people are the ones that really use Facebook”. It wasn’t the first time I’ve heard this perspective come up in conversation. When it does, I do my best to dispel the myth with the most recent demographics statistics and trends. Often times I’m asked to share that information afterwards. So,  I’m writing this post to help avoid the need to explain myself over and over again, and instead direct people here. With that all out of the way, here is the most recent data (as of 1/1/10) on Facebook that you can use to enlighten yourself and others on just who uses Facebook and where they come from.

1) Facebook.com average user figures:

• Average user has 130 friends on the site
• Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
• Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
• Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
• Average user becomes a fan of 2 Pages each month
• Average user is invited to 3 events per month
• Average user is a member of 12 groups

Source: facebook.com statistics

2) Breakdown by country: Just over 70% of Facebook users come from outside the United States

Sources: checkfacebook.com and facebook.com statistics

3) Breakdown by population saturation: The % of country population that are active on Facebook

Sources: allfacebook.com

4) Breakdown of US users (gender and age):

As the chart above illustrates, the total US Facebook population is made up of millions of people across a range of ages groups. While young adults (18-25) lead the way with a combined ~27 million users, the 26-34 group is close behind with ~21 million users. According to the data above there a combined ~18 million people over the age of 45 active on Facebook. These are impressive user numbers from an older demographic that continue to grow.

Another look at the US users by age:

Sources: allfacebook.com

5) Facebook.com a top destination site for everyone, particularly the 65+ age group

Source: Nielsen 2010 Media Fact Sheet

I’ve aggregated data from several different sources for this post, and as you can see there is considerable participation on Facebook from all age groups. Hopefully you can use this information going forward to dispel the youth myth too.