Below is our fourth granular examination of Facebook’s demographics and statistics directly from their Social Ads platform. There has been a staggering increase in the number of 55+ users – with total growth of 513.7% in in the last six month alone. The spreadsheet used to create the graphic below is here.
.Additional top insights:
- 70.8% increase in total US users over the last six months (71,901,400 total)
- 54.6% of users are female
- 142.4% increase in the number of users from Atlanta – the fastest growing metro
The most troubling statitics we’ve seen are that there are 16.5% less high school users, and 21.7% less college users. There have been rumors that these younger user groups are being aliented by their parents joining the service, and this data seems to prove it.
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My guess is that high school users are worried that their parents are spying on them and that they are focusing in texting on their phones.
They have to migrate somewhere. If they are looking for a place to network for their groups, they will find another place. Where?
I am not sure I completely buy this data analysis. 24% growth in the below 18s and 5% growth in 18-24 makes intuitive sense. I have no trouble believeing that there is a slowing in the rate of growth at the 18+ level given that they are all captured while still in HS.
i think the dip from Jan to July in users who affiliate at College or HS level could be sumer transitions, not true drops in volume. Those who just graduated HS or College no longer fall into the “currently enrolled” and the new ones are not yet captured. If I am wrong, then these numbers represent a real decline of 2.5 million users which does not align with the age demo data.
As Andrea points out, I think you need to consider the possibility that the observed “loss” of users that are in “High School” or “College” is motivated by graduation, not “flight”. This would be relatively straightforward to confirm; graphing the data as a time series might show sharp downward stair-steps in May and June as students graduate, and upticks in August and September as kids matriculate.
If that turns out to be the case, the data shows engagement rather than flight, and suggests that kids in those demographics not only use Facebook, but care enough about it to keep their demographic information current. Which all translates to more value for advertisers, rather than a cause for alarm.
Thanks, interesting to look at the US FB demographics!
I looked at the Swedish FB age/gender distribution a while ago (http://thekillerattitude.com/2009/03/two-million-facebook-users-in-sweden.html)
(Als see all my FB stats postings, including worldwide numbers (but without the demographics (http://thekillerattitude.com/labels/facebookstats.html) – scroll down to see my latest wordwide overviw. Hm, due for a new post as I have more/later numbers)
I’m confused. What do the terms “percentage” mean as applied to this chart? Under “geography” for example, is it supposed to depict the percent of the population in the metro area using Facebook? If so, the numbers don’t add up.
Example: For Atlanta it says there are roughly 1.3 million users, representing 3.1% (of the population I presume). If so, it would follow that the TOTAL population would be about 42 million — which is four times larger than the entire state.
Alternatively, if the “percentage” refers to the number of users in that geographic area who are from the total users in the US, then it still doesn’t add up. For example, 1.3 million users in Atlanta would be about 1.8 percent of the total 72 million users in the US. Not 3.1%.
I’m probably missing something and iIf I’m reading this in error, I apologize, but it should be explained.
Interesting, with all the hype about the huge percentage growth in the 55+ category, I believe the real insight from these data is overlooked. It’s easy to have a huge growth percentage when the base is so small. To me, the real impressive growth was in the 35-54 category. Not only was the growth rate significant at 190%, but this segment now has the most total users.
These numbers do not mean that the numbers of younger people are dropping. If you look at the raw numbers, these categories still are growing, though at a slower pace because FB use among them is already saturated.
However, the older categories are growing rapidly, which means they are becoming a larger percentage of the overall FB population. And because many of them are new to FB, it’s a wide-open market.
I’m in my 60s, and I’ve always said that social networking sites would regret it if they did not appeal to older users. We have been using computers since they required DOS commands and there was no such thing as OOP or a mouse. So when I get flak for being online (usually from some newbie who wants to know why an older person is online), I just want to roll my eyes. It was my generation that invented and improved the PC. Any new media organization that ignores the older user is losing a huge market.
I once interviewed at Yahoo! for a job, and I was told during the phone interview, “You’d love working here. Hardly anyone is over 30.” I knew right then that my in-person interview would not go well, even though I knew the product and was an avid user. I was right. This crew of kids came into the meeting, took one look at me, and the disappointment was palpable. No wonder the company’s performance has been so spotty. They’ve overlooked those of us with more disposable income than people who are just out of college or who are starting families.
Its Shocker for me.. Facebook is always changing itself constantly by taking out different applications and its going to show you how volatile are the these emerging generation. You never know what they want?? I am worried about the kind of advertisments we are going to see in facebook after these revelation…!!!
The phenomenal growth in the ATL metro is very interesting. Most of the major markets around the country experienced 30-40% growth, but ATL experienced 142%.
Those numbers say next to nothing.
They’re based on non-verified data provided by complete strangers. If at all, the strong grow in the “unknowns” suggests people are more concerned about their privacy — what with all the consequences something posted on Facebook can have IRL.
As for the age statistics, the youngest people often mix up their age and birthday — I’ve seen this happen more and more on other social networks. This results in people claiming an age of 95 years when the profile pics show a 14 year old.
At least istrategylabs doesn’t jump to conclusions about marketing investments like Mashable did on unverified facts. Way to go Web 2.0
Hi Peter, I have just posted an Australian version of these stats and referenced this post. Thanks for the inspiration.
@ANDREA agreed. I think this is an “affiliation” problem rather than an absolute users count drop problem.
@philipp the data has been taken directly from Facebook’s Social Ads platform – so what other verification is necessary?
@Ash great! regarding your post and questions about count fluctuations, I’ve seen the same thing. I’m not sure what can account for that. Facebook called and said they’d like to talk me through how these numbers work, so I’ll ask about that as well.
How did you get to see the “Interests” data? I can see no option to view that.
@peter The data collected by Facebook Social Ads Network is still supplied by Facebook’s users. You could supply completely bogus information in your profile or leave some fields blank resulting in biased data. I don’t suggest every or even most Facebook user do that but not having any way to verify that data voids any real world conclusions.
If the conclusion was “most new users _claim_ to be 55+”, that would be okay. Wether that is a fact, can’t be proven with any amount of FB data.
Relying on this data for real world actions like marketing investments just asks for malicious behavior like setting up fake FB profiles with deliberately crafted demographics to skew statistics.
Maybe FB even does this theirselfes to attract more advertisers usually not interested in the college-aged audience by creating the impression of a more diversified age structure.
This is of course complete speculation but always question who benefits from a piece of information, especially if the sources are not fully transparent.
If the total growth numbers for the 2-17 and 18-24 demographics are not declining, then the percentage decrease in users who claim to be in high school and college are probably not related to actual dropoff. How could it when 2-17 year old are almost all in school?
No, I would suggest that instead we’re seeing a behavioural shift: now that Facebook no longer requires the same degree of network affiliation, perhaps it is the *rate of self-reporting* as belonging to a high school, college or alumni network that has decreased.
It could also be that usage patterns have changed and students no longer want to overtly affiliate with their school for fear of parents or teachers spying on their activity. Without better information on just how these numbers were attained and what might affect them, it’s pretty hard to say whether there’s a story in the apparent dropoff or not.
I would agree with the other commenters, however, who point out that the growth in the 35-45 demographic is a significant find.
Great research, thanks for sharing!
I dont care who this attracts to but I HATE FACEBOOK! This has ruined my marrige and I was almost in the verge of getting divorce with a todler. This is absolutly ridiculas what is happening these days!!!!
I did a spot check of my friends’ FB sites. Most of them don’t post a birth year, or they post a fake one. They’re trying to protect themselves from identity theft.
On the other hand, my nieces and nephews have posted fake years so they appear to be older. So I’d be jaundiced about this type of “demographic insight.”
These stats as quoted are misleading. The number of users in both the 0-17 and 18-24 demographics has increased, not decreased as this article would imply.
The only thing that’s decreased is the number of youth AS A PERCENTAGE OF THE WHOLE. All other things being equal, this may simply mean that Facebook is catching on with us geezers, or hey, the people who WERE in the younger demographic have aged and CONTINUE TO USE IT! What a concept!
As I’ve often said, you can make numbers say anything you want them to say, having little to do with the reality.
And Shana, it isn’t Facebook that ruined your marriage. It’s the way either you or your husband CHOSE TO USE it that ruined your marriage. Stop giving your power away, and stop shirking the responsibility for your – or your husband’s – actions.
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