We’ve been granularly tracking Facebook’s Growth since October 2007, which at the time it had a mere 20 million US users. Today it has over 103 million US based users. The following data shows the growth rates of various user bases in Facebook over the one year period from 1/4/2009 to 1/4/2010. All data comes directly from Facebook’s Social Ads system:
Key Insights:
- Facebook’s US user base grew from 42 million to 103 million in 2009. That’s a 144.9% growth rate!
- The 35+ demographic now represents more than 30% of the entire user base.
- The 55+ audience grew a whopping 922.7% in 2009.
- Atlanta had the highest growth rate in 2009 at 267.6%
Comments
Something is wrong with the percentages in the Current Enrollment section of 2010. They add up to well over 100%. Both Alumni and Unknown are significantly lower (31.4% and 57.5%, respectively). The other two are wrong as well.
Did I miss something?
Bill
Why so few people interested in Sex & Drugs … Are ppl turning into religious conformist zombies?
@bill no you’re right I just fix that data. The spreadsheet wasn’t calculating correctly.
Thanks for providing this information. I especially find it interesting about the increase in social media use with the aging demographics. One of the main misconceptions that I deal with small business owners and professionals is the belief that only twenty-somethings and younger use social media which is clearly not the case.
Hey Peter!
Do you know where I can find the Stats for 2009 Dallas Tx?
Thanks!
Laci
How come your statistics differ so drastically from those reported by Quantcast?? http://www.quantcast.com/facebook.com
@kelsey because they come directly from Facebook instead of from an external source like QuantCast
While it’s interesting to see the 35-54 demo has the largest concentration in users, it’s important to note that’s also a very large age range. 18-24 is only a 6 year span, yet represents 25% of users. 35-54 is a 19 year span with slightly more 29%. Would also be important to know usage rates and not merely sign-ups. Before reading into the growth too much it would be good to know how many of the fast growing 55+ bracket are using the service with any significant frequency.
Great Work Thanks this is helping me to set up a facebook page
Just wondering if there anywhere else on the web or any other way where these stats can be independently verified? The source remains a bit suspect when it comes from the same people who are actively seeking to promote Facebook.
@Jim who could possibly have better data related to Facebook than Facebook itself?
Well if you seriously want an answer, try Quantcast for starters.
http://www.quantcast.com/top-sites-1?r=2#2
Jim please see the conversation above about quantcast. As a rule of thumb I trust data “closest to the source” rather than survey/3rd party data.
What explains the dip in the college enrollments? I feel like almost every student on our college campus has a Facebook acocunt. Is it that most students are not identifying themselves as college students? Or perhaps they enrolled in Facebook at a previous point in their lives and never updated their enrollment information. What is your take on this surprising statistic?
Hey Peter, I live in Omaha Nebraska and am doing some research on Facebook for a social entrepreneurship class. I see that you have posted the amount of users in the bigger cities but is there any way I can access the amount of users in Omaha?
Check the Facebook stats
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
@bobby just go here and drill down to Omaha: http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/
One of the comments by Dave brings up a valid point. 18 to 24 is 6 years and 35-54 is 19 years. When will everyone get it through their head that this kind of research is not Genergraphically correct. If you want to be accurate doing this kind of research you need to stop doing demographics and start doing Genergraphics which is the international language of marketing.
The 35 to 54 age group is made up of Boomers and Gen-Xers which have two different mind-sets. How can you hit the target? Go to http://www.genergraphics.com and see for yourself. Demographics is the ruination of marketing. Stop counting numbers and start counting generational mind-sets.
Facebook growth trends is a=on track to overtake China’s population within the next five years … the total number of facebook users at 300+ million users is now greater than the entire US population
Peter, whats up with the decrease in college students on facebook. I know that many people didnt graduate in one year.
Do you have these stats broken down by individual cities? I would love to know to the age demographics of facebook users in St. Louis.
Tables should always be right adjusted. It’s much more difficult to make comparisons when the numbers are centered. Also, the decimal points should line up in the percentage columns.
I see that the college user population dropped in half since last year. I can’t see how this can be accurate. Do you think it is because college students opt not to disclose their school/student info?
@PETER I need more specific information regarding Facebook users in the South suburbs of Chicago. Can you help me out with that info?
It seems like Facebook has gotten so big, the much-discussed demographic differences between FB and MySpace must be disappearing. I’m curious, though, if FB will be able to maintain the sense of intimacy and community that attracted so many people if they continue to push their users to share more information publicly.
http://blog.myplaceinthecrowd.org/2010/05/11/building-a-community-does-a-community-have-to-be-diverse-to-be-successful/
Facebook point out that the stats in their ads creation section are just estimates.
Thanks for the info, there are some good stats here,!
how come college students are using facebook less?
that data smells like a fish
Its true that 40% are in 18-24 yrs old, but intrest percentig are show that the most nerds use facebook, its obvious.
@Peter Goodman, who said: “Demographics is the ruination of marketing. Stop counting numbers and start counting generational mind-sets.”
Marketing is the ruination of meaningful and objective research…
Can you tell me how many school.school district are facebook users? Thank you
Just gotta say I love that when I click to download your chart on Facebook statistics via http://www.scribd.com, I sign-in to scribd via my Facebook account. Something ironic about that, don’t you think?! Just demonstrates the dominance of Facebook these days.
had a small laugh with the interests section: Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll. Looking forward for the next update! 2010 is ending soon.
Hi-
I know that for the fan page that I created on Facebook, I get weekly updates of how many folks joined, etc. but is there a way on Facebook to export the demographics (based on the profiles) of those who “like” a page? I think it would be interesting to see how our fan base on Facebook compares to the actual demographics of our members. I work with the social media for a non-profit teachers’ association. :)
Thanks for the insight. Good stuff here at istrategylabs!
Sarah
@sarah: Yes. Go to the Insights section of your Fan Page, and click on Users and you’ll see a full demographic breakout based on the actual profile data of your fans.
Hi,
I’m doing a statistic project on how the ages of facebook users are changing and was wondering if you knew the size of the population these statistics came from, or if yo had the raw data.
Thanks
What is the % of female users, in the 35 years old and up?
Any idea of the family background of these users? Were they raised by 2 parents, did they attend daycare, did both parents work outside the home?
your statistics are probably correct but u made a dick move with putting rock with drugs and sex
For the love of God, keep writing these artciles.