Monaco Tops in Facebook Penetration

When I think of Monaco, casinos, Princess Grace (Kelly) and a famous aquarium come to mind. Now I have to start thinking social networking since the the world's highest Facebook penetration is found in this tiny, French-speaking Mediterranean principality. Some seven out of ten Monegasques use the popular social networking application. It's so popular that Monaco Telecom even offers a mobile phone plan with unlimited Facebook access.

One notable aspect of countries with high Facebook penetration is that they tend to be small and islands. Facebook opens up a huge virtual world to these places where having a small population or being surrounded by water can create a sense of isolation. While opportunities for relationships may be limited in the real world, with Facebook there are potentially millions of cyber friends.

There were some 645 million people around the world using Facebook in March 2011 or almost one in ten people. The US has the most Facebook users and accounts for almost a quarter of the world total. What is surprising is that Indonesia is second with 35 million. Some nine out of ten Indonesian Internet users use Facebook and most do so through mobile phones. Other developing countries rounding out the top ten include Turkey, the Philippines, India and Mexico.

 

Top 10 Facebook countries by number of users, March 2011				Top 10 Facebook countries by users as % of population, March 2011
	Country	Facebook users	% of total Facebook users	Country	Facebook users	Facebook users as % of population
1	United States	153,475,180	23.8%	Monaco	24,800	70%
2	Indonesia	35,174,940	5.5%	Iceland	197,400	61%
3	United Kingdom	28,940,400	4.5%	Gibraltar	16,780	57%
4	Turkey	26,641,980	4.1%	Faroe Islands	27,640	57%
5	Philippines	22,849,340	3.5%	Hong Kong	3,731,080	52%
6	India	22,057,280	3.4%	Norway	2,510,320	51%
7	Mexico	21,892,020	3.4%	Canada	17,381,700	51%
8	France	21,037,340	3.3%	United States	153,475,180	50%
9	Italy	18,438,760	2.9%	Cyprus	391,020	48%
10	Canada	17,381,700	2.7%	Cayman Islands	25,100	48%
	WORLD	645,073,920	100%	WORLD	645,073,920	9.4%
Note: Population data from IMF World Economic Outlook except for Monaco, Gibraltar, Faroe Islands and Cayman Islands where national data was used.
Source: ictDATA.org adapted from Facebook Ad information.

 

Suggested citation: "Monaco Tops in Facebook Penetration." ictData.org. 15 March 2011.
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