Here are a bunch of amazing Facebook statistics, facts, history and demographics that illustrate just how vast their digital empire is. Updated for 2019.
The story of Facebook is legendary; A group of Harvard University students, led by Mark Zuckerberg, got together in 2004 to create a social network to create a social network within the Harvard community. It quickly proved to be a success and spread to other colleges across the northeast and then from coast to coast. Finally, in 2006, it was opened up to the world and its unprecedented, exponential growth began, continuing to this day.
Facebook is now unquestionably the largest social network in the world with over two billion monthly active users and over a billion daily active users. With a platform as feature-rich and widely visited as Facebook’s there are countless stats that can be collected and tracked.
I have spent the past seven years identifying every measurable aspect of and facts about Facebook, starting with basic info like how many people are on the platform and then expanding and listing out each Facebook stat as I find them in an organized series of posts. You will find everything from average number of friends per user to users per country and everything in between. I hope you find some of these tallies as interesting and amazing as I do.
Sections of this post:
- Facebook Users and Demographics (below)
- Facebook User Activity
- Facebook Advertising Statistics
- Facebook Page Statistics
- Facebook Mobile Statistics
- Facebook Revenue Statistics
- Facebook Messenger Statistics
- Instagram Statistics
- WhatsApp Statistics
Facebook History
- Year Facebook launched: 2004 (as TheFacebook)
- Year TheFacebook was changed to Facebook: 2005
- Year News Feeds were introduced: 2006
- Year Facebook opened up to everyone over the age of 13: 2006
- Year pages were introduced: 2007
- Year that Facebook Chat launched: 2008
- Year that Facebook became the most-used social network globally: 2009
- Year that usernames were introduced: 2009
- Year the Like button was introduced: 2009
- Year that Timelines were first introduced: 2011
- Year that Facebook Chat became Facebook Messenger: 2011
- Year the Bug Bounty program launched: 2011
- Year of Facebook’s IPO: 2012
- Year the App Center launched: 2012
- Year Facebook bought Instagram: 2012
- Year Facebook joined the Fortune 500: 2013
- Year Facebook joined the S&P 500: 2013
- Year that Graph Search launched: 2013
- Year that Facebook Home launched: 2013
- Year that clickable hashtags were introduced: 2013
- Year Facebook bought WhatsApp: 2014
- Year Instant Articles launched: 2015
- Year that Reactions were introduced: 2016
- Year that Deep Text was announced: 2016
- Year Workplace was announced: 2016
- Year Facebook Spaces was announced: 2017
- Year Facebook Stories launched: 2017
Facebook Facts
- Website: www.facebook.com
- Where was Facebook created: Cambridge, MA
- Who created Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes
- Where is Facebook headquarters: Menlo Park, Ca
- Facebook’s Top Executives:
- CEO: Mark Zuckerberg
- COO: Sheryl Sandberg
- CFO: David Wehner
- CTO: Mike Schroepfer
- Facebook Mobile Apps: iOS | Android
- Number of Facebook Employees: 25,105 (Source: Facebook 4/25/18)
Facebook Statistics
Facebook Users and Demographics
How many people use Facebook?
Facebook monthly active users (MAU):
2.271 billion Facebook users
(Source: Facebook)
Facebook daily active users (DAU):
1.495 billion Facebook users
(Source: Facebook)
Percentage of all US adults over the age of 50 that use Facebook:
Last updated 4/21/18
Percentage of all US adults aged 25-49 that use Facebook:
Last updated 3/5/18
Average number of Facebook friends for women:
Last updated 1/20/16
Number of Facebook friends that the average user has in 2016:
Percentage of drivers that admit to checking Facebook while operating their vehicle:
Last updated 5/19/15
Percentage of all digital time that is spent on Facebook each day:
Last updated 4/11/18
Degrees of separation between every Facebook user:
Last updated 2/4/16
Percentage of Facebook friends that users consider to be close friends:
Last updated 1/20/16
Percentage of US Internet users, aged 14-17 (teens) that use Facebook:
Last updated 1/18/17
Percentage of US teens, ages 13-17, that use Facebook:
Percentage of US residents, ages 12-34 that use Facebook:
Percentage of US residents, ages 35-54 that use Facebook:
Percentage of US residents, age 55+ that use Facebook:
Percentage of all US social media users that use Facebook:
Last updated 1/9/15
Percentage of online US adults that use Facebook:
Last updated 3/1/18
Percentage of internet users, age 16-64, that log onto Facebook more than once a day:
Last updated 3/1/18
Facebook users in the UK:
Last updated 2/12/18
Number of Facebook users, aged 12-17, in the UK:
Last updated 2/12/18
Number of Facebook users, aged 18-24, in the UK:
Last updated 2/12/18
Number of monthly active Facebook users in Africa:
Last updated 4/6/17
This report is available in an annual industry report. Some of the data in industry reports include:
- Users
- Demographics
- Revenue
- Growth
- Etc.- all in one place
I try to go through each and every stat regularly and update as much as possible, but we all know that some stats are easier to track down than others. As always, every stat is linked to its original source and has the source date listed.
To get your copy of the report, click on the button below to purchase it.
Report 1: Social Media Companies Report (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Twitter, WeChat)
Report 2: Billion Users Club Report (Android, Apple, Facebook, Messenger, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, WeChat, WhatsApp, YouTube).
Report 3: Facebook Products Report (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp)
Report 4: Digital Titans Report (Amazon, Amazon Prime, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft).
Report 5: FAANG Report (Amazon, Amazon Prime, Apple, Facebook, Messenger, Google, Netflix)