In this age of Social Media, when almost everyone is on Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest etc. we often wonder about the user demographics. A recent study conducted by Pingdom, on the demographics of Social Media sites, gives an in depth information on the average age and gender distribution on 24 of today’s most popular social networks and online communities. However, this doesn’t include Google+, as there is no data on Google+ in DoubleClick Ad Planner, the Google-owned tool that Pingdom uses to gather the data.
A look at the graph below shows that, more than half of the social media users are between 25 and 44 years old, 25% users are between 45-64 years, only 5 percent under 17 and only 1 percent over 65.
The study found that 55% of Twitter users are 35 or older; 63% of Pinterest users are 35 or older; 65% of Facebook users are 35 or older; 79% of LinkedIn users are 35 or older. Majority of users on sites like Reddit, Github, Hi5, Hacker News, devianART, Orkut are under 35 years.
The report further states that, the estimated age of the average social media user is just under 37 years old. LinkedIn has the oldest user base, with the average use er being 44.2 years old; average Facebook user is 40.5 years old; average Twitter user is 37.3 years old.
While examining the male-female gender ratio, the study found that 17 out of 24 sites have more female (71%) than male users. The average gender distribution on these sites was 48.75% male, 51.25% female. The percentage of males in tech-focused sites was more - Slashdot (87% males), Hacker News (77% males), Stack Overflow (76% males).
Pinterest is the most female-dominated site (79% females), followed by Goodreads (70% females) and Blogger (66% females). Facebook and Twitter have the same gender distribution: 40% male, 60% female.
The demographics data used in this survey is for the United States.
Pin It
