Brazil was the leading country in growth in Facebook users during 2011 among the top 30 countries by number of active users, according to researcher Nick Burcher, who has been collating Facebook usage statistics by country for a few years now. He noted that Facebook continues to grow across the world, specially in so-called developing markets such as Indonesia, India, Brazil and the Philippines.
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According to his report, Brazil jumped from 8.8 million social network users in 2010 to 35.1 million in 2011, an increase of 298%. The second biggest growth was in India, where the number of Facebook users increased 138.5%. Facebook announced last month that worldwide, nearly 40% or 300 million of its users, actively use the social network via their mobile phones.
With this, Brazil took fourth place in number of users, behind only the United States (157 million and 8% growth between 2010 and 2011), Indonesia (41.7 million and 30% growth) and India (41.3 million). Canada was the only country which saw a decrease, with the number of users 1% lower in 2011 than in 2010.
If Brazil keeps the current growth rate, country could move past India into third place in number of users in 2012. In August, Facebook announced the opening of its office in Brazil, under the leadership of Alexandre Hohagen, who formerly was Google Inc.’s (GOOG) country manager for Latin America. Located in São Paulo, the office supports local businesses and organizations in Latin America, helping them connect with Facebook’s users and driving their brands to be more social.
At the time, Facebook counted 25 million active users in Brazil. “With the growing number of Brazilians and Latin Americans using it daily to connect not only with friends but with brands and causes, Facebook provides the perfect combination of reach and engagement for businesses to engage their consumers,” Hohagen said.
In Brazil, Orkut has led for the past seven years, but in September Facebook surpassed Orkut in numbers users.
The 30 countries with the highest number of Facebook users, according to Nick Burcher’s statistics:
| Rank | Country | Number of Facebook users Dec 2008 | Number of Facebook users Dec 2009 | Number of Facebook users Dec 2010 | Number of Facebook users Dec 2011 | 12 month growth % |
| 1 | USA | 42,078,960 | 101,303,240 | 145,749,580 | 157,418,920 | 8.01% |
| 2 | Indonesia | 897,040 | 14,681,580 | 32,129,460 | 41,768,340 | 30% |
| 3 | India | 1,071,280 | 5,397,480 | 17,288,900 | 41,399,720 | 139.5% |
| 4 | Brazil | 209,460 | 2,413,900 | 8,821,880 | 35,157,560 | 298.5% |
| 5 | Mexico | 1,440,640 | 6,505,040 | 18,488,700 | 30,985,340 | 67.6% |
| 6 | Turkey | 7,934,340 | 16,943,780 | 24,163,600 | 30,963,100 | 28.1% |
| 7 | UK | 14,937,180 | 22,625,300 | 28,661,600 | 30,469,920 | 6.3% |
| 8 | Philippines | 390,700 | 8,387,560 | 18,901,900 | 27,033,680 | 43.0% |
| 9 | France | 6,587,240 | 14,290,700 | 20,469,420 | 23,544,460 | 15.0% |
| 10 | Germany | 1,255,480 | 5,799,520 | 13,678,200 | 22,123,660 | 61.7% |
| 11 | Italy | 5,585,700 | 13,272,760 | 17,812,800 | 20,885,560 | 17.3% |
| 12 | Argentina | 2,255,300 | 7,387,120 | 12,359,260 | 17,581,160 | 42.3% |
| 13 | Canada | 10,862,040 | 14,228,460 | 17,288,620 | 17,113,920 | -1.0% |
| 14 | Colombia | 3,362,760 | 7,243,520 | 11,665,860 | 15,799,320 | 35.4% |
| 15 | Spain | 2,596,080 | 7,701,200 | 12,235,080 | 15,682,800 | 28.2% |
| 16 | Thailand | 168,720 | 1,963,560 | 6,732,780 | 13,275,580 | 97.2% |
| 17 | Malaysia | 850,420 | 3,975,640 | 9,544,580 | 12,060,340 | 26.4% |
| 18 | Taiwan | 112,900 | 5,490,300 | 8,752,640 | 11,598,500 | 32.5% |
| 19 | Australia | 4,330,040 | 7,611,920 | 9,661,720 | 10,721,020 | 11% |
| 20 | Venezuela | 1,874,220 | 4,952,340 | 7,552,760 | 9,579,200 | 26.8% |
| 21 | Egypt | 822,560 | 2,341,880 | 4,634,300 | 9,393,700 | 102.7% |
| 22 | Chile | 4,153,060 | 5,808,020 | 7,586,060 | 9,020,220 | 18.9% |
| 23 | Peru | 296,200 | 1,510,480 | 3,888,560 | 7,887,280 | 102.8% |
| 24 | Poland | 194,820 | 1,609,100 | 4,540,320 | 7,523,420 | 65.7% |
| 25 | Japan | 213,740 | 798,440 | 1,816,140 | 6,266,440 | 254% |
| 26 | Pakistan | 376,720 | 1,392,520 | 3,119,440 | 5,888,580 | 88.8% |
| 27 | Netherlands | 351,280 | 1,689,480 | 3,417,540 | 5,761,520 | 68.6% |
| 28 | South Korea | 113,820 | 404,600 | 2,473,540 | 5,354,740 | 116.5% |
| 29 | Russia | 123,060 | 663,880 | 3,223,220 | 5,237,420 | 62.5% |
| 30 | South Africa | 920,200 | 2,434,500 | 3,422,920 | 4,822,820 | 40.9% |
