21 Mind-Blowing Facebook Statistics to Know in 2020

Sanela Puac Feb 04, 2020 · 8 months ago

Human interactions and technological advancements go hand in hand. As a result, our communication habits have changed dramatically throughout history. One such major actor during the past decade has been none other than the most popular social network — Facebook. This social platform offers an abundance of communication tools, thanks to which billions of people worldwide can stay connected. Facebook statistics dating back to September 2019 show that there are more than 2.45 billion monthly active users of this social network.

Even though a lot of new social networks have arisen in recent years, Facebook’s popularity persists due to its user-friendly nature, entertaining apps, attractive interface, sharing options, and a number of other assets. Therefore, we have compiled a list of the most stats and facts depicting how the popular network operates nowadays.

10 Key Facebook Stats and Facts to Know in 2020

Al Pacino’s face was on the first logo of Facebook.
The most liked Facebook image in history is one of Barack and Michelle Obama.
Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, was one of the first Facebook investors.
Facebook’s iconic blue and white color pattern was the result of Mark Zuckerberg’s own color blindness.
Zuckerberg declined a $15 billion offer proposed by Microsoft’s CEO.
Facebook fun facts reveal it’s more gender-neutral than other social networking sites.
Facebook users by age stats show that most Facebook users are between 18 and 44 years of age.
130 is the number of average Facebook friends among users.
According to the latest facts concerning Facebook — there are over 269 million active Facebook users in India alone.
Most recent stats reveal that every 60 seconds approximately 510,000 comments are being posted on this social network.

Facebook Facts

1. Al Pacino’s face was on the first logo of Facebook.

(Word Stream)

The earliest version of the Facebook logo featured a highly pixelated, blurred image of a man’s face covered with ones and zeros in a blue and white color scheme. Not many people know this — the original logo-face belonged to the famous actor Al Pacino. In a way, you could say that he was, in fact, the “godfather of Facebook.”

2. The “poke” feature serves no specific purpose, according to Zuckerberg.

(CBS News)

The Facebook population perceives pokes as friendly nudges, yet there are also those who interpret them as flirtatious advances. Zuckerberg was even asked to explain some of the weirdest Facebook facts once, this one included, and it turned out that there was no specific purpose behind this feature — its creators simply thought it would be interesting to have a feature aimed at nothing in particular.

3. The most liked Facebook image ever is the one of Barack and Michelle Obama after the 2012 US re-election.

(CBS News)

After Obama won the re-election in 2012, a photo of him and the First Lady captioned “four more years” became the most liked photo on Facebook with 4,410,548 likes. Facebook statistics reveal that it has remained the most liked Facebook photo to this very day.

4. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, was one of the first Facebook investors.

(Word Stream)

Back in the day when Facebook was still a young and emerging company, Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, recognized the site’s potential. In 2004, he invested $500,000 into this promising startup. Later, Thiel sold his Facebook stake and gained over $1 billion for it; talk about a good investment!

5. Yet another one in the series of interesting facts about Facebook: its iconic blue/white color pattern is actually the result of Mark Zuckerberg’s color blindness.

(CBS News)

In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg was reported to have red-green colorblindness — which is probably why Facebook’s trademark has a blue/white color scheme instead. As per his own words, blue is “the richest color for him” and he can see all of blue.

6. The “Like” button was originally meant to be an “Awesome” button.

(Word Stream)

Facebook like statistics show that, on average, a Facebook user likes 10 posts and makes 4 comments throughout the day. But what’s the story behind the like button (as we know it today)?

According to Facebook engineers, they were quite zealous about the “Awesome” button. Yet, in 2007, Zuckerberg rejected the idea and suggested that they settle for the “Like” button instead — and the rest is history. Still, the engineers weren’t delighted with the decision.

7. Thanks to Facebook and its number of total users, Zuckerberg became a billionaire in his early 20s.

(Oh Fact)

Originally, Facebook was merely a college project — Zuckerberg was building a social study tool for a final exam. What he did was: he uploaded art images to a website and added a commentary section to accompany each image. After sharing the website with his classmates, they started writing notes, and the end result made Zuckerberg a billionaire at the age of 23.

8. According to Facebook statistics, Zuckerberg declined a $15 billion offer proposed by Microsoft’s CEO.

(Oh Fact)

Look at the numbers, and at Google statistics. A whole number of successful companies, including Microsoft, Google, and even Yahoo, wanted to own Facebook — multiple offers have been made since Facebook was first launched, yet to no avail. In 2007, Zuckerberg declined a $15 billion offer from Microsoft’s CEO after year-long negotiations. Nevertheless, Microsoft was allowed to buy a tiny portion of Facebook (1.6%) for a reported $250 million.

9. Facebook can help boost customer loyalty.

(Post Planner)

Facebook business statistics reveal that there are over 60 million business pages on Facebook at the moment. Apart from the obvious uses, having a Facebook business page can do wonders for your brand awareness. Nowadays, the vast majority of consumers look up a product they want to purchase via social media — hence why having a solid Facebook presence is crucial.

10. Not all facts about Facebook are so cheerful. In fact, a 2013 study found out that Facebook users might be more depressed than their non-user counterparts.

(CBS News)

A study conducted by the University of Michigan observed 82 young adults that were Facebook daily active users, texting them five times a day and asking them how they felt, how frequently they used the site, and how much they interacted with their real-life friends. It turned out that being constantly exposed to other people’s bragging posts triggered some people’s dissatisfaction with their own lives.

Facebook Age Demographics

11. According to Facebook user statistics, Facebook is more gender-neutral than some other social networking sites.

(Search Engine Journal)

Even though 58% of users are female, Facebook is still quite gender-neutral when compared to Pinterest and Google+, which are used predominantly by women. Furthermore, of all the people on the internet, up to 83% of women, and 75% of men have Facebook accounts. It’s also interesting to note that, according to internet stats, teenage Facebook prevalence has dropped from 71% to 51% in just 3 years.

12. Most Facebook users are between 18 and 44 years of age.

(Zephoria)

The average age of a Facebook user, as reported by Statista, is between 18–44. In addition, males aged 25–34 make up the largest social group on Facebook.

13. 130 is the number of average Facebook friends among users.

(Mashable)

While 5,000 is the largest number of Facebook friends a user can have, the average number of friends among users is more around 130, according to statistics.

14. Facebook usage statistics show that only 51% of teens use Facebook.

(Sprout Social)

Back in the day, Facebook was more popular within the teenage population than it is today. It’s been almost two decades since Facebook got its first user, and the target audience changed completely, mostly due to other social networks emerging with features that are more attractive to teenagers. Today, the total number of Instagram and Snapchat teen users surpasses that of Facebook — at the moment, only 51% of teens use Facebook.

15. Facebook and marriage problems statistics show that more than 10% of the population says Facebook is the trigger for their jealousy.

(Bustle)

Social media facts show these platforms pose a “danger” to marriage; 16% of surveyees point their fingers to Facebook as the direct cause of their partner’s jealousy. Moreover, 14% percent of adults in relationships admit having stalked through their partner’s Facebook accounts, aiming to find evidence of infidelity.

16. If we look at the number of Facebook users by country there are over 269 million active Facebook users in India alone.

(Statista)

India is the leading country in terms of the number of Facebook users, reaching 269 million. To put things into perspective, if India’s total Facebook users constituted a separate country, this country’s population would rank as the fourth largest in the world. Honorable mentions include the US (183 million), Indonesia (123 million), and Brazil (120 million).

Facebook Traffic Statistics

17. 74% of users log in to Facebook on a daily basis.

(Sprout Social)

Is Facebook one of the first things you reach for when you wake up? Well, it turns out this is not so uncommon after all. 74% of Facebook users log in every single day and tend to check it multiple times throughout the day.

18. 96% of users use Facebook on their mobile devices.

(Statista)

When was the last time you logged in to Facebook via laptop or desktop computer? The chances are that you don’t even remember, and this is not an isolated case. According to Statista, mobile traffic on Facebook is fairly high — over 90% of Facebook users access it via tablets or smartphones.

19. Wednesdays, from 1 to 3 PM is when most of the traffic occurs.

(Zephoria)

This one, in particular, is important for marketers. Those who own business pages on Facebook will benefit the most out of this data; knowing exactly when the peak traffic hours are is vital for increasing the exposure of your content. Still, bear in mind that Facebook is a global network, so you might want to stick to the time zone of your target audience instead.

20. Facebook statistics from 2019 show that every 60 seconds approximately 510,000 comments are being posted on this social network.

(Zephoria)

But wait, there’s more! During the same interval, around 293,000 statuses are updated, and some 136,000 photos are posted as well. Obviously, there are a lot of active users on this social network, yet the key to publishing killer posts is not the quantity of your content but rather the quality, as Facebook stats reveal.

21. According to statistics, the industry with the highest click-through rate for Facebook ads is the legal sector with 1.61%.

(WordStream)

The retail industry is a close second with 1.59%, and the apparel and beauty industries take third and fourth place, respectively (1.24% and 1.16%). On the other hand, the industry with the lowest CTR is none other than the employment and job training sector with a measly 0.47%.

FAQs

How many Facebook users are there in 2018?

(Sprout Social)

Facebook had 2.32 billion monthly active users in the last quarter of 2018, which is twice as many as the number of users in 2012 when Facebook reached the one-billion active user threshold for the first time in its history; the data considers monthly active users those who have logged in to Facebook over the course of the last 30 days.

How many posts are made on Facebook daily?

(Louise M; Zephoria)

According to facts from 2013, there were around 5 billion pieces of content shared on a daily basis. Moreover, studies have shown that posting one to two posts during the day would be the most optimal for brands, posting more would be counter-productive. Also, Facebook pages with less than 10,000 likes mark a 50% drop in engagement if they post more than once per day.

What percentage of the world has Facebook?

(Zephoria; Statista)

Statistics from 2019 indicate that Facebook had as much as 2.45 billion monthly active users in the first quarter of that year with a yearly growth rate of 8% no less. This means that Facebook alone accounts for about a third of the entire world’s population, which roughly translates to around 32%. What’s more, North America had the highest Facebook usage rate of 72.4%.

Which country uses Facebook the most?

(Statista)

Based on the number of active monthly users as of July 2019, the country with the highest number of active users was none other than India with a whopping 269 million; the US follows suit with 183 million, and Indonesia (123 million) and Brazil (120 million) — as our statistics have shown — take third and fourth place in the number of active users, respectively.

What age uses Facebook the most?

(Sprout Social)

81% of 18 to 29-year-olds (Millennials) use Facebook, which is the largest percentage of people using Facebook within a particular age range. This is immediately followed by 78% of 30 to 49-year-olds (Gen Xers) who use Facebook actively and 60% of people in the 50–65 age group (Baby Boomers). Lastly, just 37% of people aged 65 plus (the Silent generation) use Facebook.

What percentage of seniors use Facebook?

(Pew Internet)

Speaking of seniors, 65% of 50 to 64-year-olds are reported to use Facebook. Data on the Facebook user base over 50 and their attitude towards Facebook — some of them claim they are “highly concerned” about privacy on social networks, but a poll from March found that up to 1/3 of people over 50 and older admit it would be quite difficult for them to give up Facebook.

How many businesses are on Facebook?

(Brandwatch)

Currently, there are more than 60 million active business pages on Facebook. Nevertheless, according to facts, just 6 million of these brands pay to become active advertisers on this platform. Despite this, 75% of brands have said that they would pay to promote the content they post on the above-mentioned social network. In addition, the reach of Facebook ads (if you were wondering) is around 2 billion people.

How much data does Facebook have?

(Tech Crunch)

Facebook is reported to process a staggering 500 TB of data on a daily basis, as well as over 2.5 billion pieces of content.

Conclusion

Whatever you might think of social networks and their effects on human psychology, the positive impact of Facebook on everyday life is unquestionable. Almost 16 years after its creation, Facebook is still popular due to its continual development. It does not only connect people emotionally but also plays a key role as a tool for communication between businessmen and consumers in an efficient and economical way. Hopefully, our list of Facebook statistics with a dash of trivia showed the clear advantages of using this powerful, yet inexpensive marketing tool.