India beats Indonesia for No2 spot on Facebook

We have the second highest population in the world, the highest among countries whose citizens can be on Facebook (ahem, China), and we may not be number 1 on the Facebook list, but we're certainly getting there. According to Forbes, India has the second most number of people on the social network, behind the United States. Indonesia had taken over the number 2 spot from the U.K, back in November of 2010 and has officially moved to the number three spot now. As of February 2012, India has 43,497,980 members on Facebook. Indonesia has 43,060,360 and the United States has 152,564,400 members. The Facebook population in India grew by 144 percent in 2011 alone. As impressive as that growth is, Brazil had a higher growth in 2011, growing by 183 percent.

To get into some demographics of who in India is on Facebook, according to the Hindustan Times, 72.8 percent of Facebook users in India are male, 48 percent are from the 18-24 age group and 27 percent from the 25-34 age group. Comparing these stats to those in the United States, there are more women on Facebook than men in the United States, 24 percent of users are in the 18-24 category and 23 percent from the 25-34. Here is the list of the top ten countries on Facebook:

United States - 152,564,400

India - 43,497,980

Indonesia - 43,057,320

Brazil - 37,907,400

Mexico - 32,031,340

Turkey - 31,247,120

United Kingdom - 30,245,180

Philippines - 27,596,960

France - 23,597,540

Germany - 22,600,660

Facebook has 812 million users worldwide and is currently the largest social network in the world even though it is not accessible in all countries. Even though India accounts for the second largest population on Facebook, according to Reuters, less than 4 percent of the Indian population has a Facebook account.  Facebook is trying to grow in Asia, for many reasons, the biggest being that of all the people in the world who are not on Facebook, 60 percent are in Asia. Countries like the United States and the UK already have half their population on the social network, but in countries in Asia where penetration is still low, focus in these areas will have greater numerical pay offs.