Facebook's 'absolutely jaw-dropping milestone': By the numbers

Statisticians say the social networking giant is nearing 700 million users worldwide. Here's how that breaks down

A woman displays a Facebook cushion on sale in China
(Image credit: ALEX HOFFORD/epa/Corbis)

It's no secret that Facebook is astoundingly popular, but a new report from the Facebook stats blog Socialbakers.com says the social networking behemoth is about to reach "an absolutely jaw-dropping milestone": 700 million users. Here, a brief guide by the numbers:

500,000,000

Number of users that Facebook confirmed it had reached last summer, according to PCMag

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200,000,000

Number of additional users that Facebook will have added in roughly a year if the projection by Socialbakers.com that Facebook is "closing in" on 700,000,000 holds true

6,922,088,426

Estimated world population, according to U.S. Census Bureau

About 150,000,000

Number of Facebook users in the U.S. alone, the most of any country, according to PCMag

311,365,194

Approximate population of the U.S., according to U.S. Census Bureau

1,900,000

Number of new Facebook users added in Brazil last month, the most of any country. Other countries that showed big gains in May were Indonesia, Philippines, Mexico, Argentina, and India. "Brazil and India are interesting because they're huge and have other social networks," says Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry at Business Insider. "If Facebook dominates there, it can grow that much faster and dominate that much more."

100 billion

Number of photos that Facebook is project to host by summer's end, according to the Pixable photo sharing blog

6 billion

Estimated number of photos uploaded to Facebook each month

750 million

Number of photos uploaded to Facebook on New Year's Eve weekend alone

347

Number of photos uploaded by the average female Facebook user, according to Pixable

179

Number uploaded by the average man

345

Number of friends the average user has, according to Pixable

3

Ranking among the world's largest countries that Facebook would occupy if it were a country unto itself

Sources: Socialbakers.com, PCMag, Business Insider, Pixable, Washington Post, U.S. Census Bureau

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