The Arab Social Media Report Series provides an overview of Facebook users in the Arab World. As such, the number of Facebook users in all 22 Arab countries, in addition to Iran, Israel and Turkey, are collected periodically (since April 2010 to date). These are the key findings from the latest report:
- The total number of Facebook users in the Arab world stands at 45,194,452 (as of end June, 2012), up from 37,390,837 at the beginning of the year (January 3, 2012), having increased by about 50% since the same time last year (29,845,871 in end June 2011). ·
- By the end of June 2012, the country average for Facebook user penetration in the Arab region was just over 12%, up from 10% at the beginning of the year, and up from 8% in June 2011.
- The number of Facebook users in the Arab world has approximately tripled in the last 2 years (June 2010 – June 2012), increasing from 16 million users to 45 million users. Figures (5, 6 & 7) illustrate the growth in all 22 Arab countries in the past 2 years. ·
- The percentage of female users remains almost static, having fluctuated slightly between 33.5% and 34% in the past year (33.7% as of June 2012). This is still significantly lower than the global trend, where women constitute roughly half of Facebook users. ·
- Youth (between the ages of 15 and 29) continue to make up around 70% of Facebook users in the Arab region, a number that has been holding steady since April 2011. ·
- GCC countries dominate the top five Arab Facebook users as percentage of population. The UAE remains at the top of the Arab region, followed by Kuwait, while Qatar has found its way back into the top five. Lebanon and Jordan take up the remaining spots. ·
- Egypt still constitutes about a quarter of total Facebook users in the Arab region, and has added more users in the past year than any Arab country, at over 1.6 million new Facebook users between January and June 2012.
- English, Arabic and French are the dominant languages on Facebook, and Arabic is now the fastest growing language on Facebook in the region, with an increase in the number of Facebook users who predominantly use the Arabic interface.
* Facebook data for Turkey is only available from January 2011 onwards
**2010/2011 populations are from United Nations ILO Department of Statistics,
http://laborsta.ilo.org/, for all Arab countries. with the exception of GCC countries in the first half of 2011,
where official numbers from the National Statistics Offices where used. The
discrepancy between these numbers and ILO numbers previously used in 2010
caused a drop in penetration rates in the GCC countries in the first half of
2011. The ILO Department of Statistics has since adopted these official
GCC population numbers.
*** Due to US technology sanctions, no demographic or gender data is available for Syria and Sudan.