# Facebook is now larger than every nation except China and India **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 23, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751 "2010-07-23T18:47:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/1 "2010-07-23T18:47:38Z")
From [The Economist](http://www.economist.com/node/16660401?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/statusupdate): > [@](#): > > THE world’s largest social network announced that it had reached 500m members on Wednesday July 21st. If Facebook were a physical nation, it would now be the third-most populous on earth. I don’t really have any commentary on this, but it’s interesting, so I’m tossing it out for discussion. Edit: It’s also interesting to note that MySpace is larger than every nation except China, India and the US. I think predictions of its death are a bit premature. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/2 "2010-07-23T19:23:36Z")
Seeing as the population of nations jumps by 3.8X going from 3rd place to 2nd, this actually isn’t all that impressive in a sense. If you get even a small portion of India and China on Facebook, you’ll automatically beat the US. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/3 "2010-07-23T19:28:10Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > Edit: It’s also interesting to note that MySpace is larger than every nation except China, India and the US. I think predictions of its death are a bit premature. MySpace is rife with users with multiple accounts and businesses that are counted among the standard user population. Facebook does a much better job handling multiple accounts and always kept businesses confined to a separate area not counted in the user totals. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/4 "2010-07-23T19:36:04Z")
I wonder how many active users myspace actually has. Few people seem to delete theirs but they rarely get updated or used for much anymore as far as I can see. Pretty much anyone on myspace now seems to have an active facebook too. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/5 "2010-07-23T19:55:23Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > From [The Economist](http://www.economist.com/node/16660401?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/statusupdate): Why is India symbolized by the death star? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/6 "2010-07-24T20:09:55Z")
I have four Facebooks accounts and none are really me. I just open them as it’s easier than remembering my names for a website I never use 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/7 "2010-07-24T20:26:41Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I have four Facebooks accounts and none are really me. I just open them as it’s easier than remembering my names for a website I never use 🙂 Does not compute. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/8 "2010-07-24T20:31:18Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I wonder how many active users myspace actually has. Few people seem to delete theirs but they rarely get updated or used for much anymore as far as I can see. Pretty much anyone on myspace now seems to have an active facebook too. I wonder how many **active** users Facebook has as well. I’m dubious of their count without more information on whether it includes accounts that have just been forgotten about and left inactive. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/9 "2010-07-24T21:03:14Z")
If my experience of databases of customers/users is anything to go by - then about ten percent of them will be active (used more often than say once or twice a month) ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/10 "2010-07-24T21:20:21Z")
hmm, there are more active subscribers to World of Warcraft than the city population of New York. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/11 "2010-07-24T21:27:14Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > > [@ultrafilter](#): > > > > From [The Economist](http://www.economist.com/node/16660401?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/statusupdate): > > Why is India symbolized by the death star? “That’s no _[dharmacakra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmacakra)_–that’s a space station!” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-is-now-larger-than-every-nation-except-china-and-india/547751/12 "2010-07-24T21:32:26Z")
I guess we can add a new statistic to those “If the world was a village…” lists. If the world was a village of 100 people, seven villagers would have Facebook accounts.