# How many people actually use Facebook? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190 "2012-02-17T22:17:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/1 "2012-02-17T22:17:46Z")
With the IPO filing, it has been widely reported that the total number of Facebook users reached 845 million (with monthly users being over 1/2 that, at 483 million), and the popular press is reporting that this is the number of people using Facebook. Even sites such as [Internet World Statistics](http://www.internetworldstats.com/facebook.htm) pretty much take this # as gospel (their estimates are a bit lower (800 million) than FB’s internal numbers.) But, in addition to other methods, Facebook counts the number of _profiles_ as a “user” with its own account, with: [Pets](http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000879647859) [Movies](http://www.facebook.com/#!/SpiderManDVD) [Soda brands](http://www.facebook.com/#!/DietCoke) [Sports teams](http://www.facebook.com/#!/atlantafalcons) [Fictional characters](http://www.facebook.com/#!/AragornFan) [Stores](http://www.facebook.com/#!/walmart) All having profiles (i.e., accounts.) And, of course, people with multiple accounts. And all the other categories I didn’t mention: magazines, books, diet programs, etc etc etc, yadda, yadda, yadda. Many of these non-people are included in the “845 million users” statistic, which begs the question: Just how many _people_ use this thing? Anyone (other than Facebook, and they ain’t telling) know? I have a feeling that, like the formula of Coca-Cola, the number of actual users is a closely guarded secret, but any clues would be useful. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/2 "2012-02-17T22:22:14Z")
Then there’s this: [http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/those-millions-on-facebook-some-may-not-actually-visit/](http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/those-millions-on-facebook-some-may-not-actually-visit/) > [@](#): > > If you managed to wade through to Page 44 of Facebook’s prospectus, you’d discover that the company provides a definition of an “active user” — and it is unlikely to be what you expected. > > Facebook counts as “active” users who go to its Web site or its mobile site. But it also counts an entire other category of people who don’t click on [facebook.com](http://facebook.com) as “active users.” According to the company, a user is considered active if he or she “took an action to share content or activity with his or her Facebook friends or connections via a third-party Web site that is integrated with Facebook.” > > Come again? > > In other words, every time you press the “Like” button on [NFL.com](http://NFL.com), for example, you’re an “active user” of Facebook. Perhaps you share a Twitter message on your Facebook account? That would make you an active Facebook user, too. Have you ever shared music on Spotify with a friend? You’re an active Facebook user. If you’ve logged into Huffington Post using your Facebook account and left a comment on the site — and your comment was automatically shared on Facebook — you, too, are an “active user” even though you’ve never actually spent any time on [facebook.com](http://facebook.com). So, by pressing “Like” on a Cracked magazine article, _even if I don’t have a Facebook account_, I’m still counted as a Facebook user - one of the 845/483m. :rolleyes: So, to clarify, **I’m wondering how many people have actual accounts/profiles and spend time on Facebook,** as it seems the official numbers are vastly over-inflated. It’s like McDonald’s counting you as a customer because you stated you liked carnivals while in the McDonald’s parking lot. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/3 "2012-02-17T22:25:42Z")
Another question is: “How many of the profiles that have been created are actually used?” Probably a lot of people create an account, and then just leave it without ever using it. Or they might create and account, and forget the password without a way to retrieve it, so they have to create a new one. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/4 "2012-02-17T22:30:51Z")
[Related article](http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57372392-17/is-facebook-accurately-counting-its-daily-active-users/). Daily/monthly active users (ie people who actually log in and do something) ought to be the most accurate figure, but there are some suggestions that figure has been inflated. I doubt that the number of people with multiple profiles is significant compared with other inflating factors. I can’t give you a cite for that but it is based on some knowledge about account activity on other large online services. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/5 "2012-02-18T00:36:18Z")
Certainly most everyone I know, with the exception of a couple of elderly relatives. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/6 "2012-02-18T00:40:01Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > Certainly most everyone I know, with the exception of a couple of elderly relatives. Whew. That was quick, guess we can close this thread, asked and answered. Did you even read the OP? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/7 "2012-02-18T00:50:53Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > So, by pressing “Like” on a Cracked magazine article, _even if I don’t have a Facebook account_, I’m still counted as a Facebook user - one of the 845/483m. :rolleyes: Don’t you have to have a Facebook account for the Like button to work? For example, if I’m logged out of Facebook and click on the Like button on my homepage, a Facebook box pops up (from Facebook) asking me to log in. I don’t think the Like button does anything unless you have a Facebook account and are logged in, so I could see counting those users as Facebook users. I mean, why else would you hit that button? It’s to share the fact that you Liked something on your Facebook page. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/8 "2012-02-18T00:53:49Z")
I would consider the actions they describe as “using Facebook”… Why else would you click a “Like” button if you didn’t want it added to your page? If you are agreeing for your comments to be shared on Facebook, that, in my book, is “using” it. And why would you “like” something if you didn’t have an account? I, and many, many of my elderly friends, use Facebook every day. Though I’ve avoided it for a week in case my son and daughter -in-law are still fighting via Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/9 "2012-02-18T00:55:33Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Whew. That was quick, guess we can close this thread, asked and answered. > > Did you even read the OP? That was actually the naive but only real answer. It isn’t possible for anyone to know the actual number of real users including Facebook itself. There is no set of filters anyone can use based on the data at hand to determine that. The upper bound is fairly clear. The best anyone could do is to do studies to find out how many people have multiple accounts for themselves, pets, people that died or shared accounts that include multiple people and use that to help establish a confidence level for the lower bound. Facebook is the only one with data that could be used to do that and they have no incentive to do so. The best answer is, “I don’t know. It seems to be really popular though.” ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/10 "2012-02-18T01:03:33Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Another question is: “How many of the profiles that have been created are actually used?” > > Probably a lot of people create an account, and then just leave it without ever using it. Only time I’ve ever been to Facebook was to make a bunch of fake accounts that my sister wanted for some reason. Otherwise, it’s blocked - other sites make useless conections to it, which I put a stop to. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/11 "2012-02-18T01:27:25Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Facebook is the only one with data that could be used to do that and they have no incentive to do so. Why do you say that? They have plenty of incentives to do so (marketing, provisioning, abuse), and I’m quite sure they know their real usage figures in great detail and with a high degree of certainty. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/12 "2012-02-18T02:05:05Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > I would consider the actions they describe as “using Facebook”.. Why else would you click a “Like” button if you didn’t want it added to your page? If you are agreeing for your comments to be shared on Facebook, that, in my book, is “using” it. And why would you “like” something if you didn’t have an account? > > I, and many, many of my elderly friends, use Facebook every day. Though I’ve avoided it for a week in case my son and daughter -in-law are still fighting via Facebook. You can temporalily block their posts from appearing on your page. Mouseover on the right of a post and a box to do this will appear. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/13 "2012-02-18T03:42:07Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > Why do you say that? They have plenty of incentives to do so (marketing, provisioning, abuse), and I’m quite sure they know their real usage figures in great detail and with a high degree of certainty. Why do you say that? They want their count to be as high as possible. Abuse of accounts is a real issue but most people that have more than one aren’t abusing it and there is no real way for them to be able to tell the difference. I have two accounts for example. They could see that one gets more activity than the other and that their are two accounts that get accessed frequently though the same computer but lots of people share a computer. There is no way for them to tell the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/14 "2012-02-18T04:18:08Z")
I’ve probably created 20 accounts since facebook’s inception. Mostly to friend myself for farmville, back when I played. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/15 "2012-02-18T05:08:54Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Why do you say that? They want their count to be as high as possible. Not for internal use they don’t. For their own use, they want their usage stats to be as accurate as possible. They’ve had a growth team for years now that monitors and analyses signup and usage stats. I’m not claiming their figures are perfectly accurate. And they do have an incentive to inflate their published stats. But the suggestion that they can’t or won’t attempt to measure usage with some degree of precision is just wrong. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/16 "2012-02-18T11:05:38Z")
1. Oh wait, 5. ---
**Author:** ![srzss05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/17 "2012-02-18T11:45:53Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > I’m not claiming their figures are perfectly accurate. **And they do have an incentive to inflate their published stats**. But the suggestion that they can’t or won’t attempt to measure usage with some degree of precision is just wrong. The bolded part above is why they have no practical incentive to reveal the actual stats. And that is the main point, that no one else will know them. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/18 "2012-02-18T12:52:15Z")
Too many. I look forward to its inevitable implosion, it will be fun to sit back and watch. Unfortunately, prognosticators seem to think it may happen many decades after my death, which would be disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/19 "2012-02-18T13:38:01Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Then there’s this: > > [Those Millions on Facebook? Some May Not Actually Visit - The New York Times](http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/those-millions-on-facebook-some-may-not-actually-visit/) > > So, by pressing “Like” on a Cracked magazine article, _even if I don’t have a Facebook account_, I’m still counted as a Facebook user - one of the 845/483m. :rolleyes: > > So, to clarify, **I’m wondering how many people have actual accounts/profiles and spend time on Facebook,** as it seems the official numbers are vastly over-inflated. It’s like McDonald’s counting you as a customer because you stated you liked carnivals while in the McDonald’s parking lot. :rolleyes: …incorrect. If you don’t have a facebook account: you can’t “like” a Cracked article. In fact, I just logged out of my facebook account, went to cracked and tried to “like” it, and it asked me to login. So how is it wrong to say that someone liking a page is a facebook user? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190/20 "2012-02-18T13:43:59Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Too many. I look forward to its inevitable implosion, it will be fun to sit back and watch. > > Unfortunately, prognosticators seem to think it may happen many decades after my death, which would be disappointing. I guess they are one of the few online businesses that have sufficient penetration to survive in the long term. Google, Amazon, E-bay. There’s not many. Twitter, maybe, if they can ever figure out how to make real money. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-actually-use-facebook/613190.md?page=2)