Facebook, Twitter users are affluent and urban, study shows

28.09.2009
If you're hooked on posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, there's a good chance you have more money and are more urban than your fellow U.S. citizens, according to a new study by The Nielsen Co.

In fact, Facebook users are more affluent than their social networking counterparts on Myspace, the study showed. And bloggers and Twitterers tend to live in urban areas.

"Nielsen's online data shows that about half of the U.S. population visited a social networking Web site in the last year and that number grows every quarter," said Wils Corrigan, an associate vice president with Nielsen.

The survey, which studied the top seven social networking sites, showed that Facebook users generally have an "upscale profile." Nielsen also noted that people who are more affluent than the other two-thirds of the population are 25% more likely to use Facebook than those in the the lower third. And conversely, those in the bottom third of the financial chart are 37% more likely to use MySpace than those in the top third.

Other recent studies have shown that as Facebook and Twitter , their user bases .

A July report released by iStrategyLabs shows that while the number of Facebook's U.S. high school and college-age users declined over the past six months, its popularity among the 55-and-older crowd is booming. In fact, the number of 55-and-older Facebook users showed staggering growth -- 513.7% -- in the last six months, the digital consulting firm said.