• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, April 19, 2013

According to the results of a comprehensive social media survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted over several years to evaluate which demographics were using social media, and on which platforms, Facebook holds the top ranking among adults:

Women use social media 9% more than men do, at a 71% rate. Other frontrunners with the highest social network activity in their demographic include city dwellers (70%), Hispanics (72%) and adults with a household income below $30,000 annually (72%)

The most pervasive and consistent divider among social media users remains their age. 83% of the young adult demographic (18-29 year olds) use social media, which is well over double the activity of online adults over 65 years old.

Age and Social Media

• Stratification of age in social media use has remained the same wince 2005; there has consistently been higher social networking usage among the youngest demographic (18-29), and less usage as age increases
• Although 18-29 year olds have maintained the highest percentage of social media usage, their overall usage dropped for the first recorded time in December 2012 from 92% to 83%, their lowest recorded usage in over two years
• While every demographic dropped its social media usage in December 2012, the only age demographic that increased its usage during that period was 30-49 year olds, increasing from 73 to 77%

Aside from division of age, there are still certain social media sites that attract specific demographics much more heavily than others. You may be able to better targeting specific markets is enhanced with the demographic tendencies of each platform.

For additional information, please visit the Pew Research Center here.