Top 10 Countries with Fastest User Growth on Facebook – Brazil Moves to Top of List While United States Slips

by Jan Rezab, CEO

Take a guess at the country growing the most with the largest number of new users signing up for Facebook in October. Brazil. We’ve noticed that the number of new users for Brazil has rapidly grown the past few months. This month (in October), Brazil tops the list with an astonishing growth of 12.5% new users. In other words, over 3 million new users in Brazil have signed up for Facebook last month. See Table 1 below for a top 10 list of how different countries stack up with new user growth.

Why is this interesting? If you are a brand and you are looking to sell to new markets, maybe consider Brazil? If your company sells a product or a service to Latin America and you are looking to allocate costs for advertising, such as Facebook ads, you may consider a larger allocation for the country of Brazil.

What’s also interesting is that new user growth for the United States is considerably lower. It is at the bottom of this list at 0.15%, representing 234,680 new Facebook users in the month of October. I guess I am not surprised since the United States has the most number of Facebook users, with a penetration of 50.28%. Naturally, its new user growth is not as high.

Table 1: Top 10 Countries according to % of users increase in October 2011

Now, let’s take a look at how each country measures up in just absolute numbers of new users on Facebook. You’ll notice that Germany moved up 4 places to number 3 in the month of October and that Turkey, Thailand, and Peru made it to this top 10 list for the first time in October (see last month’s list). See Table 2 below for October’s list.

Again, why is this interesting? If my business weighed heavily on Facebook as a channel or perhaps Facebook is my only channel (e.g., gaming company with the majority of my games on Facebook), then I can look at these trends to make meaningful product decisions. Should I strategically localize for certain countries versus others?

Table 2: Top 10 Facebook Countries according to absolute users growth in October 2011

Interested in seeing more trends or other helpful analytics? Sign up for a free trial and see our solution for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+. Don’t hesitate to ask us if you have questions and share this knowledge with anyone that may find this interesting. Feel free to tweet relevant metrics (e.g., “Brazil has the most number of new Facebook users! @socialbakers #socialmediametrics” We would love to hear what you think.