Social Network Demographics: Pew Study Shows Who Uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Others

There are stereotypes attached to certain social networks about the makeup of their user base. LinkedIn is for business people. Facebook has a lot of older Americans. Pinterest is for girls. That’s the conventional wisdom. (And just this week, a local friend of mine — a guy — gave me a hard time when he found that I have a Pinterest account. I’m very comfortable with that.)

But are the stereotypes true?

In a report issued this week that’s ostensibly about social photo/video sharing activities, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project also shared its latest social network demographics snapshot. And yes, some of the stereotypes are true:

• 58 percent of US internet users that earn at least $50,000 per year are on LinkedIn, while only seven percent of those that earn less than $30,000 annually are.
• 56 percent of internet users 50 years old or older are using Facebook.
• 19 percent of female internet users are on Pinterest, compared to only five percent of male web users.

Here’s a look at the demographics of the six social networks that Pew asked about in its recent survey.

About those image- and video-related results that are also in the study, Pew says that 46 percent of adult internet users post their own photos or videos online, and 41 percent share/repost photos and videos that others have taken. It’s the first time that Pew has asked specifically about photo and video sharing this way, so there’s no comparative data.

The numbers are from a phone survey of 1,005 US adults (799 of whom identified themselves as internet users) done between August 2-5, 2012.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.