Facebook stats for Ireland – 131,660 Ireland based people on it now?

Using the live details from the advanced flyer option in Facebook, you can see some stats and facts on people on Facebook.

Update: This makes Techmeme already?
Facebook stats on Techmeme

From location Ireland we get the below stats. Remember too that these are stats on what people have offered, thus 131k people but only 89k or so have said whether they are male or female. You don’t have to specify a lot of the below or in the case of age, don’t have to be honest.

Sex:
37,440 Men
51,900 Women

Ages:
117,880 people between 18 and 35 years old
55,020 people between 18 and 25 years old
71,980 people between 25 and 35 years old
7,340 people between 18 and 19 years old in Ireland

Employers:
About 1,160 people in Ireland who work at Microsoft
About 320 people in Ireland who work at Google
About 120 people in Ireland who work at IBM
About 140 people in Ireland who work at Accenture
About 80 people in Ireland who work at eBay
Fewer than 20 people in Ireland who work at Oracle
Fewer than 20 people in Ireland who work at SAP
Fewer than 20 people in Ireland who work at Oireachtas
Fewer than 20 people in Ireland who work at Vodafone
Fewer than 20 people in Ireland who work at Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister)

[ I don’t think numbers go below 20, still interesting that people from Taoiseach’s put it down on their profile ]

Colleges:
About 8,340 people in Ireland who are in college
About 400 people in Ireland who are at University College Cork
About 2,160 people in Ireland who are at Trinity College Dublin
about 1,300 people in Ireland who are at UCD Ireland
About 640 people in Ireland who are at NUI Galway
About 180 people in Ireland who are at DIT Ireland

Relationships:
About 30,880 people who are single in Ireland
About 11,320 people who are married in Ireland

Fun Combinations:
About 1,840 liberal men older than 25 who are single in Ireland

Now go find your own stats too.

Update: UK Statistics.

Update: Irish Times coverage.
Irish Examiner coverage.

21 Responses to “Facebook stats for Ireland – 131,660 Ireland based people on it now?”

  1. Paul says:

    Great find Damo – better than trying to get blood out of the stone that is Facebook in the states. Roll on December when their Soho office opens

  2. Facebook stats for Ireland: 132 K, mostly young….

  3. […] Damien publishes some interesting Irish Facebook stats. […]

  4. […] Damien Mulley reveals some statistics on Facebook usage in Ireland. Here is one topline statistic – currently 131,660 people based in Ireland are using the social network. […]

  5. steve white says:

    why so many women?

  6. Gavin says:

    Hmm. When you do a search on flyers it says UCC has 400 people. Yet in the UCC Network it lists 1,631. Even adding alumni the figures seem drastically different. So too with TCD… at 6,971 rather than 2,160. UCD Ireland lists 4,159 members.

    As far as I know uni networks require a uni email address for validation, so the numbers seem pretty reliable.

    Why the discrepancy I wonder?

  7. Damien says:

    How many in the UCC network have listed their Education? How many in the UCC network are just over for a semester?

  8. Gavin says:

    No idea! Advanced search gives some clues as to nationality, but how does Facebook define people as UCC students?

    Is it people currently listed as undergrads + postgrads? Current + former students? Must you list your subjects in order to be considered a current student?

  9. cillian says:

    Gavin, plenty of people on the TCD or UCC networks aren’t members of the Ireland network.
    Moreover, lots of people don’t join the regional networks they’re based in, but rather where they’re from – so, for example, I’m in the Ireland network even though I’m currently living in Canada. Quite a few of my friends who live abroad are also in the Ireland network. Similarly, you’ll get a few people on the TCD/UCC/etc. networks who are members of (say) the New York network.

  10. Gavin says:

    I understand Cillian, but does that make the figures more or less reliable?

    Plenty of people who are Irish and live in Ireland don’t join regional networks at all – but is Facebook going on the networks or on the Hometown etc? So too with other networks.

    According to the flyer there are 20 people in UCC, who are in also in the United States network, but when you do an advanced search you find far more who call the US their hometown but are in UCC.

  11. Damien says:

    Gavin, you do realise being in Ireland and in the Ireland network is different, that being in UCC and in the UCC network is different and that you can be in more than one network at the same time but not in more than one country?

  12. Gavin says:

    I do Damien… I thought my comment made that clear, obviously not! 🙂

    I just wonder what metrics the flyers thing is using? It appears it no longer shows numbers either.

    Am I just missing something?

  13. […] on from Damien’s post about facebook stats I thought I’d mention a competition Poetry Ireland ran on […]

  14. […] area has seen increased growth. The stats from last week are here. I’ll check the stats again this week but if true, these stats are just crazy. There is no […]

  15. […] some interesting statistics that are probably not available elsewhere. Thanks to Damien Mulley’s blog post for the […]

  16. Louise Holden says:

    Hi Damien,

    Louise Holden of the Times here. I’m doing a piece on Facebook and Irish universities – I was hoping you might give me a bit of background. Can you mail me if you can help? Thanks a million.

    Louise

  17. Bernie says:

    Feel like a granny, can’t figure out how all this bebo, which i think is for kids, and facebook thingy work. Can someone explain it to me?

  18. orlaith says:

    damien, can you/anyone tell me what the top 10 biggest online communities in Ireland – assume bebo in there? who else?

  19. David says:

    447,580 users as of Feb 4th 09!

  20. Barry K says:

    Gavin’s right to highlight the college numbers disparity.

    Looking at facebook ads a while ago I wanted to advertise to my fellow students in Trinity. The pool of TCD students to target was 2k odd. I thought this mad considering the fact that if in the college computer labs, one glance around the room and you would see that at least half the room was on facebook at that time ha. On a campus of 15k students there had to be more than 2k on facebook.

    The reason for the discrepancy is down to the context of a user’s sign-up. When I signed up (as a second year undergrad in TCD) I was asked for a college email address as at that time one needed a college email address to sign up, no non-college goers seemed to be able to sign-up to the social network. This was due to Facebook’s networks security system whereby at sign-up, one could only view non-friends’ pages if they were a part of your network (ie. no ‘Bebo-stalking’ of old). This helped the network grow organically but also in a concentrated fashion. They opened up sign-ups to people over 18 and then over 13 as opposed to anyone in a particular network. At this stage, people had the option of selecting what school, college or other organisation they would consider themselves a part of for statement on their profile.

    The dodgy numbers are a hangover from this. When looking at targeting my ad I came to a realisation. All the present TCD first and second years, whose activity I could see, had their networks still set as their alma mater: their secondary school. Since sign-up they hadn’t changed their network. If you are to look at TCD ad targeting, the pool is 2k -odd: the vast majority of this group are 22 or older, a lot of them (from my own frame of reference: I can verify as a student in TCD for the last 6 years and admitted facebook junkie) have graduated and left TCD but have not changed their network info on their profile. The same goes for the present freshmen students.

    Basically, to rely on Facebook’s specific numbers would be foolhardy. their segmentation numbers are very, very wrong. They need something of a census ha. This is an issue they should be very concerned about though as it seriously affects their ad targeting. It is, in its current state, unfit for purpose.

  21. Tammy McKenzie says:

    seems like i can only find ppl and friend request within the usa. would love to meet ppl in ireland….either via facebook or e-mail! yours is the one and only country i have ever had a desire to visit or obtain knowledge of history and recent ireland… anyone looking for a friend to chat with please feel free to contact me…