Mashable: The Pew Center is out with a new report that focuses on Twitter usage in the U.S., and it reveals that 6% of the entire U.S. adult population uses Twitter.
Young adults ages 18 to 29, minority groups — 13% black and 18% Hispanic — and urban dwellers are among the groups with the highest level of Twitter use. The report reveals that women and those with college educations are also slightly more likely than other groups to tweet.
One-quarter of Twitter users check the service multiple times per day to see others’ tweets, while one in five never look for new updates. Here are some select statistics about the actual tweets that are going out there:
- 72% of Twitter users say they post updates about their personal life, activities or interests.
- 62% post work-related updates.
- 55% use Twitter to share links to news stories.
- 53% use the service to retweet others’ material.
- 40% use the service to share photos with others, while 28% use it to share videos.
- 24% tweet their location.
The report was compiled as a result of multiple surveys: Data on overall Twitter usage and demographics is from the Pew Internet Project’s November 2010 tracking survey. Information on how often people use Twitter, as well as the topics they post about, were from two October 2010 surveys.
According to the center, this is the first time it has conducted research that focuses solely on Twitter users. This is because Pew typically looks into general online activities, as opposed to particular brands. So in most instances, the center’s research has involved asking Internet users if they “used Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?”
In August 2008, 6% of Internet users answered “yes.” By September 2010, the number had changed to 24% — but some analysts and readers assumed this pertained to Twitter users alone. This is what led researchers to decide that Twitter usage was worthy of being examined on its own. As we enter 2011, it will be interesting to see if Twitter remains an entity worth studying in an extensive manner.