A recent study done by comScore found out that across the world, Russia has the most engaged social networking audience, with visitors spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per visitor per month.

In May 2009, worldwide, some 1.1 billion people (age 15 and older) access the Internet, either from their home or office. Out of those 1.1 billion people, 734.2 million (65 % of the world’s Web audience) visited at least one social networking site during the month, making it two-thirds of the global Internet users who access social networking sites.

Highlights from the report (Top 5):

1. Among the 40 individual countries, the Russian social networking audience had the highest engagement with an average of 6.6 hours and 1,307 pages consumed per visitor.
2. Brazil ranked next at 6.3 hours
3. At number three stood Canada at 5.6 hours
4. At number four came Puerto Rico at 5.3 hours
5. At the fifth position was Spain at 5.3 hours

Top 20 engaged social networking countries

Here is the list:

Rank	Country	Average Hours per Visitor	Average Pages per Visitor
1	Russia	6.6	1,307
2	Brazil	6.3	1,220
3	Canada	5.6	649
4	Puerto Rico	5.3	587
5	Spain	5.3	968
6	Finland	4.7	919
7	United Kingdom	4.6	487
8	Germany	4.5	793
9	United States	4.2	477
10	Colombia	4.1	473
11	Mexico	4.0	488
12	Chile	4.0	418
13	Ireland	3.8	462
14	Turkey	3.7	427
15	Venezuela	3.7	454
16	France	3.6	526
17	Australia	3.4	374
18	New Zealand	3.4	386
19	Switzerland	3.2	430
20	Italy	3.2	399

“Social networking has become a popular online pastime,” says Mike Read, SVP & managing director, comScore Europe. With the growing popularity of social networking sites in these countries, here is an opportunity for advertisers and marketers to make the most of this medium and reach the desired  audience.

(Source: comScore press release)

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