Comments for Study: Women Outnumber Men on Most Social Networks

Study: Women Outnumber Men on Most Social Networks

2008-07-30T06:52:53Z

Online reputation company Rapleaf has released a new study of 49.3 million people, revealing gender and age data about social network users. On most of the main social networks - including MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5 - women outnumber men by a considerable amount. On Facebook, the 18-24 age group is largest, with 1,685,029 women in that age group compared to 977,753 men. In MySpace, the same age group dominates, with 7,091,214 women and 5,226,788 men.

]]> The only social networks studied that didn't have more women than men in the 18-24 year old group were venerable old LinkedIn (where incidentally the 25-34 age group was tops) and a site called Perfspot.

Other highlights:

Women ages 14-24 dominate activity on social networks and have more friends than men of the same ages.
Men ages 35+ are more active and have more friends than women of the same ages.
The average social network user has 2-25 friends.
There are a disproportionately high number of 69 year olds across various social networks. (my guess is that it's the most popular 'fake age')

Rapleaf states that it "analyzed people who are on at least one social network and in which there exists age information on these individuals." The study was done 10 June '08 and approx 90% of the 49m respondents were from the US. Here is the full data, courtesy of Rapleaf:

Gender and Age Analysis of Social Networking Users: Social Network Sites

Social Network	Gender	Age Groups
Social Network	Gender	14-17	18-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
Bebo	Women	1,207,833	1,373,653	735,666	197,297	84,106	33,693	12,950
	Men	569,510	802,474	488,944	162,689	63,119	27,058	10,775
	Unspecified	15,532	15,865	3,977	1,197	406	101	22
Blackplanet	Women	120,981	346,629	164,383	47,500	13,660	3,361	1,814
	Men	55,856	212,479	140,077	52,483	16,099	4,309	1,781
	Unspecified	3,114	9,027	4,870	2,152	843	240	29
Classmates	Women	142,757	599,895	724,253	240,863	117,584	41,578	10,152
	Men	62,885	278,908	435,742	211,079	100,527	41,874	12,527
	Unspecified	2,532	9,355	9,363	5,346	2,811	1,323	407
Facebook	Women	784,214	1,685,029	767,619	184,057	72,743	21,441	10,270
	Men	357,017	977,753	609,655	177,662	62,033	22,024	8,545
	Unspecified	29,495	82,958	47,769	13,403	4,595	1,549	405
Flickr	Women	87,720	303,941	363,220	139,090	60,707	19,871	5,113
	Men	44,170	235,015	398,061	205,631	89,587	33,994	8,998
	Unspecified	5,163	23,806	25,753	10,982	4,825	1,926	524
Flixster	Women	2,221,835	3,258,823	1,841,543	658,189	297,477	93,020	27,204
	Men	1,146,532	2,583,675	1,840,241	671,368	271,350	90,236	26,387
	Unspecified	439,005	936,040	728,514	309,983	132,917	56,386	16,674
Friendster	Women	341,386	1,165,896	890,380	210,887	61,603	18,889	8,364
	Men	225,834	975,965	904,600	279,728	85,178	27,573	11,975
	Unspecified	5,856	21,879	19,569	3,998	597	141	82
Hi5	Women	1,382,273	3,078,898	1,475,824	412,150	175,018	52,250	16,800
	Men	724,153	2,610,316	1,927,297	612,917	231,727	76,374	22,358
	Unspecified	374,960	833,937	453,346	143,102	55,487	16,872	3,556
LinkedIn	Women	3,697	39,594	178,550	69,197	24,368	7,726	1,355
	Men	4,618	42,642	222,431	124,759	45,310	16,083	3,379
	Unspecified	610	7,905	27,858	13,456	5,264	2,005	402
Multiply	Women	115,117	352,590	194,957	51,304	19,488	5,829	2,270
	Men	55,054	261,803	194,818	63,000	25,247	8,846	3,042
	Unspecified	184	536	389	112	44	17	0
Myspace	Women	5,158,453	7,091,214	3,800,542	1,252,287	542,694	167,087	71,531
	Men	3,365,442	5,226,788	3,238,471	1,209,510	475,566	167,101	66,852
	Unspecified	3,147	4,726	2,540	1,137	548	251	67
MyYearbook	Women	637,510	578,018	239,646	91,832	37,531	10,871	5,345
	Men	280,131	292,263	127,999	55,766	23,582	7,503	3,145
	Unspecified	20,524	20,980	9,300	4,507	1,837	729	232
Perfspot	Women	84,840	158,003	91,200	31,375	14,192	4,033	1,077
	Men	66,643	317,958	260,641	86,707	29,974	9,494	2,790
	Unspecified	30	181	264	95	36	6	0
Tickle	Women	743,111	1,491,975	887,369	318,578	151,490	44,742	12,876
	Men	309,858	939,737	739,932	268,239	118,031	41,130	12,042
	Unspecified	70,562	177,297	100,108	34,037	14,204	5,048	1,235

ALL SOCIAL NETWORKS	Women	6,322,060	9,651,584	5,683,422	1,929,328	857,965	279,684	97,858
	Men	4,050,429	7,546,654	5,543,729	2,113,597	873,135	323,251	108,731
	Unspecified	682,756	1,456,780	1,045,381	428,357	181,913	72,196	20,240

Gender and Age Analysis of Social Networking Users: Number of Friends

Number of Friends	Gender	Age Groups
Number of Friends	Gender	14-17	18-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
Only 1	Women	494,290	1,082,078	774,348	332,421	187,938	69,763	17,661
	Men	299,845	860,299	842,264	409,445	204,222	84,208	23,848
	Unspecified	163,006	376,327	371,830	185,357	89,406	39,707	11,944
2-25	Women	1,479,294	2,480,716	1,712,634	717,988	341,775	105,332	25,928
	Men	840,014	2,171,495	1,919,974	822,654	338,124	110,903	29,058
	Unspecified	294,199	606,504	441,939	174,253	66,304	23,410	5,837
26-50	Women	270,902	637,285	412,133	140,068	47,173	9,074	3,261
	Men	184,205	577,287	410,987	120,648	33,534	8,889	3,632
	Unspecified	27,318	81,351	42,756	9,768	2,804	653	134
51-100	Women	299,873	818,744	453,323	105,268	27,640	5,518	3,509
	Men	239,245	720,874	409,077	88,815	21,004	5,826	3,871
	Unspecified	24,307	74,446	35,330	5,584	1,359	260	72
101-500	Women	750,850	1,656,855	505,277	81,626	22,222	7,517	9,867
	Men	573,135	1,447,347	525,489	93,797	22,862	8,063	9,089
	Unspecified	90,430	176,024	45,515	4,453	871	189	104
501-1,000	Women	90,868	151,497	28,281	6,187	2,159	921
	Men	58,242	142,456	45,275	11,604	3,242	1,113	1,345
	Unspecified	22,511	24,417	2,611	267	65	14	22
1,001-10,000	Women	26,950	42,770	11,855	3,355	1,111	399	709
	Men	20,824	35,819	21,446	7,558	2,202	623	765
	Unspecified	5,276	12,981	2,879	1,217	352	147	613
10,000+	Women	148	505	328	73	24	5	14
	Men	90	484	628	249	66	26	23
	Unspecified	11	17	10	0	0	0	0

At Least 1 Friend	Women	3,386,077	6,827,175	3,885,996	1,383,558	628,907	198,125	61,800
	Men	2,194,686	5,919,758	4,153,066	1,546,963	622,988	219,002	70,843
	Unspecified	621,771	1,339,069	939,981	379,682	160,809	64,233	18,113

You can also download the full dataset as a spreadsheet here.

Comment from BarryO on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T08:47:39Z

Do those figures indicate, nearly 50 million users and 35 million have at least 1 friend. That leaves 15 million accounts with no friends.

30% of social network users arn`t sociable!

Comment from stetoscope on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T09:23:41Z

Women are the future of mankind !
It is funny, because the only networks where male dominates is "linkedin".
Hey guys, there is a life outiside business!

Comment from Bastien on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T11:49:37Z

Do we know how many of these women are fake? Because I think some of them are!

Comment from chris on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T11:59:03Z

Great study that "sort-of" confirms what I've always felt -that social networks were created by geeks to attract girls (not unlike a cool science project in high school). Guys then show up (because the women are there) but ultimately get bored and leave because of all the socializing.

Social Networks = shopping with your girlfriend AND her girlfriend

Social Networks = Disco (which still sucks)

Women like to dance... most men don't but because they like women so they teach themselves a few moves...

Comment from Svetlana Gladkova on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T12:44:00Z

Great take on the study. I also wanted to point out that at least the crazy habits of technology community are not really mainstream - the number of people who have over 1,000 friends on social networks is not that high at all and the majority of people that only have 2-25 friends must actually be connected to these friends in real life. So it kind of proves that social networking still serves its initial purpose of connecting friends.

Comment from Coldwave on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T14:53:30Z

As a chatroom user, women indeed dominate, all of the chatrooms I've been. Sites such as wireclub.com has a easy "create chatrooms" feature and experience tells me that male creators don't get much visitors.

Back to topic, I've also have this idea that females tend to have more male "friends" or how the invite button describes it.

Social Networks just have the satisfaction of males and females saying "hey, I've got 'insert girl name', how good am I? " or "check this guy out, he's got a bunch of girl friends, he must be some guy". *cough*

Comment from sent2null on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T18:18:21Z

A few comments on this study. If you link back to the actual page on the study at RapLeaf, you'll see there is very little data given on the methodology of the survey. They don't tell you how they acquired the data, this is very important as if they simply queried the social networks by searching their account data the results will be heavily biased toward women because many of these social networks are immediate targets of bot account creators.

Myspace was particularly susceptible to this prior to their implementation of Captch challanges between various actions on the site (sending emails etc.) even after this there are still bots with human assistance. It appears individuals are creating multiple fake female accounts and using them to mine male users for the purpose of directing them to outside sites or to get their private email data. Unlike the completely automated bots of 10 years ago these are real people that perform the functions that the bots could not normally do. I suspect that a large chunk of the female numbers on these social networks represent bots. It would be interesting to see a study done that tries to filter for automated accounts, I suspect that the results would reveal a larger percentage of males on all the sites than females.

Comment from Chris Blalock on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T18:33:59Z

Ahh the internet, where the men are men, the women are men, and the children are FBI agents.

Comment from World's craziest email on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T19:17:52Z

I figured that the females especially the younger ones outnumbered the males. Nice post, that's a ton of information.

Comment from MiXTMedia on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T19:26:24Z

What's interesting here for me is not so much the stats themselves, but the societal implications of the data.

If social networks are evolving the ways in which we communicate, and social networks are dominated by women, then the communications of our society are going to be significantly altered by the strong female influence.

Broadcast communications are founded on traditionally male communication principles: reach, authority, fact-seeking. Social networks are founded upon female communcation principles: collaboration, participation and sharing. As social networks continue to gain traction, we are going to see a cultural shift that will impact decision-making and leadership structures.

I will blog about this at some point in the future.

Comment from Avatar on 2008-07-30

2008-07-30T21:34:03Z

woah really? what a magical study. considering that i can come to that conclusion based on 3 simple parameters:

1.- 60% of the world population are women
2.- the most engaging new group of internet users are stay at home moms (this is known since 2005)
3.- Women like to socialize more than men

= women dominate in terms of engagement social networking and blogging.

i thought that was common knowledge by now.

Comment from seo on 2008-07-31

2008-07-31T07:59:31Z

Women outnumber men on social network because most of the women today is passionate about internet chatting and always looking for a groups that they can interact and communicate well.

Comment from nicolas dengler on 2008-07-31

2008-07-31T09:28:44Z

one third without friend, that's surprising as all these services are a bit boring without a community

Comment from Travis Seitler on 2008-07-31

2008-07-31T20:41:46Z

Women vs. Men? Whatever. The statistic I find most intriguing is the nearly 9,000 LinkedIn users who are under 18! Who are these kids, and how can I get them to influence my little sister?

Comment from Noah David Simon on 2008-07-31

2008-08-01T01:24:04Z

so if men are more powerful in the world, what does that say about social networks?

Comment from idi owor on 2008-08-04

2008-08-04T11:00:05Z

well,before i forget ineed to know how i get to the english version form.

Comment from Akku on 2008-08-05

2008-08-05T18:05:10Z

This does not tell us much new, as said in above comments.

If men are more powerful in the world, this tells us that social networks are more frequently used by powerless people :-)

Comment from aldo max on 2008-08-08

2008-08-09T01:00:13Z

Insightful visualization of Rapleaf's data at http://www.mininglabs.com/2008/08/05/digging-through-rapleaf%E2%80%99s-study-on-gender-and-age-in-social-networks/