Digital Trends

A new survey from analysts comScore has shown that Britain now has the highest number of social network users in Europe.

Released yesterday, the survey shows that the UK has 24.9 million unique visitors to social networks, a figure that represents 78% of the online population. Across Europe the figure was 127.3 million unique visitors, which translates to 56% of the online population.

The UK didn’t just lead in the number of visitors. It also dominated in the number of visits per month, pages viewed and hours spent on social network sites. According to the comScore report,

“The average visitor to social networking sites in the U.K. spent 5.8 hours per month on those sites in August and made 23.3 visits. This was a significantly heavier usage level than in France, which averaged 2 hours per month and 16.8 visits per visitor, or Germany, with 3.1 hours per month and 13.8 visits per visitor.”

 

Heavy UK social network users, which means the most active 20%, averaged 22 hours a person on their favorite sites in August and made 71 visits, according to the survey. They also each viewed, on average, over 3,000 pages a month.

 

Light users were far less extreme. They managed just 4.6 visits each and viewed a mere 47 social network pages during the month.

 

Lest you wonder, the study wasn’t carried out from mere academic interest. According to a statement from Bob Ivins, comScore’s EVP of International Markets, the study can “identify the best sites for reaching the desired segment across the web — making media and promotion plans more targeted, efficient and effective.”