As the leading social media marketing platform, there’s no question that Facebook holds massive potential to help businesses grow. Whether you’re looking to grow your brand’s presence on the social network organically or through ads, it’s a platform that offers plenty of opportunities. 

But before you jump on it, one basic Facebook statistic you should learn more about is its number of users.

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How many users does Facebook have?

According to the latest data released by parent company Meta, the number of Facebook users worldwide hit a record-high 2.94 billion at the end of Q1 2022. 

The number of Facebook users has been increasing in recent years. In fact, its global user base in 2012 was at 1.06 billion. By 2017, it had breached the two-billion mark, more than doubling its 2012 figures, to hit 2.13 billion.

As the data shows, this impressive growth of Facebook users has continued since then. In just ten years, Facebook was able to grow its number of users by nearly three times.

Number of Facebook users by region

Facebook’s latest report shows that the majority of its users are located in Asia Pacific. With close to 1.3 billion monthly active users there, they make up 44.2% of the total number of Facebook users.

This is followed by Europe, with 418 million Facebook users, and the United States and Canada, with 263 million. The remaining 957 million Facebook users are scattered across the rest of the world. 

Growth of Facebook users 

Focusing on the growth of Facebook users from 2013 to 2022, the year in which the number of users grew the fastest came in 2016. That year, there were 16.98% more users.

Facebook has seen a deceleration in the growth of the number of its users in recent years. From 2013 to 2017, it grew at an average of 14.99% annually. From 2018 to 2021, however, the average annual increase slowed significantly, to 8.15%.

Even though the platform added 110 million more users in 2021, the number of Facebook users still grew at a relatively slow rate of 3.93%—its slowest pace in at least nine years. 

In fact, a closer look at quarterly growths of Facebook users shows a marginal increase of 0.07% in the final quarter of 2021. In comparison, the number of Facebook users recorded an annual growth rate of 2.08% the previous year.

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