Irish are the biggest Facebook users in English-speaking world

Adrian Weckler Technology Editor

September 18 2013 04:02 AM

IRISH people use Facebook more often than people in any other country in the English-speaking world, new figures suggest.

Facebook makes up 63pc of Irish social-media activity, twice as much as all other social-media sites combined.

The figure puts Irish Facebook activity higher than that in the UK (55pc) and significantly higher than that in the US (47pc).

Australia (61pc) and New Zealand (58pc) are closer to Irish social-media reliance on Facebook.

Canada has the lowest reliance on Facebook at just 54pc of social-network activity.

The analysis is compiled from results from millions of website visits and released by global web-traffic firm Statcounter.

Statcounter measures tens of billions of website hits around the world. The research indicates activity, as opposed to overall registered numbers.

The figures show that Twitter makes up just 13pc of social networking in Ireland, while LinkedIn scores a lowly 0.5pc and Google Plus was barely present at 0.2pc.

Other studies have shown the number of monthly Irish Facebook users at 2.25 million, with over half of those using the site every day.

The figures will cast further doubt on the notion of 'Facebook fatigue', a theory advanced by some analysts that people are growing tired of Facebook .

Last week, a survey by Eircom of 1,000 Irish people found that over half of all smartphone users here have the Facebook app on their device.

Twenty-five per cent said that they would "hate to be the type of person who only has a few friends on Facebook".

However, Irish people are not completely happy. Almost half of us say that we are "annoyed" by an increase in "bleeding heart" posts.

A "bleeding heart" post is defined as something that asks users to 'like' an image such as that of a sick child in an attempt to cheer the child up.

And 32pc of Irish people want Facebook friends to stop putting up photos and only put up status updates. The same number said they were "annoyed by how many pictures friends post of their children on Facebook".