Facebook user data: 845M monthly users, 2.7B daily likes & comments

Facebook filed for an initial public offering today, and included an updated report on the giant social network’s user and usage data.

The company’s total number of active monthly users, which it defines as registered Facebook users who have logged in and visited the site via web browser/mobile device (including interactions from third-party sites), was 845 million as of December 31, 2011. That’s up by about 45 million since the company’s last update at September’s F8 developers conference, and a 39 percent increase compared to the same period of last year.

The company stated that future active monthly user growth “depends on our ability to retain our current users, re-engage with inactive users, and add new users, including by extending our reach across mobile platforms.”

Of those 845 million, 161 million came from the U.S., while 46 million from India and 37 million from Brazil — two areas that are key source of growth, according to Facebook. The company further broke out its user penetration by country:

• 80 percent of all Internet users in Chile, Turkey, and Venezuela are on Facebook
• 60 percent of all Internet users in the U.S. and U.K. are on Facebook
• 20-30 percent of all Internet users in Brazil, Germany, and India are on Facebook.
• 15 percent of all Internet users in Japan, Russia, and South Korea are on Facebook.
• Unsurprisingly, zero percent penetration in countries that restrict Facebook (like China).

When it comes to active users per day, the numbers are also quite impressive. As of December 31, 2011, an average of 483 million people log on to use Facebook everyday — up from 327 million or 48 percent compared to the same period in 2010.

“I looks like the overall monthly users growth is slowing, which I don’t think was much of a surprise to anyone. But one interesting tidbit about growth is if you compare the daily active users to the monthly active users (year-over-year) the ratio went up. That’s a very good sign,” Forrester analyst Nate Elliott said in an interview with VentureBeat. “This is a company that’s worked really hard to innovate user experience in terms of the features offered, information presented to users and pull in the best of what’s social in other sites.”

“What you’re seeing with (the daily active user data) growth is all that hard work paying off,” Elliott said, adding that the company has plenty potential for daily active growth in India and Brazil going forward.

Some other impressive metrics regarding user engagement reported by Facebook include:

• 250 million photos uploaded per day
• 2.7 billion likes and comments per day
• 2 billion total registered users
• 100 billion friendships

For more information, check out these charts on usage data and user growth from Facebook’s S-1 filing: