Facebook use in some countries above U.S.

NEW YORK, May 17 (UPI) -- While the United States has the most Facebook users, on a percentage basis the social networking site is more popular in some other countries, Nielsen says.

A Nielsen Co. report, "Global and Social: Facebook's Rise Around the World," found higher percentages of the online populations in Brazil, New Zealand, Italy and Taiwan visited Facebook in March than the two out of three online Americans who visited, TechNewsDaily reported Thursday.

The 152 million Americans who visited Facebook at least once in March make up nearly 70 percent of U.S. Internet users, but that falls behind the 77 percent of online Brazilians who regularly use Facebook, Nielsen said.

But the highest share in the 12 countries Nielsen measured was in New Zealand, where nearly 80 percent of online New Zealanders -- 2.7 million people -- visited Facebook in March.

At the other end of the scale, only about a quarter of the Internet-connected population of Japan -- where blogs are more popular than social media sites -- visit Facebook, Nielsen said.