11% of US Adult's Use Twitter - Pew

According to a recent report from thePew Internet & American Life Project, some 11 percent of the U.S.adult population had used Twitteror similar micro-blog personal update services by December 2008.

This represents a 22-percent, one-month leap in usage from November 2008.

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"Overall, Twitter users engage with news and own technology at thesame rates
as other Internet users, but the ways in which they use thetechnology -- to communicate, gather and share information -- revealstheir affinity for mobile, untethered and social
opportunities forinteraction," the Pew project said in a release.

Alook at the demographic profile
of Twitter users as a whole reveals
some additional details about who uses Twitter and how they communicateand consume information.

As noted above, Twitter users areoverwhelmingly young. However, unlike the majority of otherapplications with a similarly large percentage of youth...

Twitter use isnot dominated by the youngest of young adults. Indeed, the median ageof a Twitter user is 31.

In comparison, the median age of a MySpaceuser is 27, Facebook user is 26 and LinkedIn user is 40.⁷

Twitterusers are slightly more racially and ethnically diverse than is thefull U.S. population, most likely because they are younger – andyounger Americans are a more ethnically and racially diverse group thanis the full population.

Twitter users are also slightlymore likely
to live in urban areas, with 35% of Twitter users living inurban areas (compared to 29% of all internet users) and just 9% ofTwitterers and status updaters living in rural areas, compared to 17%of internet users.

"Twitter and similar services have been most avidly embraced byyoung adults," Pew said. "Nearly one in five (19%) of online adultsages 18 and 24 have ever used Twitter and its ilk, as have 20% ofonline adults 25 to 34. Use of these services drops off steadily afterage 35 with 10% of 35 to 44 year-olds and 5% of 45 to 54 year-oldsusing Twitter. The decline is even more stark among older Internetusers; 4% of 55-64 year-olds and 2% of those 65 and older use Twitter."