Eight percent of Americans now on Twitter

Three-fourths of the US adult population are Internet users and eight percent of those who are online use Twitter, according to a study by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

The study found that the micro-blogging service is particularly popular with “young adults, minorities, and those who live in cities”.

Eight percent of the online US adults surveyed said they use Twitter and two percent said they do so on a typical day, Pew said.

The survey found that 74 percent of American adults are Internet users, meaning that those who use Twitter amount to six percent of the entire adult population.

Pew said young adults — Internet users aged 18 years old to 29 years old — were significantly more likely to use Twitter than older adults.

Fourteen percent of 18 to 29-year-olds said they use Twitter.

African-Americans and Latinos are more than twice as likely to use Twitter than white Internet users and urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers, Pew said.

The survey of 2,257 adults was conducted in November and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. – AFP