Miley, Mandela and the Harlem Shake: the biggest posts on Facebook this year

Twerking, checkins at Disneyland and um, piercings. That’s pretty much what happened on Facebook this year, according to the social media company.

Yes, Facebook has released the 2013 edition of its annual year in review report, which showcases the global trends it gleans from crunching the data generated by posts from its millions of users. It’s divided the review into three areas — the most checked in places globally, the most common life events and the most talked about topics for key regions as well as the planet as a whole. So what has everyone been Facebooking about?

Disneyland

To gain insight into the most checked into locations around the world, Facebook removed airports and transportation hubs from the list, as all those travellers hopping on planes and trains skewed the results towards transit rather than destinations. Some of the top remaining destinations worldwide include Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, the famous Piazza San Marco in Venice, the 02 in London and Myungdong Street in Seoul. Oh, and no less than four incarnations of Disneyland — one in the US, one in Paris and two in Asia.

Deaths, disasters and dances

Facebook took a look at the most mentioned terms and hashtags to generate a list of the most talked about topics. The top ten are:

1. Pope Francis
2. Election
3. Royal Baby
4. Typhoon
5. Margaret Thatcher
6. Harlem Shake
7. Miley Cyrus
8. Boston Marathon
9. Tour de France
10. Nelson Mandela

While most of the items are easy to identify (from sports events to the birth of a future prince), Facebook Data Editor Robert D’Onofrio notes that ‘election’ became the second most mentioned term overall not thanks to a single event, but multiple noticeable elections in countries like India, Kenya, Iran and Italy. In addition to the global overview, there is also a country-by-country break down for 16 nations across the world, from Mexico to Australia.

Meetings and relationships

Not many surprises here: the most popular life event across the world was relationship-related, be it becoming ‘Facebook official’ or getting engaged or married. Breaking up took the fourth spot, behind travelling and moving cities. Apparently, getting a piercing or a pet is also a common occurrence documented on the big blue social network site.

You can also see your personal year in review, with all the highlights and milestones, by visiting Facebook.com/YearInReview.