Despite having some of the most gorgeous weather conditions on the planet, it is the Australians who are on average the most time active social media users.

Performing a global comparison, a December study by Nielsen concluded that Australians on average spend 6 hours and 52 minutes per month on social media sites, ahead of the Americans who spend on average 6 hours and 9 minutes per month.

Average time spend (h:m:s) on social media each month:

Australia – 6:52:28

United States -6:09:13

United Kingdom – 6:07:54

Italy – 6:00:07

Spain – 5:30:55

Brazil – 4:33:10

Germany – 4:11:45

France – 4:04:39

Switzerland – 3:54:34

Japan – 2:50:21

Figures just released for December 2009 show a worldwide annual increase of 82 percent in time spent on social networks, up to an average of 5.5 hours per individual per month. Unsurprisingly, Social Media was closely followed by online gaming and instant messaging.

Despite the Global data, the research only takes into account the following countries: U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Countries such as India and China would clearly also show similarly high results.

Entrepreneur and strategy consultant Ross Dawson shares some wonderful insights into why Australia appears to be leading the pack after a rather slow introduction to social media. I highly recommend you read his full post but in summary; it’s primarily a blend of cultural and corporate attitude change, as well as the enormous population of Australians living abroad and therefore more inclined to use the tools available to stay in touch with friends and family.

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