Google+ searchers are younger, richer than Facebook searchers

There is a noticeable difference between searcher demographics looking for Google+ compared to those looking for Facebook. The July 2011 data, which showed striking differences in the Age and Income level categories, comes from a recent study released by comScore.

34.2 percent of Google+ searchers skew towards 18-34 year olds, compared to 24.0 percent for Facebook, showing that the relatively new social network is popular with a younger demographic. Since Facebook is a much more mature social network brand, the company's search audience falls closely in line with the search population at large.

The income skews are even more distinct; more than 32.1 percent of Google+ searchers have a household income of $100K or greater, compared to 22.8 percent of Facebook searchers. This may make Google+ more attractive to advertisers, assuming rich individuals are willing to buy what they see marketed on a social network. This is also interesting given that earlier this month we learned the rich generally choose Facebook over Twitter.

"Each example analyzes the demographics of searchers that used the branded terms for the month of July, and are based on head of household," a comScore spokesperson said in a statement. "The index baselines are the searcher demographics for the entire US search population. Available measures are Age, Income, Location (home/work), Region of the US, Household Size, and Presence of Children in the Household."

This data should not surprise anyone: the main thing to take away is that early adopters of social networks are likely to be young and rich, which isn't that much of a shocker. At the start of this month, Google+ passed 25 million users. At the beginning of last month, Facebook passed 750 million users.

See also:

• Users look at Facebook and Google+ the same way
• The rich flock to Facebook, don't bother with Twitter
• Google+ Games: Google just started a price war with Facebook
• Facebook: Google can charge less because Google+ has no users
• Facebook plugins most used, Google +1 button passes Twitter buttons
• Facebook Video Calling vs. Google+ Hangouts [Analysis]