Facebook is the No. 1 social networking site frequented by Saudi users, according to a study carried out by The Online Project, an internet PR and social network brand management company in the Middle East.

The study pointed out that despite Saudis' preference for Facebook, they are more active on Twitter, partly due to the high number of activity by sports fans on that social networking site.

According to the report, the ages of users of social networking sites in the Kingdom range between 24 and 35, with over 7.8 million Facebook users in the country. Of them, 74 percent are male and 26 percent female. The majority of them, about 46 percent, fall between the ages of 18 and 23, while 28 percent are between the ages of 35 and 44. Only 16 percent of users are above the age of 45, the study revealed.

The report also found that 5 million people use Facebook in the Kingdom via their smartphones with 64 percent of them using Android and 32 percent using Apple devices.

More than half of all those members use Facebook in Arabic, about 51 percent, and about 72 percent of them leave comments and posts in Arabic. The Online Project pointed out that 2 percent of these posts include emoticons, with Saudi Facebook users using the happy face emoticon five times more than the sad face.

Regarding their preferred usage time, the report found that Saudis are more likely to connect to Facebook between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., with Wednesday being the busiest day for social networking.

When it comes to privacy, a large proportion of Saudi Facebook users refuse to list their current marital status, confirming that more than 67 percent of youth do not post it on their personal accounts, the study showed. Among the 33 percent of users who do share their current marital status, 37 percent are married, 33 percent are single, 12 percent are in relationships, and 4 percent are engaged.

As for Twitter users, the study revealed that 44 percent of tweeters do not link personal information to their Twitter accounts, and 8 percent of users do not post their personal pictures.

Saudi twitter users, tweet on average three times a day, according to The Online Project's research. About 14 percent of these tweets are messages to other users, 66 percent are retweets, and only 20 percent are actual tweets.