Wellington based social media services firm Catalyst90 track social media activity in New Zealand (in addition to providing a range of technology based social media solutions). This is useful because statistics on NZ usage and growth (specifically) of social media is difficult to come by.

From the graphic below, some interesting numbers stick out. For instance:

• Total active Twitter accounts = 75,182
  
• Total NZ Facebook accounts = 2,052,420
• Total NZ LinkedIn accounts = 463,792 
• The gender balance favours women on Facebook but favours men on LinkedIn.

My take is that Twitter numbers are a little lower than I expected but they do only check accounts with more than 10 followers that have tweeted within the last 7 days. Facebook is clearly the dominant social media service in New Zealand (note that this is different from passive usage on social media like YouTube) with the gender split consistent with elsewhere. LinkedIn numbers are growing as recruiters and business increasingly require a LinkedIn profile to examine for employment purposes and recommendations.

Catalyst90 update these numbers weekly so if you like what you see, check their curiously named "Enigma" page for updated numbers.