Facebook hits milestone with 500 million active users

FACEBOOK founder Mark Zuckerberg last night announced his social networking site has now 500 million active users, or 8% of the worldwide population.

In a blog post on the Facebook site, Zuckerberg wrote of the milestone: “As of this morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them.”

Facebook’s growth continues at a prodigious rate. The site passed 250m users nearly a year ago to date, announcing that milestone on July 15, 2009.