For all the speculation about Facebook's stock price one thing is not in question – the social network's massive, and seeming ever expanding, user base.

Earlier today Facebook's founder CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company had passed the historic milestone of one billion active users.

Thumbs up

Earlier today Mark Zuckerberg reflected on the milestone in an official blog post. 

“This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month. If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you.

Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life. I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.”

Facebook figures

The statistics associated with Facebook's ascension are stunning. Facebook has been operating for eight years, and if it were a nation it would have the third highest population, behind China and India.

Data from The National Business Review reveals that one in 14 people now have a Facebook account. and its users have posted some 270 billion photos online.

Facebook has registered over 1.13 trillion likes, 140.3 billion friend connections and 219 billion photos have been uploaded. 

Facebook's 600m mobile users have logged 17 billion location-tagged posts, and some 62.6 million songs have been played 22 billion times – the equivalent of 21 years of music.

Pay day

Facebook's figures aren't as impressive when it comes to its bottom line. Since its initial public offering in May 2012, Facebook's stock has fallen 47.2%.

Facebook also facing increasing competition from rival platforms such as Twitter and Pinterest, although its recent acquisition of photo-sharing site Instagram makes it well placed to leverage the mobile market.

As Facebook experiments with new advertising models and focus on emerging markets in Africa and South America, Mark Zuckerberg will be hoping his company's stock price will be rising as robustly as its user base.

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