Twitter probably tests more new features than anyone else as it continually evolves, tweaks and adjusts to the constantly shifting sands of social tastes.

So today we're venturing beyond the retweets into some hard Twitter stats.

Numbers game

By some counts Twitter now has over 1 billion users, yet many of these are inactive, or lurker, accounts. 

However Twitter still has a very respectable 302 million monthly active users, and 100 million daily users.

Follow me

The average Twitter user has 208 followers, and spends 170 minutes every month on the platform.

Almost one third of Twitter users are aged 15 – 34.

Silence isn't golden

Lurkers (inactive accounts) remain a problem for Twitter.

Around 44% of Twitter accounts have never sent a single tweet, while 43% of Twitter accounts haven't sent a tweet in the past year.

Leaderboard

Twitter is the most popular platform with world leaders.

Some 80% of world leaders have a Twitter account, with US President Barack Obama the most popular – despite valiant efforts from @MrKRudd.