A recent report published by the Pew Researchers Internet and American Life project has found that now nearly 20% of Americans who are online are using a status updating service such as Twitter. This is almost a doubling over the numbers that previous research has shown as recently as April 2009.

So what are the driving factors in this growth. Researchers believe the main factors to be the increased use of Social Networking sites in general and increased usage of mobile internet. As more and more people are internet connected wherever they go it is increasingly easy to remain engaged with others through Twitter and other social media.

Other interesting statistics in the report:

Average Twitter user’s age: 31 (unchanged)
Average LinkedIn user’s age: 39 (down from 40)
Average FaceBook user’s age: 33 (up from 26)

Looks like FaceBook is growing up a bit.