The average Facebook user is 38 years old and has 229 friends, a recent study by the U.S. Pew Research Center shows.

According to the findings, Facebook users accept four out of five friend requests and add seven friends every month on average. Moreover, 22 percent of people's friends are old high school buddies, 12 percent are family members or relatives, 10 percent are co-workers and 9 percent are college mates. Curiously, most people have never met 7 percent of their Facebook friends.

The report also showed that some 15 percent of users update their Facebook status every day, while 22 percent comment on other Facebook users on a daily basis.

Users of the social networking service spend six and a half hours on the website every week on average.

Women were found to be more active than men: female users updated their Facebook status 21 times a month, whereas male users averaged six times. The study also suggests that Facebook users tend to be politically engaged. Some 43 percent said they would vote at the next elections in their respective country, while 57 percent said they would persuade others to follow suit.

The U.S. has the largest number of Facebook users with 157 million. Brazil ranked No.2 with 46.3 million, followed by India (45.8 million), Indonesia (42 million) and Mexico (33.2 million). Korea has 7 million.

Facebook, which currently touts more than 900 million users worldwide, launched its initial public offering on the NASDAQ last Friday.