With the five-year anniversary of the first tweet approaching, Twitter says user activity is soaring.

In a blog post that details tweet and account activity, Twitter says it’s “growing at a record pace.” Here are some of the details:

• Users are now sending one billion tweets per week.
• Over the last month, users posted an average of 140 million tweets per day (with 177 million tweets on March 11, the day of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan).
• Over the last month, 460,000 new accounts were created per day (with 572,000 new accounts made on March 12, the day after the disaster in Japan).
• Over the last year, the number of mobile users has increased 182%.

As I noted above, some of the growth appears to be tied directly to major worldwide events like the tragedy in Japan last week. There were reports that, with phones tied up and/or not working at all, many turned to Twitter and other social networks for primary communication — fulfilling, to some degree, CEO Dick Costolo’s vision of Twitter as a utility.

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Stats: Popularity | Twitter

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

Connect with the author via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn