Social networking behemoth Facebook has managed to grow its mobile user base by more than 55 million users in the last four months, according to market research firm SocialBakers.

The analytics company stated that Facebook’s mobile user rate increased from 488 million during May 2012 to over 543 million monthly active users currently. More than half (57%) of the social networking site’s 955 million monthly active users are accessing the site via their smartphones and tablets. 

SocialBakers research revealed that the US continues to be the strongest Facebook mobile continent, with north of 161 million monthly active users. South Africa (84.5%), Nigeria (87.9%) and Swaziland (92.5%) count themselves amongst the countries with the highest Facebook mobile penetration rates.

South Africa currently boasts 5 351 320 Facebook users according to the research firm, which places it at number 31 in the ranking of countries with the biggest Facebook user tallies. A Facebook mobile penetration rate of 84.5% means that around 4 521 865 users are accessing the site via their mobile devices.  

In terms of mobile platforms, the top operating systems (OSs) through which Facebook is accessed from smartphones and tablets are iOS (25% - iPhone and iPad combined), followed by Google's Android (21%), and feature phones (15%).

Over 22.5 million new Android users signed on for Facebook mobile between May and August 2012, whilst 15.98 million iPhone users and 9.12 million iPad users were also added during this period.   

In related news, Facebook also recently recognised the inadequacies of the official, newly revamped Facebook Android app, compared to the Facebook app for iOS-powered devices.