Dec 29, 2010 11:24 GMT  ·  By

Which country spends the most time online in the world? The answer may be a bit surprising, it's not Japan or South Korea and certainly not the US, it's Canada. Admittedly, the claim comes from the Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail, but it's based on comScore data. And it's not only that Canadians spend the most time online in general, they're really big fans of YouTube and Facebook in particular.

Canadians spend on average 2,500 minutes online every month, that translates into 42 hours, more than any other country as measured by comScore.

The second spot is taken by Israel with 2,300 hours. Canada also has one of the largest adoption rates in the world, 68 percent of its citizens are online as compared to 62 percent in France or 59 percent in the US.

Granted, other sources show a different picture and, while Canada has a high adoption rate, there are plenty of other places with higher ones.

When it comes to YouTube usage, there's no doubt that Canadians are the biggest fans. On a per capita basis, Canada is the biggest YouTube user out there. 21 million Canadians visit the video site each month, out of a population of about 34 million.

And they watch a lot more video too, each user views, on average, 147 YouTube videos each month. That's 47 more than the Americans. What's more, the 18 to 24 year old demographic watches 244 videos each month for a total of more than 18 hours of YouTube.

Facebook was a big hit with Canadians as well. In the social network's early days, Canadians were as many as Americans on the site. Of course, as Facebook grew, the gap became wider, but with about 51.2 percent of its population using the site, it's still one of the countries with the highest adoption rate.