Russians are the most devout users of social networking in the world, according to new data from comScore. 18.9 million Internet users, from the country's total of 31.9 million, visited a social network in April and spent, on average, 6.6 hours a month on these sites, viewing 1,307 pages.

"Social networking has become a popular online pastime not only in mature Internet markets like North America, but also in developing, high-growth Internet markets such as Russia," said Mike Read, SVP & managing director, comScore. "In a country as geographically large as Russia, social networking represents a way of connecting people from one corner of the country to the other. The highly engaged behavior of social networkers in Russia offers significant opportunity for marketers and advertisers seeking to reach these audiences."

Of the 18.9 million Russian Internet users who visited a social networking site, making up 59 percent of the total Internet population, 14.3 million visited Vkontakte.ru, making it the largest social network in the country. The site is followed by Odnoklassniki.ru, with 7.8 million visitors, and Mail.ru - My World, with 6.3 million. Mail.ru is owed by the Russian investment firm DST, which recently bought a 1.96 percent stake in Facebook, the world’s largest social network, for $200 million, valuating the company at $10 billion. Facebook is the seventh most popular site of its kind in Russia, with 616,000 visitors, a 227 percent increase over 2008.

The study also found that 65 percent of the world's Internet users aged 15 and over (734.2 million from a total of 1.1 billion) visited a social network in May 2009. Russia had the most engaged audience but it was followed closely by Brazil, with an average of 6.3 hours a month spent by Internet users in the country on social networks and a total of 1,220 page views per user. Third came in Canada with 5.6 hours, followed by Puerto Rico with 5.3 hours and Spain also with 5.3 hours.