Nearly 8 per cent of American adults online use Twitter and 2 per cent of those people use it on a daily basis, a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project released on Thursday revealed.

The study conducted on 2,550 people found that the microblogging service is popular among young adults, minorities, and those who live in the urban areas. Women and the college-educated youth were also slightly more likely to use Twitter, the study said.

This is the first time that the research organisation has focused solely on the usage of Twitter.

Among those who post updates, 72 per cent post about their personal lives, with 19 per cent doing so on a daily basis. About 62 per cent write about work and 55 per cent post links to news stories. About 54 per cent post humorous or observational tweets and 53 per cent re-tweet posts from those they follow.