New research by Facebook based on user friends, reveals that there are not 6 degrees of separation between you and everyone else – but only 4.74. Other interesting tidbits: the distance is shrinking: in 2008 it was 5.28. If you just look at the United States, it’s only 4.

… 84% of all connections are between users in the same country. We also find that people tend to have a similar, albeit typically smaller, number of friends as their neighbors, and tend to be about the same age.