Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, Orkut and Bebo are growing on a global scale, even if they might be be in decline their home country, the United States, according to a ComScore study, the European Journalism Centre (EJC) reported Wednesday.

As markets become more saturated, ComScore figures indicate that social networks may be approaching their peak in North America.

Since June 2007, the industry grew by a mere 9 percent in the United States and Canada, while growth in the Middle East and Africa reached 66 percent. The numbers increased by 23 percent in Asia, 33 percent in South America and 35 percent in Europe, according to the EJC.

North America is the only region where social network growth did not surpass the rise of total Web users, which is 11 percent in this case, the EJC reported.

Facebook is the fastest growing site, experiencing a 153 percent increase in unique visitors overall, out of which only 38 percent is domestic, according to the ComScore study.