LinkedIn on Friday released their new data about its popularity among small business professionals. LinkedIn looked at how many small business professionals are already members on the platform and found that India ranks 3rd after USA and UK, with over 1 million SMB professionals on LinkedIn.

Among the 200 countries analyzed, LinkedIn revealed that 1,012,058 SMB professionals were from India. For the purposes of this study, LinkedIn defined small business professionals as LinkedIn members who currently work at a company that has between 11 to 500 employees.

LinkedIn’s data revealed that globally, there are 15,222,964 LinkedIn members who are currently small business professionals and 75 percent of whom reside in 10 countries around the world.

“Small business professionals leverage LinkedIn in a myriad of creative ways,” said LinkedIn’s connection director, Nicole Williams. He also added “Not only do they leverage the site to make critical hires, but they also use LinkedIn Groups like “mini conferences” where they can learn more about various subjects like advertising and public relations. We’ve also heard of small business professionals relying on their networks to find trusted vendors, partners and even funding for their companies.”

Globally, the top five countries with the most small business professionals on LinkedIn are:

United States on first with 6,874,850 members who are small business professionals. Their occupations range from an accessories designer all the way to a yacht broker, whereas United Kingdom second with 1,059,303 LinkedIn members and India with 1,012,058 LinkedIn members who are small business professionals.

The Netherlands stands fourth with 597,010 LinkedIn members and Canada on fifth with 579,253 LinkedIn members who are small business professionals.

“With over 175 million member globally and a growth rate of about two members per second, more and more professionals from various industries and businesses are utilizing the platform to manage their career. Especially for small business and start-up organizations, LinkedIn acts as a trigger to begin business conversations with prospective partners, seek advice from industry peers and gain powerful insights for various decision making processes. Indian professionals are increasingly realizing the benefits of maintaining and nourishing their presence on LinkedIn.” said Hari V. Krishnan, Country Manager, LinkedIn India.