Brazil is fast becoming one of the world’s largest internet markets and Facebook is capitalizing on the country’s growing user base. According to a study from comScore, Brazil now ranks as the 7th largest internet market globally and Latin America’s online population grew the fastest of any global region in 2011.

The study, which will be presented in a webinar later this month (in Portuguese), shows how Facebook surged ahead of Orkut to become the top social networking site in Brazil. Facebook took the lead in December 2011 with 36.1 million visitors, which is a whopping 192% increase over December 2010. Users in Brazil spend an average of 4.8 hours on the site. To put Facebook’s Brazilian growth spurt in perspective, that average was just 37 minutes one year ago.

“2011 saw digital media rise to a new level in Brazil fueled by activities such as social networking, online video, search and online shopping, as more consumers turned to the web and spent an increasing share of their daily time connecting with digital content,” said Alex Banks, comScore managing director for Brazil. “For brands and publishers looking to capitalize on the latest digital consumer trends, it’s important to understand what’s coming around the corner.”

Other facts from the study highlight the Brazilian internet market’s rise. Brazilians spent an average of 26.7 hours online in December 2011, with social networking accounting for 23% of those hours. comScore claims online retail visitation went up 30% during the last holiday season and that 1 in 3 users accessed comparison shopping websites. Online advertising grew along with the internet population, with 62.9 billion display ad impressions delivered 50.8 million users in Brazil. Unsurprisingly, Facebook was the top display ad publisher in the country last year.

If you speak Portuguese, you can listen to Banks tell you all of these statistics himself in comScore’s webinar on March 21.