Instagram has released official monthly active user data for people using the photo sharing service on a regular basis.

This is the first time Instagram has released data that reveals actual user numbers after having been acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.

The following statistics, that reveal a growth in user numbers, were published on Instagram’s press centre:

• 90 million Monthly Active Users
• 40 million Photos Per Day
• 8500 Likes Per Second
• 1000 Comments Per Second

The results follow published reports, claiming that Instagram’s user base was rapidly declining due to a controversial proposal to change its terms and conditions.

The New York Post reported in December 2012 that Instagram users had fallen from 16.4 million to 12.5 million.

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom told AllThingsD that, “Instagram continues to see very strong growth around the world. With many of the product and internationalization improvements we’ve made, we’ve been excited to see these efforts resonate with users globally.”