In case you missed it, Pew Internet released a report last week that included a few interesting stats. In particular, the one that jumped out at me was this: That 12 percent of all Americans are now using Pinterest. What’s more ONE IN FIVE U.S. women are using the popular platform.

So, 20 percent of ALL women in the U.S. are using Pinterest?

I don’t think so.

Let’s do some quick (and crude) math for a second.

We know there are a little more than 300 million adults in the U.S., right? (according to the U.S Census, at least)

80 percent of those adults are online–that’s 240 million adults (male and female) who are on the Web.

Now, with this report, Pew is saying 19 percent of those 240 million (close to 45 million) are using Pinterest.

45 million women. That’s more than FIVE TIMES the total population of NYC. It’s 12 TIMES the total population of Los Angeles.

And, it’s more than the total populations of the top 50 metropolitan markets in this country.

Still think the data is accurate? (keep in mind, as with many studies Pew puts out, this one only surveyed 1,000 Americans)

Here’s what I think. I think people are NUTS about Pinterest. I think there are a very plugged in majority of Americans who do use it (younger women, for sure)–but it’s nowhere near 45 million Americans. Maybe half that. At most (Disclaimer: This is just my gut guess, based on no survey data).

I think people are desperate to find more platforms, other than Twitter and Facebook, that are driving engagement and traffic online (think about the hype machine behind Google+ for a minute).

And even if the data is true, from a marketing perspective, so what? 1 in 5 American women are using Pinterest. Well, 4 out of 5 are using Facebook–as marketers, have you nailed down that platform yet? (judging from my research for a client recently, I’d say the answer is a resounding “no”).

What about LinkedIn? 175 million users there–and they’re constantly improving their platform.

Or, what about Instagram? 100 million users there. Heck, even Foursquare has 20 million users. Pinterest has just 11 million registered users.

What do you think? Do the Pinterest stats feel accurate to you? And, maybe more importantly, how big a piece should Pinterest be in organization’s marketing efforts right now? We’ve all see the traffic data, but sometimes I feel like there’s entirely too much focus being place on this platform right now (at least compared with the larger networks and a company blog).

Your thoughts?