Pope Francis, Royal Baby and Miley Cyrus among most talked about Facebook topics of 2013

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Pope Francis, Royal Baby and Miley Cyrus among most talked about Facebook topics of 2013

The Associated Press Published Monday, December 9, 2013 4:13PM EST Last Updated Monday, December 9, 2013 4:18PM EST

According to Facebook, Pope Francis was the most talked about topic or person on its site in 2013. (AP / Alessandra Tarantino)

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Whether we're cooking a fancy dinner, announcing a new baby to badmouthing rival sports teams, Facebook has become a pretty thorough repository of topics we care about at any given moment. On Monday, the online social network of some 1.2 billion people released the topics, people and life events its users discussed the most in 2013.

Below is a look at what was on the mind of Facebook users this year. To find the most talked-about topics, Facebook measured how many posts mentioned a specific subject and ranked them based on the number of total mentions. Separately, it did the same for life events people posted about, such as getting married or losing a loved one.

Topics and people worldwide:

1. Pope Francis

2. Election (Facebook notes that the word "election" appeared in many languages, not surprising given high-profile elections in many countries around the world this year, from India to Iran to Italy.)

3. Royal Baby

4. Typhoon

5. Margaret Thatcher

6. Harlem Shake

7. Miley Cyrus

8. Boston Marathon

9. Tour de France

10. Nelson Mandela

U.S. topics and people:

1. Super Bowl

2. Government Shutdown

3. Boston Marathon