Network Size

In network analysis, network size refers to the total number of nodes in a network. Depending on the network, nodes represent different types of interacting components such as individuals in a social network, websites on the World Wide Web, neurons in a neural network, or species in a food web. The real-world networks that have been studied using network analysis vary substantially in size, ranging from less than 100 to several hundred thousand nodes. Social networks and food webs are among the smallest networks, while transportation networks and the World Wide Web are some of the largest. The sections that follow give a brief introduction to the role of size in network analysis, including network properties related to size and how size should be considered ...