DENIC eG presents first comprehensive geographical domain statistics - new German states trail in domain numbers

There are significant regional differences in Internet domain name usage, especially between the old and new German states. This is one of the results of the first comprehensive domain statistic, which was published today by DENIC eG in Frankfurt. It was created in cooperation with Mark Krymalowski and the "Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeographisches Institut" in Cologne. Based on the numbers of the official DENIC database (as of the end of 2000) it allows a detailed overview over the geographical distribution of domain names over Germany and the developments over the years.

It comes as no surprise that the leaders in absolute numbers of domains are the metropolitan cities Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Cologne. Of more interest is the number of domains compared to the number of residents. The national average is about 43 domains per 1000 inhabitants. With a few exceptions all cities and counties in the new German states weigh in far below this level and frequently don't even approach half of this average number. The national leaders are the county Daun (174) and the city Heidelberg (154), whereas in Wismar just 10 domains per 1000 residents are registered. A disproportionately large number of domain owners lives in the metropolitan area of Munich, round about Heidelberg, the Rhein-Main area, the Rhein-Ruhr megalopolis, Berlin, Hamburg and surroundings. Among the German states and not counting the city-states, Hesse leads with 52 domains per 1000 residents. Saxony-Anhalt has the last place with about 14 domain names per 1,000 residents.

The analysis has also showed that meanwhile only one fifth of all domain names is registered to companies. Private persons are therefore predominant in domain registrations. In 1994 companies still had about 75% of the pie.

The complete analysis is available for download as an Excel Spreadsheet, in addition we have ZIP-files of vector-format charts available for the absolute and relative distribution of domain names in Germany.