DENIC, the registry for .de domains, presents the results of the regional domain statistics 2013. As at 31 December 2013, it includes about 14.5 million .de domains in the 402 cities and districts of Germany. Adding to these numbers are nearly one million domains of holders whose place of residence is abroad. In total, about 15.6 million .de domains were registered at the end of 2013. Domain development in 2013 was slightly slower than in the preceding years and confirmed the East-West divide of .de domain distribution.

Municipal level: Metropolitan regions remain in the lead

Looking at absolute domain numbers, one finds that once again three metropolises hold the top ranks. With 913,564 domains, Berlin still is the undisputed number one in the overall ranking of the cities. Hamburg (598,997) moved up to place two, followed by Munich, which reported slightly less domains than last year (570,532). When referring the number of .de domains to the number of inhabitants, Osnabruck is in the lead again: With 1,295 .de domains per 1,000 inhabitants it scored even better than in 2012. The cities of Memmingen (670) and Munich (414) follow on ranks two and three. Among the administrative districts, Amberg-Sulzbach (923) consolidated its top position. Freising (475) and Starnberg (466) swapped last year's places and now rank two and three respectively. The federal average increased by two to 177 .de domains per 1,000 inhabitants.

Regional level: Decreasing domain numbers in the East and moderate increases in the West

On the federal level, the leading trio remains unchanged. The city state of Hamburg with 333 domains per 1,000 inhabitants maintains its uncontested leading position and stays far ahead of Berlin (261) and the territorial state of Bavaria (213). The lowest number of domains per capita continues to be recorded for Saxony-Anhalt (79 domains), which brings up the rear after Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Thuringia with 102 domains respectively. If you look at the growth rates, the national average of plus 1.7 percent is clearly exceeded by Lower Saxony (+6.8 %), Brandenburg (+3.9 %) and the city state of Berlin (+3.3 %). While all the federal states of the Western part of Germany record an increase, domain numbers in most of the Eastern federal states have dropped. The most prominent decrease is reported for Saxony-Anhalt (-21.6 %). Then follows Saxony with -2.2 %. North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria record the lowest growth rates in Western Germany with +0.4 percent each. Related to absolute numbers, however, North Rhine Westphalia (3.2 million .de domains) and the Free State of Bavaria (2.7 million) still occupy rank one and two.

International level: Large demand for .de beyond German borders

The year-on-year total domain growth rate for 2012/2013 was 2.0 percent compared to 3.7 percent in 2011/2012. This is an increase of about 309,000 domains (previous year: 544,000). Furthermore, the 15.6 million .de domains that were registered at the end of 2013 included 986,000 domains of holders residing outside of Germany (2012: 860,000). This corresponds to about 6.3 percent of the total number of domains registered under .de (2012: 5.7 percent). German domains are still particularly popular in the United States (15%) as well as in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Great Britain, with 10 percent respectively. All in all, 15,592,379 domains were registered with DENIC on 31 December 2013. Statistically, nearly every fifth inhabitant of the Federal Republic of Germany has registered a domain under the TLD .de. Thus, Germany ranks fourth in the world after the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark.

Detailed online data available

You will find comprehensive data and graphic material as well as the complete regional analysis in form of an Excel file for all the 402 cities and districts in the statistics section of the DENIC website. We also make available the annual analyses since 1995. In addition to absolute values, the statistics provide data on the number of domains related to the number of inhabitants, complemented by maps and diagrams showing the absolute and the relative distribution of domestic domains as well as of domain holders whose place of residence is abroad.