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Data

Europe

Data on internet activity in Europe
(hostcount)

One of a series of analyses
by Giancarlo Livraghi gandalf.it

Updated February 29, 2012
Based on statistics up to December 2011

The next update will probably be here
in Februry or March 2013


 
Figures in this page are based on data for year end 2011
(Internet Domain Survey published on February 14, 2012)

Older analyses, starting in August 1997,
are in several issues of the Netmarketing newsletter.
For instance February 10 and August 10 1999,
February 23 and October 2 2000,
March 21 and November 26 2001,
February 27, August 25 and December 27 2002,
April 4 2003, February 25 and October 24 2004,
March 20 2005, March 31 2006

For a short note on method see the international data analysis.
 



Growth of the internet in Europe

This is the growth of the number of internet hosts in Europe from 1990 to 2011.

1990 –          30,000
1991 –        130,000
1992 –        284,000
1993 –        553,000
1994 –     1,029,000
1995 –     2,206,000
1996 –     3,674,000
1997 –     5,790,000
1998 –     7,872,000
1999 –   10,268,000
2000 –   15,804,000
2001 –   22,332,000
2002 –   27,241,000
2003 –   33,708,000
2004 –   53,965,000
2005 –   71,888,000
2006 –   87,606,000
2007 – 121,869,000
2008 – 140,131,000
2009 – 152,847,000
2010 – 166,570,000
2011 – 179,514,000


This is a growth chart, from 1993 to 2011.


Internet hosts in Europe 1993-2011
Numbers in millions

hostcount


Internet activity in Europe increased 39 percent in 2007, 15 percent in 2008 and “only” nine percent in 2009 and 2010, 8 percent in 2011. Is growth getting (relatively) slower? Maybe, but it’s still remarkably fast compared to any other economic or social trend. For a comparison with other parts of the world, see the “large areas” graphs and comments in the analysis of international data.



Situation of the internet in Europe


This table analyzes data for the 45 European countries with over 10,000 internet hosts.


  Number of hosts
December 2011
Per 1000
inhabit.
Germany * 30,000,000 365.6
United Kingdom * 27,000,000 436.2
France * 26,000,000 399.8
Italy 25,455,561 419.9
Spain * 17,000,000 362.8
Russia 13,757,722 97.0
Netherlands 13,715,032 823.5
Poland 12,928,122 338.6
Sweden ** 5,806,123 616.6
Switzerland 5,249,367 667.4
Belgium 5,179,959 494.3
Finland 4,699,507 874.3
Denmark 4,284,533 770.5
Czech Republic 4,140,126 393.1
Portugal 3,644,339 341.4
Norway 3,583,945 728.4
Austria 3,444,552 411.3
Greece 3,114,925 275.5
Hungary 3,063,519 305.9
Romania 2,715,415 126.5
Ukraine 1,997,268 43.7
Slovakia 1,387,022 255.2
Ireland 1,379,364 300.9
Croatia 1,344,819 305.0
Lithuania 1,189,700 345.3
Serbia 1,106,234 150.6
Bulgaria 937,615 127.5
Estonia 848,009 656.8
Slovenia * 700,000 341.5
Moldova 696,685 169.1
Iceland 360,901 1134.9
Georgia 358,109 76.7
Latvia 344,926 153.4
Belarus 302,560 31.9
Luxembourg 253,959 505.9
Armenia 192,541 59.2
Bosnia Herzegovina 146,152 38.3
Macedonia 65,967 32.1
Azerbaijan 29,968 3.3
Andorra 28,131 331.0
Monaco 28,018 778.3
Malta 26,946 65.2
Albania 15,505 4.9
San Marino 11,097 346.8
Montenegro 10,188 16.3
on .eu domains 173,527  
European Union 150,457,000 299.2
Europe 179,514,000 249.6

* Hostcount figures for Germany, the UK, France, Spain and Slovenia appear understated
at this time and therefore the numbers are arbitrarily, but not unreasonably, increased.

** The number for Sweden includes hosts on “.nu” domains as well as “.se”.


One of the relevant changes in the last ten years was the growth of the Netherlands, that in 2004 reached the traditionally high level of Scandinavian countries. France has been growing faster since 2004 (and has overtaken the Netherlands in 2006.) There is continuing growth in Eastern Europe, with a particularly strong development in Poland – and also in other countries, especially in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Croatia. There is fast growth in Russia in 2009-2011.

It’s interesting to note that there is still considerable growth in several high-density countries. The development of the internet shows no signs of “saturation” anywhere.

There are now eleven countries in Europe with over five million internet hosts (of twentytwo wordlwide.) Eight in Europe over ten million (nine in the rest of the world.)

The next graph summarizes the situation in the 20 European countries with over two million internet hosts.


20 European countries

20 countries


The next graph shows density (hosts per 1000 inhabitants) in the 35 European countries with over 100,000 internet hosts.


Internet hosts per 1000 inhabitants
in 35 European countries

density graph


There are changes compared to a year or two earlier, with considerable growth in several places, but there is still a large difference between the most advanced countries an the rest of Europe.

As we did worldwide in the international analysis, let’s look at density in Europe as a map.


Internet hosts per 1000 inhabitants

map


This map looks quite different compared to previous years (see eleven maps from 1996 to 2006.)  But the strongest development remains concentrated in six countries – the Scandinavian area and the Netherlands (with very high density also in Switzerland and Estonia.)

In year 2000 there were four countries in Europe with over 100 internet hosts per thousand inhabitants – Iceland, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands. Now there are thirtyfive.

There will probably be other changes – but relevant trends need to be verified over an extended period of time.


In other data analyses
there are maps of internet activity
in Asia, Africa and Latin America.



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Other data analyses

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              World                                                       Asia                                 Africa




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