Recently in Statistics & Numbers Category

The .NET domain extension might soon overtake Germany's .DE as second largest top-level domain after the market leading .COM web address according to the latest domain name statistics:

Source: Hoster Stats

It's interesting to see how some positions have changed in comparison to the top 10 domain name statistics from last year. While most domain extensions growing strongly, e.g. .ORG grew from 7.7 to 8.5 million names, the Chinese .CN suffix dropped from 2nd into 6th place after having changed the registration rules a few months back.

Another milestone for the domain name industry will be the passing of 300 domain extensions with the introduction of more internationalized country code domains. A number we will likely see increase over the coming years with the introduction of new top-level domains.

The last part of our Domain Statistics & Numbers article series shows the ranking of country code top-level domains:

1. How many top-level domain name extensions exist in total?
2. How many domains are registered worldwide?
3. What are the Top 10 global domain extensions?
4. How big are the generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces?
5. What is the ranking of my country code top-level domain (ccTLD)?

.DE Takes Lead Again in ccTLD Race

Ever wondered where your country domain extension sits in the global marketplace? It's a little bit like Formula One, with nations jockeying constantly for supremacy. Recently German suffix .DE pipped China's .CN domain to a pole position with slightly more registrations. That's good news for iWantMyName because we are about to launch a German language version of our highly successful domain management platform.

Below is a handy reference list showing which ccTLDs are most popular:

1. .DE (Germany) - 13.05 million
2. .CN (China) - 12.54 million
3. .UK (United Kingdom) - 7.83 million
4. .NL (Netherlands) - 3.51 million
5. .EU (European Union) - 2.98 million
6. .RU (Russia) - 2.31 million
7. .TK (Tokelau) - 1.97 million
8. .AR (Argentina) - 1.85 million
9. .BR (Brazil) - 1.81 million
10. .IT (Italy) - 1.72 million
11. .US (USA) - 1.63 million
12. .PL (Poland) - 1.53 million
13. .FR (France) - 1.5 million
14. .AU (Australia) - 1.47 million
15. .CH (Switzerland) - 1.31 million
16. .CA (Canada) - 1.26 million
17. .ES (Spain) - 1.22 million
18. .JP (Japan) - 1.11 million
19. .KR (Korea) - 1.04 million
20. .DK (Denmark) - 1 million
21. .BE (Belgium) - 942,000
22. .SE (Sweden) - 895,000
23. .AT (Austria) - 876,000
24. .CZ (Czech Republic) - 591,000
25. .IN (India) - 510,000
26. .HU (Hungary) - 450,000
27. .NO (Norway) - 439,000
28. .TW (Taiwan) - 425,000
29. .NZ (New Zealand) - 366,000
30. .MX (Mexico) - 353,000
31. .PT (Portugal) - 314,000
32. .CL (Chile) - 257,000
33. .FI (Finland) - 200,000
34. .HK (Hongkong) - 178,000
35. .TR (Turkey) - 133,000

Source: DomainesInfo Statistiques

Part 4 of our Domain Statistics & Numbers article series breaks down the size of generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces:

1. How many top-level domain name extensions exist in total?
2. How many domains are registered worldwide?
3. What are the Top 10 global domain extensions?
4. How big are the generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces?
5. What is the ranking of my country code top-level domain (ccTLD)?

4. How big are the generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces?

A useful resource for these domain name statistics is the ICANN Dashboard which provides an interactive timeline on the growth of generic TLDs.

.AERO - .MOBI interactive timeline or click for larger view:

.MUSEUM - .TRAVEL interactive timeline or click for larger view:

Further information about the fluctuation in these graphs can be found directly on the ICANN Dashboard.

The number of registered gTLDs and their ranking is as follows:

1. .COM: 82.01 million
2. .NET: 12.42 million
3. .ORG: 7.79 million
4. .INFO: 5.24 million
5. .BIZ: 2.03 million
6. .MOBI: ~ 850.000
7. .NAME: ~ 300.000
8. .TEL: ~ 220.000
9. .ASIA: ~ 210.000
10. .TRAVEL: ~130.000
11. .CAT: ~38.000
12. .PRO: ~37.000
13. .JOBS: ~16.000
14. .AERO: ~6.500
15. .COOP: ~5.800
16. .MUSEUM: ~550

Total number of generic domain extensions (September 2009): 111.3 million

Sources: DomainesInfo Statistiques, ICANN Dashboard

This blog post showing the top 10 list of domain extensions is part 3 of our Domain Statistics & Numbers article series:

1. How many top-level domain name extensions exist in total?
2. How many domains are registered worldwide?
3. What are the Top 10 global domain extensions?
4. How big are the generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces?
5. What is the ranking of my country code top-level domain (ccTLD)?

Top 10 global domain name extension list

The ten largest domain extensions unite a whopping 150 million registrations:

1. .COM: 82.01 million
2. .DE (Germany): 13.05 million
3. .CN (China): 12.55 million
4. .NET: 12.42 million
5. .UK (United Kingdom): 7.83 million
6. .ORG: 7.79 million
7. .INFO: 5.24 million
8. .NL (Netherlands): 3.5 million
9. .EU (European Union): 2.98 million
10. .RU (Russia): 2.31 million

Source: DomainesInfo Statistiques

.COM is by far the the largest namespace worldwide, followed by the German .DE internet code, the Chinese .CN country domain extension and the generic .NET web address. It is very likely that .CN will surpass .DE again shortly (they recently changed positions). However, it will be interesting to see which impact the introduction of a suffix with Chinese characters such as .中国 (.CHINA) might have on the future growth of the .CN address.

These numbers also show how strong country domain extensions are in Europe with .UK, .NL and .EU taking further positions after .ORG and .INFO in the international Top 10 ranking.

This is part two in our Domain Statistics & Numbers article series which answers the following questions:

1. How many top-level domain name extensions exist in total?
2. How many domains are registered worldwide?
3. What are the Top 10 global domain extensions?
4. How big are the generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces?
5. What is the ranking of my country code top-level domain (ccTLD)?

Part 2: How many domains are registered worldwide?

After the latest VeriSign's Domain Industry Brief there were 184 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains by the end of the second quarter 2009.

The following graph shows the growth over time and the distribution between different domain extensions:

From these 184 million total registrations, gTLDs account for 109.6 million registered domains and ccTLDs have a registration base of 74.4 million addresses.

Other quick facts about the domain name industry:

• 20.9 million new domain names registered in the first six months of 2009.
• .COM & .NET account for 50% of all domains registered worldwide.
  
• The top 10 country code domain extensions comprise 66 per cent of all ccTLD registrations.
• The top 3 ccTLDs .DE, .CN & .UK represent 45 percent of all registered ccTLD names.
• .AR (Argentina), .RU (Russia) and .BR (Brazil) are currently the fastest growing ccTLDs.

Detailed Information about industry growth rates and ccTLD statistics can be found in the September 2009 issue of the Domain Industry Brief: PDF Download.

Did you know that there are 280 internet domain extensions in total? And that .COM & .NET account for 50% of all domains registered worldwide? Or maybe you have always wondered what the most popular country code domains are?

In our Domain Statistics & Numbers article series we will answer these questions and provide you with some interesting numbers around the global domain name space:

1. How many top-level domain name extensions exist in total?
2. How many domains are registered worldwide?
3. What are the Top 10 global domain extensions?
4. How big are the generic top-level domain (gTLD) namespaces?
5. What is the ranking of my country code top-level domain (ccTLD)?

And here we go with the first anwer. Enjoy!

Part 1: How many top-level domain name extensions exist in total?

Source: ICANN Blog

As you can see we have 280 domain extensions in total. The two main groups are the so-called gTLDs (generic top-level domains) and the ccTLDs (country code top-level domains). We will go into more detail about gTLD and ccTLD registration numbers later.

Generic top-level domains:

The 20 generic TLD suffixes are used mostly internationally and represent the vast majority of all registered domains worldwide. They are divided into:

• 4 unrestricted TLDs:  .COM, .NET, .ORG & .INFO (can be purchased by anyone without any restrictions)
• 3 Generic-restricted TLDs: .BIZ (for Businesses), .NAME (for Individuals) & .PRO (for credentialed professionals)
• 13 Sponsored TLDs: .AERO, .ASIA, .CAT, .COOP, .EDU (US only), .GOV (US only), .INT, .JOBS, .MIL (US only), .MOBI, .MUSEUM, .TEL & .TRAVEL

Country code top-level domains:

The countries of this world are represented on the internet by 248 ccTLDs altogether:

• 242 are based on the official English short names after the ISO 3166-1 standard. The list of all country code extensions can be found in the IANA root zone database.
• Exceptionally reserved codes are: .AC (Ascension Island), .EU (European Union) & .UK (United Kingdom, offical ISO short name is GB)
• Former country codes: .SU (Soviet Union), .TP (Portuguese Timor, now .TL for Timor-Leste) & .YU (Yugoslavia, split into .ME for Montenegro and .RS for Serbia)

New top-level domain extensions (outlook):

It will be interesting to see how the new top-level domain extensions will change the domain landscape. If ICANN sticks to its current plan to expand the internet address space with new addresses such as .BERLIN, .NYC or .RADIO next year, we should see a completely different picture in about 3 years. The 20 "g"s could be more like 200-500 then and will surpass the country codes by far on the long run.

What is your prediction for the number of TLDs by the end of 2012? We'd love to see them in the comments.