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where in europe does geocaching happen the most? here is an absolute ranking: number of geocaches (acc. to geocaching.com website on january 1st, 2007):
europe’s top 10 according to number of caches | maps on this page: world66.com
| rank |
country
|
|
no. of geocaches
on 2007 01 01
|
 |
|
|
|
| 1 |
Germany
|
|
27,007
|
| 2 |
United Kingdom
|
|
15,060
|
| 3 |
Sweden
|
|
|
| 4 |
Norway |
|
3,397
|
| 5 |
Netherlands |
|
3,100
|
| 6 |
Czech Republic |
|
3,069
|
| 7 |
Switzerland |
|
3,052
|
| 8 |
Denmark |
|
2,787
|
| 9 |
Finland |
|
2,770
|
| 10 |
Austria |
|
2,560
|
| 11 |
Belgium |
|
1,755
|
| 12 |
France |
|
1,591
|
| 13 |
Spain |
|
1,250
|
| 14 |
Italy |
|
974
|
| 15 |
Portugal |
|
794
|
| 16 |
Hungary |
|
672
|
| 17 |
Slovakia |
|
606
|
| 18 |
Ireland |
|
591
|
| 19 |
Estonia |
|
492
|
| 20 |
Greece |
|
304
|
| 21 |
Poland |
|
229
|
| 22 |
Luxembourg |
|
140
|
|
|
|
|
a ranking (like the above one) does not say much – bigger countries (= more inhabitants) will have more caches. therefore in the following list, the number of inhabitants is included:
europe’s top 10 according to population (per capita)
| rank |
country
|
|
total of
geocaches
on 2007 01 01
|
population
(millions)
|
caches per
1000
inhabitants
|
1 cache for
every ...
inhabitants
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1 |
Norway
|
|
3,397
|
4.4
|
0.772
|
1,295
|
| 2 |
Sweden
|
|
|
9.0
|
0.727
|
1,376
|
| 3 |
Finland
|
|
|
5.2
|
0.533
|
1,877
|
| 4 |
Denmark |
|
2,787
|
5.4
|
0.516
|
1,937
|
| 5 |
Switzerland |
|
3,052
|
7.0
|
0.436
|
2,293
|
| 6 |
Estonia |
|
492
|
1.4
|
0.351
|
2,845
|
| 7 |
Germany |
|
27,007
|
82.5
|
0.327
|
3,055
|
| 8 |
Austria |
|
2,560
|
8.1
|
0.316
|
3,164
|
| 9 |
Czech Republic |
|
3,069
|
10.2
|
0.301
|
3,323
|
| 10 |
Luxembourg |
|
140
|
0.5
|
0.280
|
3,571
|
| 11 |
United Kingdom |
|
15,060
|
59.7
|
0.252
|
3,965
|
| 12 |
Iceland |
|
65
|
0.3
|
0.217
|
4,615
|
| 13 |
Netherlands |
|
3,100
|
16.3
|
0.190
|
5,258
|
| 14 |
Belgium |
|
1,755
|
10.4
|
0.169
|
5,925
|
| 15 |
Ireland |
|
591
|
4.0
|
0.148
|
6,768
|
| 16 |
Slovakia |
|
606
|
5.4
|
0.112
|
8,912
|
| 17 |
Cyprus |
|
75
|
0.7
|
0.107
|
9,333
|
| 18 |
Andorra |
|
7
|
0.07
|
0.091
|
10,989
|
| 19 |
Portugal |
|
794
|
10.5
|
0.076
|
13,225
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
it is quite astonishing: scandinavia is europe’s heart of geocaching! the cache coverage in sweden is double as high as in germany (country with most caches). there is much more going on in germanic speaking countries than in romanic speaking ones: there is not much activity in france (with 0.026 caches per 1000 inhabitants), spain (0.029), and italy (0.015).
maybe this is because the geocaching.com website is available only in english. speakers of a germanic language generally know english quite well. it is interesting to observe that in countries with more that one language (as switzerland and belgium), the cache density is higher on the germanic-speaking side (to be seen on google maps). language access is an issue for the global progress of geocaching.
some countries with statistic anomaly are not listed above, as in countries with less than 100,000 inhabitants or very few caches there can easily occur extreme distortions. here are two other top-five candidates:
real
rank |
country
|
|
total of
geocaches
|
population
|
caches per
1000
inhabitants
|
1 cache for
every ...
persons
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1 |
Vatican
|
|
2
|
253
|
7.905
|
127
|
| 4 |
Liechtenstein
|
|
|
34,905
|
0.544
|
1,837
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
so, after all, sweden and norway are the winners of both stats. in those countries, geocaching holidays may be a rewarding experience. those two countries will most probably be the first to hit the "1 cache per 1000 inhabitants" mark in europe. california is already there: 1 cache for every 967 inhabitants. country-wise canada and usa have got the highest per-capita geocache rate (see below).
following big/important countries have quite a "backlog demand" (lots to catch up):
|
country
|
|
no. of geocaches
on 2007 01 01
|
|
|
|
|
|
Argentina
|
|
45
|
|
Brazil
|
|
96
|
|
India
|
|
|
|
Japan |
|
651
|
|
China |
|
112
|
|
South Korea |
|
111
|
|
Russia |
|
41
|
|
|
|
|
it seems that also these countries would language-wise need a better access to geocaching resp. geocaching.com. all the non-european countries with most activity are english-speaking:
| world-wide rank |
country
|
|
total of
geocaches
on 2007 01 01
|
population (millions)
|
caches per
1000
inhabitants
|
1 cache for
every ...
persons
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1 |
Canada |
|
|
32.4
|
0.808
|
1237
|
| 2 |
USA
|
|
222,985
|
300.9
|
0.741
|
1349
|
|
Australia
|
|
|
20.5
|
0.421
|
2371
|
|
New Zealand |
|
2,520
|
4.1
|
0.614
|
1628
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
the worldwide number of geocaches (all types) on january 1st, 2007 was 346,000.
more stats: cache density (caches per area)
complete stats as excel file: geocaching stats 2007
© 2007 ernies / ingwer.ch | you can freely republish this information if you mention this source (please let us know the web link or send us a copy of the printed matter).
g e o @ i n g w e r . c h
(updated 2007 03 08)
ernies’ geocaching pages (german)
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