You can probably guess which countries have more members in Postcrossing just by looking at where you send or receive to/from, right? And we even have some statistics to show that too.
But, obviously not all countries have the same population! If we would take a sample of the same dimension in each country, which ones would contain more Postcrossers in it? Or in other words, in which ones is Postcrossing more popular?
We decided to do the math and share the results with you. We took into account the approximate population of each country, the number of users and came up with an interesting list.
And here’s how the ranking of the top 50 look like:
| # | Country | Postcrossers (per 100,000 habitants) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finland | 220 |
| 2 | Estonia | 138 |
| 3 | Lithuania | 124 |
| 4 | Netherlands | 75 |
| 5 | Macau | 63 |
| 6 | Taiwan | 61 |
| 7 | Latvia | 51 |
| 8 | Belarus | 47 |
| 9 | Iceland | 43 |
| 10 | Portugal | 40 |
| 11 | Singapore | 35 |
| 12 | Guernsey and Alderney | 28 |
| 13 | Slovenia | 26 |
| 14 | New Zealand | 26 |
| 15 | Czech Republic | 25 |
| 16 | Poland | 24 |
| 17 | Germany | 18 |
| 18 | Australia | 17 |
| 19 | Hong Kong | 17 |
| 20 | Luxembourg | 15 |
| 21 | Man (Isle of) | 15 |
| 22 | Malta | 15 |
| 23 | Norway | 14 |
| 24 | Canada | 13 |
| 25 | Switzerland | 13 |
| 26 | Belgium | 13 |
| 27 | Jersey | 13 |
| 28 | Austria | 12 |
| 29 | Russia | 11 |
| 30 | Croatia | 10 |
| 31 | U.S.A. | 10 |
| 32 | United Kingdom | 10 |
| 33 | Ireland | 9 |
| 34 | Hungary | 8 |
| 35 | Ukraine | 8 |
| 36 | Sweden | 7 |
| 37 | Brunei | 7 |
| 38 | Slovakia | 6 |
| 39 | Thailand | 6 |
| 40 | Malaysia | 6 |
| 41 | Puerto Rico | 5 |
| 42 | France | 5 |
| 43 | Montenegro | 4 |
| 44 | Spain | 4 |
| 45 | Denmark | 4 |
| 46 | Qatar | 4 |
| 47 | Turkey | 3 |
| 48 | Bulgaria | 3 |
| 49 | Moldova | 3 |
| 50 | Romania | 3 |
Surprise, surprise – Finland is at the very top. I bet you all guessed that one. But did you guessed all the following ones? Indeed, we had some surprises as well. Tiny Estonia with 1,3 million people manages to have plenty of Postcrossers. Same goes for Lithuania and even more with Macau!
Are there other statistics you would be curious to see here? Let us know!
PS: To calculate the data above we took into account only countries with more than 10 users and excluded countries which were too small or of which we did not have any relevant population data.
46 comments so far
I tried to count the number of each postcrosser sent in each country. That's another interesting number. Some European countries are pretty amazing. Each postcrosser sent about more than 40 or 50 postcards.
I'm surprised that Russia doesn't 'score' any better. I already received a lot cards of that country. Some results aren't a surprise at all, for example the Netherlands.
Very interesting stats! I wasn't at all surprised at Finland, and Estonia and Lithuania in the top three didn't really surprise, but Macau at #5 was a huge surprise. The top 10 really have impressive stats. I wish someone would do a thesis on why those countries seem to take to postcard exchange so well. It would be interesting to read, and maybe help postal systems make their operations better. Maybe I can convince my own postal system to pay me to do such a study .... hmmm .....
I won't try to calculate. But from my swaps with different countries I'm not surprised about Estonia and Lithuania being high on the list. But I do wonder why China and Japan aren't on the list. Is it because they have such a large population?
Wow! That's so interesting!
@ver: Russia has 142 millions inhabitants, and Finland only about five millions, so you need receive 140 cards from Russia for every 5 of Finland supposing that Finnish and Russian postcrossers sent the same amount of cards each one.
Other data, only in my region lives more people that in the whole Finland, but only in Helsinki there are about ten times more postcrossers.
I am not surprised that Finland and Estonia are at the top, but I thought Germany and USA would be higher up.
And Iceland! That is a big surprise for me.
Love statistics, keep them coming.
All three Baltic States made Top 10! Great! I had no idea Latvia would rank so high! Thanks Paulo!
What I would like to know from the statistic of postcrossing are :
- Most favorite cards ( the whole world and by country)
- 50 most active users by country
Thank you
Great idea! Very interesting - I thought Taiwan would have been closer to the top - I seem to see their wonderful cards more and more.
I would love to know which country's Postcrossers make the most work for their postal carriers. In other words, which Postcrossers cards make up the biggest portion of their countries mail? (Probably Finland tops the list!)
very interesting!
Canada is about 1/2 way!
This is why I studied human geography :-) Love those facts!
Glad to see that the Netherlands is fourth, either way.
I would love to see maps including statistics: traveltime to or from countries / most active countries, and of course the longest travel ever.
Great! :) Lithuania is 3rd! :)
Thanks for posting those stats! :)
Very interesting!
This is so cool! I wondered about this for a long time and I love these kind of statistics. Some results are very surprising indeed!
Gives some interesting perspective... it's amazing how high Guernsey and Alderney are too!! But were all users included in the calculations or only the ones who are still active? So many people seem to have joined and then left without closing their accounts :-(
Lucymonty asked an intersting question? There are some user with more than one account. Some os these 'second' accounts are inactive and others not. Why not one rank showing cards/population and cards/postcrosser?
Where's China :P
and I just got a card from Estonia today :)
great- this is what we wanted to know!!
I like this thanks for making it.
I love Finland postcards and 3D stamps...
Which is the most Favorite Postcard ???
maybe the next topic for the Blog :)
Oh, I can't belive my country is on the last position in the top! (last in this top too, I mean :D )
I love love postcrossing!
Stats i suppose everyone is eager to see:
1) Top/bottom countries by average card travel time (from country)
1) Top/bottom countries by quantity of expired cards (to country)
And i think Russia would be the one with the highest numbers in both sets :)) *sad actually*
Very interesting! I love looking at the statistics! Postcrossing is the best!
Interesting, indeed! Meaningful compared to the absolute number of postcrossers for each country :)
Thank you guys!
This post is really interesting. I hope to see more statistics in the future.
I have always been fascinated by statistics so I really welcome this information! But I wonder if the figures are based on the total number of users and if the statistics would be different if you calculated the number of active users, i.e. those users who have registered cards in the last 14 days or so. (I have a very large proportion of my cards travelling to people who have not registered cards for weeks, even months, and who I would call inactive.)
BTW, did anyone notice how many islands are high on the list above?!
I love statistics- and I'd like to follow the idea Epamaarainen has presented- it would be really interesting to know how many cards users (from different countries, or seperated by gender, or age groups) send, eventually per year.
and which countries has the most inactive group of users? :O)
I am not certain the statistics accurately reflect actual activity. I went to #9 country, Iceland. I visited each member's site. Of 134 listed Postcrossers, only 42 have participated in the past four months. The lists need to be culled. I've been informally studying the nonusers on many countries' pages and it is a recurrent problem. Perhaps the Administrators should consider a plan to make lists more reflective of participating members.
Helen Thompson
Someone said this earlier, and I would love the idea, too - to see the most favourited postcards! It would be so cool to know which cards are the true "hits" of the postcard world. :)
I guess the most favourited card is this http://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/PT-1
But maybe I´m wrong ;)
and the second most "favourited" is http://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/NL-292891 :)
-- Well, I think if a user registered more than a year and didn't sent any card, it should be removed. But if the user sent at least 1 card, we should save him and include ib the statistic :)))
where is Greece???? :P
it is surprising there are also some "rare" countries in the popular list ^^ from where it´s unlikely to receive a postcard. estonians and finns are related peoples so maybe there is something ..and then the other baltic countries ^^
I am ashamed that Brasil is not among the 50s... a so big country, but our people are not so engaged in cultural commitments like exchanging postcards and knowing more about people and their customs around the world... a pity!
wow! very nice. I would be interested in a statics which is "how many postcards are send by 100,000 inhabitants in a country", that would be amazing... anyway Finland would be at the top. ;)
I like statistic, BUT I agree to others who says that it is important to delete UNactiv Users... Administrators could send them an e-mail with NOTE : U should come and visit ur account or it will be deleted in 14 days... Or smth like this.
Great to know Belarus runs the 8th:)
Limited choice of cards here...Mainly multi-view ones..
Now wonder where so many postcrossers get their cards from;)
hmmm... So sad India does not feature in the list though we currently stand 42nd in total number of cards...
This is great! I would love to see the statistics on the most popular postcards on Postcrossing and by country. Maybe by user? Who is sending the best (most favorited) postcards? :)
Turkey in the top 50 with its 73 million population.. wow thats something :)
I love statistical reports like this! They make me enjoy postcrossing all the more.
As for other stats, something like the Top 10 most favorited cards would be interesting. There seems to be too many problems with the "postcards/user/country" idea due to inactiveness.
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