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Blog > A different ranking - updated

Thirteen months ago, we published a ranking of how popular Postcrossing was in a given country, based on the number of postcrossers for every 100,000 inhabitants.

It’s been a while since then, so we thought it was time to compile some fresh statistics, and check if there were any noticeable differences. Here is the updated ranking:

Ranking
(current)		CountryPostcrossers
(per 100,000 inhabitants)		Previous ranking
(in Dec. 2010)
1Finland275↔ 1
2Lithuania164↑ 3
3Belarus161↑ 8
4Netherlands157↔ 4
5Estonia154↓ 2
6Taiwan142↔ 6
7Latvia98↔ 7
8Macao91↓ 5
9Hong Kong66↑ 19
10Åland Islands56↑ >50
11Czech Republic55↑ 15
12Poland54↑ 16
13Iceland50↓ 9
14Singapore43↓ 11
15Portugal43↓ 10
16Ukraine39↑ 35
17Germany38↔ 17
18Slovenia35↓ 13
19Guernsey31↓ 12
20New Zealand30↓ 14
21Russia30↑ 29
22Luxembourg28↓ 20
23Belgium23↑ 26
24Switzerland22↑ 25
25Austria21↑ 28
26Australia20↓ 18
27Canada17↓ 24
28Norway16↓ 23
29Jersey15↓ 27
30Malta15↓ 21
31Ireland13↑ 33
32U.S.A.13↓ 31
33United Kingdom13↓ 32
34Hungary10↔ 34
35Croatia10↓ 30
36Slovakia10↑ 38
37Malaysia9↑ 40
38Brunei9↓ 37
39Spain9↑ 44
40Sweden9↓ 36
41Guam8↑ >50
42Moldova8↑ 49
43Thailand7↓ 39
44France7↓ 42
45Montenegro6↓ 43
46Korea (South)6↑ >50
47Bulgaria6↑ 48
48Turkey6↓ 47
49Denmark6↓ 45
50Israel5↑ >50

What do you know? Finland is still leading the ranking by a mile! :) New-comers to the table include the Åland Islands, Guam, South Korea and Israel. Please note that in the case of the Åland Islands, the ranking is skewed, as their population is about 26,000 inhabitants.

On the fast-climbers side, Hong Kong jumped 10 places (from 19th to 9th) but the most surprising climb comes from Ukraine, which rose from 35th place to 16th! Well done!

Are there other statistics you would be curious to see here? Let us know!

PS: Like the last time, to calculate the data above we took into account only countries with more than 10 members and excluded countries which were too small or of which we did not have any relevant population data.

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54 comments so far

geminiscp, Portugal
go, Finland! :)
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Khrystia, Ukraine
Well done, Ukraine :)
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HinArien, Ukraine
We had quite a lot publications about Postcrossing and at least 2 times a shory story about Postcrossing was in evening news lately - that is just what I remember now, it was 3 or even times on news besides that, earlier during last 13 months :)
Each time after news' airing we in ukrainian community watched as the number of ukrainian users grows even more rapidly :)
I hope they enjoy this :)
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Jamie1972, Switzerland
Åland Islands? Never heard of them - went to google and now I know something more! Yay for postcrossing teaching me new things all the time :)
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Cardiffgal, United States of America
Such a great way to touch those around the world, I just love post crossing! Thanks for all your good work and thank you to all my fellow post crossers - hoping to see you in my mailbox soon!
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Vishpri, Finland
Åland Islands is an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingually Swedish-speaking region of Finland. So It´s part of Finland, not independent country.
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Nath09, Belgium
Has someone ever made a study about the reasons for the high percentage of postcrossers in Finland? What makes postcrossing so attractive and addicting for Finns? They are only 5 million inhabitants and they are number 1 in postcrossingworld. What is the secret?
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postmuse, United States of America
Not surprised to see Belarus moving up! I've been seeing more and more wonderful BY ids in my mailboxes. They have some really nice "Fauna of Belarus" postcards.
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meiadeleite, Portugal
@Vishpri We write countries because "Countries, dependent territories or regions of special interest which enjoy a certain degree of autonomy" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue... :) We know what you mean though, and we've explained it here: http://www.postcrossing.com/help/questions-about-the-countries-in-postcrossing
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Fekete_tukor, Belarus
How nice to see Belarus at such good place on top:)
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Vishpri, Finland
Okay, thanks :) I love postcrossing and I would love to have card from Åland Islands, or Ahvenanmaa as we say in Finland.
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ned44440, Ireland
Great to see Ireland on the way up the league table.
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Snui, Austria
Yay, well done, Austria :)
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groman, United States of America
Yay Finland!!!
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hmthompson, United States of America
I would welcome an accurate number of "actually engaged/within the past year" participants along with a True accounting of countries involved in this project . . . not just any country which has ever signed up within memory. Be careful what you wish for. Number crunching can misrepresent the factual statistics. Postcrossing is an excellent site but I am uneasy about "spin" on numbers.
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Joy63, Australia
Come on Aussies!!
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aberline, Australia
I love statistics! They are just for fun, it doesnt matter if they have anomalies...keep 'em coming!

And my vote is for a league table of popular cards...by year, by country and all time.

P.s yes hmthompson it would be interesting to see active member stats for 2012 although it doesnt really worry me
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aberline, Australia
p.s i reckon the most popular card of all time must be the 10 millionth card right?
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aberline, Australia
http://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/JP-232027
favourited 1137 times!
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Iryna1, United States of America
Aw, Belarus, it is like a balm for my heart! I am so happy for my people that they found such a nice hobby that brings joy and light in everyday life, found a way to share Belarusian rich history and culture and make pen pals or true friends! XO
Thank you, Postcrossing Crew!
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bornokyo, Philippines
Congrats Finland! I hope my country (Philippines) would have more postcrossers as well!
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Oswaldo_Ruiz_Ch, Belgium
I agree with Aberline. I would love to see stats on favourite cards, by year, by country and all time!! I just get very happy when someone "likes" one of my cards (the ones I've sent and the ones I've received)
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Ankica, Croatia
Very nice. However, bad statistics for Croatia. :(
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Mamanita, Netherlands
So many country's i didn't get a card from yet. Maybe someday i hope.
The Netherlands is 4th. Great but why do i only know one other person in real live who does postcrossing. :D
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Apwohalyptica, Lithuania
I'm from Lithuania and I love Finland very much... Guess how surprising it was to see these two countries at the very top of the list?! :) YAY for Postcrossing!
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MiniP, Japan
What? No Japan? This is a great excuse to get my students involved to try and get Japan on the list!! がんばって!!
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T0SHI, Japan
I think Japan may in this list.
But, no Japan...
I try to calculate,
Japan has...
3.95 Postcrossers/100,000person
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rosenbusch, Germany
a very interesting ranking....
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Pebbles84, Netherlands
I love these kind of statistics! Very interesting list, and nice to see rankings from a different perspective :)
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Scots_quine, United Kingdom
I too would like to see the number of active Postcrossers in each country. I think the total number of Postcrossers is very misleading as a lot (majority?) are inactive.
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tumbleweed, Germany
Average time people are active on postcrossing would be quite interesting.

As someone who is very interested in social inequalities and works at a place where statistis are part of everyday life I would also find it very interesting to look into why there are few postcrossers in some parts of the world. Is it for financial reasons? Lack of acccess to computers? Limited availability of postal services? Or maybe it's just that writing postcards is less rooted in local cultures? Questions upon questions ...
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Stasele, Netherlands
- Well done Lithuania (and others)!
Maybe now the Lithuanian postcrossers will give up their "I live in a small country near the Baltic Sea"-shyness. In Postcrossing, Lithuania is a bright spot on the map of the world! (By the way, I owe my connection to Postcrossing to one long-term member from Lithuania ... ačiū ačiū ačiū = thanks ever so much!) Great country, great people. :)

- Apart from that, yes, I would like to see the grade of activity of members... maybe an average of cards sent per month over the last year or so. I suppose that would be a lot of work, but it would definitely be appreciated by many postcrossers.

- Thanks for taking the effort of compiling this fascinating statistics! And please publish a similar blog post in about another 13 months, so everyone can see how things evolve / develop further.
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SaskiaL, Germany
interesting ranking .... Well done Belarus :-)
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Olha_K, Poland
Proud to be Ukrainian postcrosser :)
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vogatka2005, Ukraine
I am so proud of Ukraine
My sister is a journalist and she made some news for local TV channel. My student was involved in this video too. I personally tell A LOT about PC. and 7 of my students were involved.They are beginners but I am so happy that they practice English and learn new facts about the world
well done, everybody
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Atvirutes, United States of America
Yay, Lithuania! Valio Lietuvai!
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nugget, United States of America
Interesting to see the numbers. There are so many ways to present the statistics and each way creates a different picture.
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zhan, China
what I want to say is that there are too many people in China...
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bodrumlu, Turkey
a country with a population of 76 million, more than 12 million of it are young(ages 15-24), however only 6 in 100,000 people are interested in such a great hobby, collecting postcards. Turkish youths need to be encouraged to join such activities, rather than having a new model phone (and show off to friends) or playing computer games too long.
I'm so sad about the situation :(
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Mitzimaybe, United Kingdom
Tumbleweed - Sending postcards may be too expensive for the general population of quite a few countries. Another reason could simply be that they don't know about it!
____________________

I'm another who would like to see these statistics re-done for active users only, rather than anyone who has ever signed up, although how to define "active" is a tricky question.
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captain_airfix, United Kingdom
How come Antarctica isn't top of the list - it has one member (this despite a quoted population of zero)....
You have to admit this is a pretty high ratio of members to population (infinity, in fact)
:-)
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arjakos, Finland
The Finns are good ! :) ...Maybe the postcrossing is excellent choice to get a contact to all around the world....we have so lonely place between Russia and Swerige! :)
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Mitzimaybe, United Kingdom
captain_airfix: Read the P.S. at the bottom of the article!
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hmthompson, United States of America
Exactly how many countries were included in the calculations ?
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hmthompson, United States of America
Once again (2 Mar ): Exactly how many countries were included in the calculations ?
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ericdeng, Taiwan
Please come on, Taiwan !
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martymarty, Czech Republic
I am surprised Russia is not that high as I would expect - my every second card (or even more) is sent there..... sadly nearly half of them expire and are undelivered :-(. There must be some "cardeater" on the way from China to Russia :-(
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meiadeleite, Portugal
@hmthompson: when you exclude the smaller countries, those with non-relevant population data and those with less than 10 members, it leaves around 116 countries.
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lukaszflammeux, Canada
it's not just you, martymarty. i've had cards to russia 'eaten' as well. cards to China too tend to disappear an awful lot.
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hmthompson, United States of America
Thank you for the response. I love this site and I believe you manage an enviably reputable operation. At times our (my) expectations of reaching remote countries are a fantasy based on statistics which do not support those hopes.
Zanadu . . . Shangri La . . .Atlantis . . . the romance of lost worlds.
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JSchulz, Australia
Hi all of us who have experienced the sadness of the "eaten" card to Russia or China, I have found that if you put the address on the card in Chinese or Russian scrip they seem to have a better chance of reaching their destination. Just a little tip!
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zwesty, Indonesia
Still a long way to go for Indonesia..
How about ranking of favorite postcard numbers among countries.. It will be fun to see.. :)
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sonix, China
Does 2.64 per 1000,000 inhabitants low enough put China like a remote planet?
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Mitzimaybe, United Kingdom
JSchulz - where the member has given their address in their local script I always use that in preference to the latin alphabet script. Unfortunately I don't have the skill or technology to translate correctly if they haven't supplied it. I know Postcrossing encourages the use of English but I'd be really grateful if everyone could enter their address in their local script.
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