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+1 vote
5.8k views
I wonder whether there is a statistic on the total number of caches per country. We discussed the issue recently and I remembered to have heard that Germany is on No 2 on this list but there might be surprises if you look further and compare cache by area or by inhabitants (which of course could be easily done externally). Is anybody aware of a list how many caches are in which country, even if updated only there and then?
in Miscellaneous by Domino_67 (6.8k points)

4 Answers

+6 votes

Wrote a checker that shows that. It is slow runtime is 30+ s (Can be over a minute)


Archived and disabled excluded http://project-gc.com/Challenges//22476
Archived and disabled included http://project-gc.com/Challenges//22480

The top 10 is:

United States    2079371
Germany    734103
Canada    372934
United Kingdom    340904
France    236679
Sweden    154182
Australia    108271
Norway    88497
Spain    79230
Czech Republic    75702
by Target. (Expert) (104k points)
edited by Target. (Expert)
+5 votes

Because I was interested I did a version with cacher caches per capita
Archived and disabled excluded: http://project-gc.com/Challenges//22482
Archived and disabled included: http://project-gc.com/Challenges//22481

The bottom is easy "North Korea", "Nauru" and "Ivory Coast" has no active caches.
Bangladesh har 2 caches and 160 milion population and is worst that has caches

To top including archived is infinit because "Heard Island And Mcdonald Islands" and "Bouvet Island" has no population but have had caches. They are alos in the bottom of active caches since they have non

If only active is include the top 20 is: "South Georgia and Sandwich Islands" has no permanent population only temporary scientist/government personnel. Antarctica has 135 permanent residents the rest is temporary.
The top "complete" nation is Norway with 1336 caches /100 000
I would not feel that is is unfair to say that geocaching is the most popular in Norway if you count by caches per capita. All below that has small populations ans few caches so one active cache hide can make a large difference. The exception might be Aland Islands with 1385/100 000 . It has only 402 hides and 29013 population so one hider can make a big difference.
I am glad to see thatmy native Sweden is #3 or #4 of larger countries. 

Countrynr caches per 100 000 popnr cachesPopulation
South Georgia and Sandwich Islands16666.667530
Antarctica5100.000511000
Pitcairn Islands3571.429256
Niue2993.197441470
Falkland Islands2536.091652563
Svalbard and Jan Mayen2119.606562642
Norfolk Island1737.619402302
Aland Islands1385.58640229013
Norway1336.057699675236826
Isle of Man1185.841100284497
Sweden1083.0451072909906331
Vatican City State950.1198842
US Minor Outlying Islands949.3673316
Finland857.146470885493577
Guernsey711.12244862999
Canada645.43023563836508700
French Southern Territories645.1612310
Northern Mariana Islands614.682355694
New Zealand613.439288944710170
Liechtenstein608.67022937623
by Target. (Expert) (104k points)
edited by Target. (Expert)
Wow, this is great. Yes, I had this idea as well and also would be interested to compare by area of the country. Of course results will depend where you get the base data from ( I was thinking of Wikipedia for area and population) but either way I was mainly interested in the tendency. This is great, thanks a lot / tack så mycket!
Yes it was from wikipedia.
The area is easy to do except collecting the data.
using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_area might be an ide i used the simmilar page for population.
Open the checker and press view source. Copy line 28 to 277 with all countries. Create a copy with area insetead of population in km2. No , etc in the number.
The start would be the following. Post that here and i will create a checker for by area ranking

local countries ={ ["Afghanistan"]=652230
["Aland Islands"]=1580,
["Albania"]=28748,
["Algeria"]=2381741,

I suspect that Vatican City with 8 caches on 0.44 km2 =18 caches/km2 is the most
Very interesting statistics, thanks very much!
Thank you very much again. I will have to wait for a rainy afternoon to collect the area array but I will not challenge your Vatican City bet ;-)
+2 votes

just take a look here: http://project-gc.com/Statistics/Overview

there you can filter by Country, which will give you the total caches per country..

by Flep98 (1.1k points)
Oh, yeah, how could I have missed that? It is very close to what I would like (I have to check countries one by one and compile the list myself) but this will do. Thanks a lot!
+2 votes
@Target: Since I found for the area different numbers in different tables in Wikipedia, I took a list from the world factbook of the CIA and converted it in the format you requested:

["Afghanistan"]=652230,
["Aland Islands"]=1552,
["Albania"]=28748,
["Algeria"]=2381741,
["American Samoa"]=199,
["Andorra"]=468,
["Angola"]=1246700,
["Anguilla"]=91,
["Antarctica"]=14000000,
["Antigua and Barbuda"]=443,
["Argentina"]=2780400,
["Armenia"]=29743,
["Aruba"]=180,
["Australia"]=7741220,
["Austria"]=83871,
["Azerbaijan"]=86600,
["Bahamas"]=13880,
["Bahrain"]=760,
["Bangladesh"]=143998,
["Barbados"]=430,
["Belarus"]=207600,
["Belgium"]=30528,
["Belize"]=22966,
["Benin"]=112622,
["Bermuda"]=54,
["Bhutan"]=38394,
["Bolivia"]=1098581,
["Bonaire"]=294,
["Bosnia and Herzegovina"]=51197,
["Botswana"]=581730,
["Bouvet Island"]=49,
["Brazil"]=8514877,
["British Indian Ocean Territories"]=54400,
["British Virgin Islands"]=151,
["Brunei"]=5765,
["Bulgaria"]=110879,
["Burkina Faso"]=274200,
["Burundi"]=27830,
["Cambodia"]=181035,
["Cameroon"]=475440,
["Canada"]=9984670,
["Cape Verde"]=4033,
["Cayman Islands"]=264,
["Central African Republic"]=622984,
["Chad"]=1284000,
["Chile"]=756102,
["China"]=9596960,
["Christmas Island"]=135,
["Colombia"]=1138910,
["Comoros"]=2235,
["Congo"]=342000,
["Cook Islands"]=236,
["Costa Rica"]=51100,
["Croatia"]=56594,
["Cuba"]=110860,
["Curacao"]=444,
["Cyprus"]=9251,
["Czech Republic"]=78867,
["Democratic Republic of the Congo"]=2344858,
["Denmark"]=43094,
["Djibouti"]=23200,
["Dominica"]=751,
["Dominican Republic"]=48670,
["East Timor"]=14874,
["Ecuador"]=283561,
["Egypt"]=1001450,
["El Salvador"]=21041,
["Equatorial Guinea"]=28051,
["Eritrea"]=117600,
["Estonia"]=45228,
["Ethiopia"]=1104300,
["Falkland Islands"]=12173,
["Faroe Islands"]=1393,
["Fiji"]=18274,
["Finland"]=338145,
["France"]=643801,
["French Guiana"]=86504,
["French Polynesia"]=4167,
["French Southern Territories"]=55,
["Gabon"]=267667,
["Gambia The"]=11295,
["Georgia"]=69700,
["Germany"]=357022,
["Ghana"]=238533,
["Gibraltar"]=7,
["Greece"]=131957,
["Greenland"]=2166086,
["Grenada"]=344,
["Guadeloupe"]=1630,
["Guam"]=544,
["Guatemala"]=108889,
["Guernsey"]=78,
["Guinea"]=245857,
["Guinea-Bissau"]=36125,
["Guyana"]=214969,
["Haiti"]=27750,
["Heard Island and McDonald Islands"]=412,
["Honduras"]=112090,
["Hong Kong"]=1108,
["Hungary"]=93028,
["Iceland"]=103000,
["India"]=3287263,
["Indonesia"]=1904569,
["Iran"]=1648195,
["Iraq"]=438317,
["Ireland"]=70273,
["Isle of Man"]=572,
["Israel"]=20770,
["Italy"]=301340,
["Ivory Coast"]=322463,
["Jamaica"]=10991,
["Japan"]=377915,
["Jersey"]=116,
["Jordan"]=89342,
["Kazakhstan"]=2724900,
["Kenya"]=580367,
["Kiribati"]=811,
["Kuwait"]=17818,
["Kyrgyzstan"]=199951,
["Laos"]=236800,
["Latvia"]=64589,
["Lebanon"]=10400,
["Lesotho"]=30355,
["Liberia"]=111369,
["Libya"]=1759540,
["Liechtenstein"]=160,
["Lithuania"]=65300,
["Luxembourg"]=2586,
["Macau"]=28,
["Macedonia"]=25713,
["Madagascar"]=587041,
["Malawi"]=118484,
["Malaysia"]=329847,
["Maldives"]=298,
["Mali"]=1240192,
["Malta"]=316,
["Marshall Islands"]=181,
["Martinique"]=1128,
["Mauritania"]=1030700,
["Mauritius"]=2040,
["Mayotte"]=374,
["Mexico"]=1964375,
["Micronesia"]=702,
["Moldova"]=33851,
["Monaco"]=2,
["Mongolia"]=1564116,
["Montenegro"]=13812,
["Montserrat"]=102,
["Morocco"]=446550,
["Mozambique"]=799380,
["Myanmar"]=676578,
["Namibia"]=824292,
["Nauru"]=21,
["Nepal"]=147181,
["Netherlands Antilles"]=999,
["Netherlands"]=41543,
["New Caledonia"]=18575,
["New Zealand"]=267710,
["Nicaragua"]=130370,
["Niger"]=1267000,
["Nigeria"]=923768,
["Niue"]=260,
["Norfolk Island"]=36,
["North Korea"]=120538,
["Northern Mariana Islands"]=464,
["Norway"]=323802,
["Oman"]=309500,
["Pakistan"]=796095,
["Palau"]=459,
["Palestine"]=5860,
["Panama"]=75420,
["Papua New Guinea"]=462840,
["Paraguay"]=406752,
["Peru"]=1285216,
["Philippines"]=300000,
["Pitcairn Islands"]=47,
["Poland"]=312685,
["Portugal"]=92090,
["Puerto Rico"]=13790,
["Qatar"]=11586,
["Reunion"]=2512,
["Romania"]=238391,
["Russia"]=17098242,
["Rwanda"]=26338,
["Saba"]=13,
["Saint Helena"]=308,
["Saint Kitts and Nevis"]=261,
["Saint Lucia"]=616,
["Samoa"]=2831,
["San Marino"]=61,
["Sao Tome and Principe"]=964,
["Saudi Arabia"]=2149690,
["Senegal"]=196722,
["Serbia"]=77474,
["Seychelles"]=455,
["Sierra Leone"]=71740,
["Singapore"]=697,
["Slovakia"]=49035,
["Slovenia"]=20273,
["Solomon Islands"]=28896,
["Somalia"]=637657,
["South Africa"]=1219090,
["South Georgia and Sandwich Islands"]=3903,
["South Korea"]=99720,
["South Sudan"]=644329,
["Spain"]=505370,
["Sri Lanka"]=65610,
["St Martin"]=54,
["St Pierre Miquelon"]=242,
["St Vincent Grenadines"]=389,
["Sudan"]=1861484,
["Suriname"]=163820,
["Svalbard and Jan Mayen"]=62045,
["Swaziland"]=17364,
["Sweden"]=450295,
["Switzerland"]=41277,
["Syria"]=185180,
["Taiwan"]=35980,
["Tajikistan"]=143100,
["Tanzania"]=947300,
["Thailand"]=513120,
["Togo"]=56785,
["Tonga"]=747,
["Trinidad and Tobago"]=5128,
["Tunisia"]=163610,
["Turkey"]=783562,
["Turkmenistan"]=488100,
["Turks and Caicos Islands"]=948,
["Tuvalu"]=26,
["Uganda"]=241038,
["Ukraine"]=603550,
["United Arab Emirates"]=83600,
["United Kingdom"]=243610,
["United States"]=9826675,
["Uruguay"]=176215,
["US Virgin Islands"]=1910,
["Uzbekistan"]=447400,
["Vanuatu"]=12189,
["Vatican City State"]=0.44,
["Venezuela"]=912050,
["Vietnam"]=331210,
["Wallis and Futuna Island"]=142,
["Western Sahara"]=266000,
["Yemen"]=527968,
["Zambia"]=752618,
["Zimbabwe"]=390757,

It would be interesting to see the cache density by area...
by tadaima (12.5k points)
edited by tadaima
Wow, great, thanks again. I didn't find the time to do that...
...