The latest progress report from the .eu registry, EURid, is showning that the number of .eu registrations increased by 4,578 domain names, a net increase of 0.1%, to 3.85 million during Q3 2015.
Iceland, Cyprus and Poland all saw growth of more than 7%.
By the end of the quarter there were a total of 743 .eu accredited registrars, the top ten registrars accounted for 36.9% of all .eu registrations. During the third quarter, the total number of .eu registrations increased in 19 countries.
The countries in the top ten list account for 87.5% of all .eu registrations. German residents have by far the most .eu domain name registrations, followed by residents of the Netherlands and France. Residents in the European Economic Area (EEA) countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway became eligible to register .eu domain names on 8 January 2014. At the end of Q2 registrants in Norway had registered 14 123 names, Iceland 529 and Liechtenstein 166.
.eu registrars can be located outside the EU. Categorising registrations by country of registrar shows many similarities with the categorisation by country of registrant. The main difference is that the USA, Denmark and Canada are on the top ten list based on country of registrar but not based on country of registrant, while the opposite holds true for Belgium, Austria and Spain. In Q3 2015, the countries in the top ten list of registrations based on country of registrar accounted for 85.3% of all .eu registrations.
EURid aims to improve the quality of .eu WHOIS data and subsequently launched its WHOIS Quality Programme to verify the registration data of .eu domain name holders and to correct any possible inaccuracy. The Programme represents just one of the .eu registry’s objectives to keep the .eu environment safe and secure.
The full report is available here.