Nominet’s Online World 2025 maps the latest global trends
Oxford, UK – 3rd December 2025: Nominet, guardians of the .UK domain have released the latest edition of its Online World Map. Available now for download – it uses each national registry’s total domains under management (DUM) to determine the size of the country on the map. The result is an interpretation of the world’s geography by domain registration.
Since Nominet’s last World Map in 2020, the shape of the online world has changed dramatically, as country-code top level domains (ccTLD) have become a powerful indicator of digital trends – reflecting everything from fighting crime to the latest tech innovations. The UK continues to punch above its weight, with .UK remaining in the top three ccTLDs with over 10m registered domains in 2025.
The key trends for 2025 include:
The battle against domain abuse steps up
Tokelau’s ccTLD, .tk, has dramatically shrunk from over 24m domains in 2010 to just under 80k in 2025. The domain was offered for free, which led to widespread misuse for phishing and malware. The registry also faced a lawsuit by Meta over ignored abuse complaints. Last year (2024), over 12.6m domains on Freenom-controlled TLDS (.tk, .cf and gq) were shut down, as did the registry itself.
While .tk represents an extreme case, domain abuse remains an ongoing industry wide challenge. National domain names registries like Nominet are investing in combatting domain abuse through enhanced technology and data sharing initiatives.
ccTLDs used as generic terms
This trend is driven by registries marketing their two-letter domain combination to appeal to a different audience, often after relaxing geographic restrictions on usage. Since 2020:
- .id (Indonesia) for identification products has jumped from over 370k to around 1.29m DUM
- .ai (Anguilla) used for artificial intelligence is up from over 80k to around 786k DUM
- .cx (Christmas Island) for customer experience has gone from almost 10k to over 17k DUM
- .io (British Indian Ocean Territory) has now grown to over 1.1m DUM for its tech and cryptocurrency uses due to its abbreviation for “input/output”. The UK’s recent decision to hand over control over the Chagos Islands as part of a treaty with Mauritius has raised questions in the industry about the future of this domain.
Going up or holding ground
- Despite being well established markets, Australia and Germany have seen an uptick in domains, with DUM rising by over 1m and 981k respectively, since 2020.
- Meanwhile despite the ongoing conflict, Ukraine’s domain has held steady – at almost 500k DUM.
- While our graphic draws from the UN’s ISO 3166 list of official country codes, and corresponding data for each, there are now 6.2m internationalized domain names (those using non-latin script) that are part of the wider picture. For instance, when including non-Latin scripts, China’s domain count would rise from 12 million to 13.3 million. We also have seen the Russian Federation’s Cyrillic ccTLD rise in popularity, increasing by almost 45k DUM since 2020.
“Domain names are more than just web addresses. They have the potential to tell the story of global connectivity, politics, culture – and crime,”
“As the guardian of the .UK domain, Nominet keeps a close eye on the changing online landscape to understand our place within it. We’re seeing some countries strategically re-position their domains to appeal more to new audiences. From the rise of use-case domains to the impact of domain abuse, country code domains continue to be used to make a statement in our increasingly digital world.”
– Paul Fletcher, CEO, Nominet
Read our deep dive blog article and download The Online World 2025 map.
Source: ZookNic and Domain Tools, 2025