In the right hand column of this blog you see a flag counter which records the number of visitors from each country. As of today, this blog has had visitors from 204 different countries. The US, Germany and the UK are the top three countries. (The distribution on my German blog is of course different.) From many countries, like Niger, Gabon and Vanuatu, I have only had one visit so far. The latest country to be added to the list was Liberia on 5 December 2012.
Some smart-ass will say “But there are only 193 countries in the world”, probably referring to the number of UN member states. But of course you don’t need to be a member of the UN in order to be a state; just take the examples of Taiwan or Kosovo. And then there are a number of disputed territories.
In any case, just click on the flag counter on the right hand side to get the details. If you dispute the independence of Kosovo or believe that the Falkland Islands belong to Argentina, you can take your fight to the company that made this flag counter – or discuss it in the comment section below.
More interestingly, the flag counter also lists 33 countries from where my blog has not yet had a single visitor.
The countries or regions that are still missing are:
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- Burkina Faso (UPDATE: I had a visitor from Burkina Faso on 25 April 2013.)
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Cook Islands
- Curacao (UPDATE: I have now had a visitor from Curacao, shortly after publishing this blog post.)
- Falkland Islands
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kiribati
- Mayotte
- Micronesia (UPDATE: Someone from Micronesia visited my blog on 20 February 2013.)
- Montserrat
- Nauru
- Niue
- North Korea
- Palau (UPDATE: On 24 February 2013 I had a visitor from Palau.)
- Republic of the Congo
- Saint Helena
- Saint Martin
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Samoa (UPDATE: Just had a visitor from Samoa. 22 April 2013.)
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Sint Maarten
- Solomon Islands
- Timor-Leste (UPDATE: On 22 April – Earth Day – 2013 I had a visitor from Timor-Leste.)
- Tokelau
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- United States Minor Outlying Islands
- Wallis and Futuna
- Western Sahara
Thinking about how this list will be reduced over time, I have been wondering: “Which country will be the last one to remain on this list?” Where will people refuse to read my writings until the bitter end? Or: where are people so happy that they don’t even think of wasting their time on the internet? – And I decided to make the promise (or threat) that I will visit the country which will be the last remaining one to have ignored my blog and I will then write and report extensively about it. I just hope it won’t be North Korea.
If you want, I bet I can get the Falklands off that list for you. (And be thankful, you little upstart – my blog doesn’t even HAVE 33 countries reading it! :p )
North Korea will be the last country to read your blog unless of course ‘The Great Leader’ himself decides to read your blog, which in itself would be a good reason to go there.
I bet he would not like what I previously wrote about North Korea: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/why-north-korea-is-mourning/
I’m in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. I might be in Saint-Martin soon, so when I cross over to the Dutch side (Sint Maarten) of the island, I’ll try to visit your blog on the iPhone!
I wonder if any of those countries has a complete lack of internet connectivity!
I wonder if some of them even have people living there.
They dont read you in Turkmenistan? Losers.
My blog is blocked by the censorship in Turkmenistan: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/censors-dont-like-this-blog/
Leaving aside the very few countries where Internet is banned (North Korea), I think the country where you are least likely to find a reader of your blog is Tokelau (actually a territory of New Zealand) if only for its very scant population: only 1,411 people lived there in 2011.