China may have the world’s largest human population, but if we were to re-size the planet according to country-code domain population, the story would a lot more different, according to a map by Nominet.

The UK-based domain name registry “Map of the Online World” shows that in this instance, the island of Tokleau, which has an official population of just ove 1200, has the largest domain name population at 31.3 million registrations under its .tk country-code domain.

China and Germany come in second place at over 16.8 million and 16 million respectively. South Africa’s country-code domain population stands at just over one million.

“The popularity of .tk is due to an unusual operating model, where domains can be registered for free and revenue comes from advertising.  According to some reports, one-sixth of Tokelau’s GDP comes from .tk domains,” Nominet explained.

Although Africa is the world’s second largest continent by size, on this map unfortunately, it’s almost unrecognisable as it’s shrunk significantly.

“Nominet’s map of the online world does seem to indicate some links between the size of a country’s internet domain, rate of internet adoption, and economic strength,” the company said. “Unfortunately, our map suggests that global inequality offline can often be mirrored by a lack of opportunity and representation in the online world.”

Africa has the smallest internet population and adoption in the world, with only 28% of the entire continent’s population accessing the internet, compared to other continent’s which have at least 40% of its population online.

Check the Map of the Online World out below.

[Source – Nominet, image – CC Alexas Fotos]