Where do all the Geek Trivia fanatics come from?

So my buddy Eric in CNET's Outbound Engineering Group (AKA: e-mail) just snuck me some data about my Geek Trivia subscriber base, broken down by country and state of origin. And like all data, the quirks are fascinating.

First of all, I'm read by about 60,000 people in 205 countries (though in 24 of those, I only have one subscriber)! I have triple-digit subscribers in 35 countries, including Iran (104), Pakistan (239), and South Africa (741). Strangely, I have more readers in Vietnam (143) than I have in Germany (131), Italy (126), Greece (116), or Spain (109). Apparently, I need to write more columns about the European Union.

I have quadruple-digit subscriber bases in five countries — India (3,468), The United Kingdom (3,430), Canada (2,542), Australia (1,788), and, strangely, the Philippines (1,151). First of all, I never expected India to be the runner-up country in which I have the most readers. Populous it may be, but it's not like I rattle off an endless series of Bollywood columns. (Note to self: Write some Bollywood columns.)

I am equally surprised at the Philippines love, unless my former fellow CNET-er (and development blogger) RexWorld has given me some unexpected Filipino street cred. I was disappointed in the Canadian showing, but I'll cut them some slack in that there's only about 32 million of them, compared to India's billion-strong status as the world's second most populous country. Per capita, the maple-leafers are well-represented.

I have a five-digit base in just one country, as slightly more than half my readers are from the United States. I honestly expected much more of a U.S. bias, but it turns out my fellow Americans constitute a slim (52 percent) majority of my reader base. Guess I'll shelve the U.S. presidential history until my next Independence Day theme column.

I have a breakdown of my readers by U.S. state as well, though it really swings out as a general U.S. population skew. That said, I have more subscribers in unaffiliated U.S. military ZIP codes (57) than I have in Wyoming (53) or South Dakota (50). Guess I'm not highly thought of around Mount Rushmore.

Meanwhile, they love me in California, Texas, and New York, where I have at least 2,000 subscribers apiece. Expect Trivia questions about the Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, and Johnson Space Center to satisfy these domestic constituencies.

Finally, to the 189 people who read my stuff in Nigeria — if you could track down these guys and kick the crap out of them for the rest of us, I think we'd all be grateful.

By Jay Garmon

Jay Garmon has a vast and terrifying knowledge of all things obscure, obtuse, and irrelevant. One day, he hopes to write science fiction, but for now he'll settle for something stranger — amusing and abusing IT pros. Read his full profile. You can a...
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