In 2013, we shared some Coffee Review readership data in a piece titled “Who Cares about Coffee Anyway.” It proved popular so we updated and expanded the information in a series of blog posts in early 2014 that looked at readership by city, state, and country.
We’ve updated the data with a quick look at reader data in early 2015. As in the past, we looked at the data three ways: overall readership, per capita readership adjusted for population, and year-over-year percentage growth. Because we launched a new website in 2014, which had a dramatic impact on page views, this year we’re ranking the data by page views instead of traffic and we’re looking at a 2-month snapshot from January and February 2015 versus 2014.
Ranking by Overall Readership
Overall readership by country in 2015, as measured by page views, was largely predictable and consistent with traffic data from past years. Countries with large English-speaking populations tend to rank higher on the list. In fact, the top three countries on the list – United States, Canada, and United Kingdom – remain unchanged from 2014 to 2015. They all have significant English speaking populations, well developed coffee cultures, strong purchasing power, as well as high Internet access and literacy rates.
As we noted in the past, English-speaking population may not be as big of a factor as one thinks. I was surprised by the countries that have the largest English-speaking populations: 1) United States; 2) India; 3) Pakistan; 4) Nigeria; 5) United Kingdom. Canada is tenth on the list. Australia is 13th. View the full list on Wikipedia.
With that in mind, it’s notable that Taiwan leapfrogged Australia into the No. 4 spot on the list. This is remarkable though not terribly surprising to those who are already aware that the coffee market in Taiwan is vibrant and growing rapidly. Coffee Review even has a page dedicated to coffees roasted in Taiwan. Watch out U.K.!
Two other big moves…. China, which obviously has a huge population and was No. 1 in growth rate in 2013, dropped from the No. 7 spot to No. 12, as growth simply didn’t keep pace with other countries in the top 10. We’re not sure how to explain the explosive growth in page views from Bulgaria, jumping from No. 49 in 2014 to No. 19 in 2015. It may be a genuine market change or, perhaps just as likely, a statistical anomaly that has to do with the relatively short snapshot and the relatively small base of readers in 2014.
Ranking by Page Views (2014 rank in parentheses):
1. United States (1)
2. Canada (2)
3. United Kingdom (3)
4. Taiwan (5)
5. Australia (4)
6. Thailand (6)
7. India (8)
8. Malaysia (9)
9. South Korea (11)
10. Philippines (10)
11. Indonesia (14)
12. China (7)
13. Hong Kong (12)
14. Singapore (13)
15. Greece (17)
16. Netherlands (16)
17. Germany (15)
18. Turkey (30)
19. Bulgaria (49)
20. Japan (18)
Ranking by Per Capita Readership
When we look at per capita data, we see a different picture, one that is not driven by population and English-speaking population. Countries with smaller populations are not fundamentally disadvantaged in the rankings.
The top 5 spots on a per capita basis remained the same: United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. As we noted earlier, Bulgaria jumped from the No. 29 position in 2014 to No. 6 in early 2015. The population of Bulgaria is about 7.5 million so, statistically, it’s easier to make a big jump with a relatively small increase in readership.
Ranking by Per Capita Page Views (2014 rank in parentheses):
1. United States (1)
2. Canada (2)
3. Singapore (3)
4. Hong Kong (4)
5. Taiwan (5)
6. Bulgaria (29)
7. Australia (6)
8. Ireland (7)
9. United Kingdom (9)
10. Greece (11)
11. Puerto Rico (16)
12. New Zealand (7)
13. Finland (20)
14. Denmark (12)
15. Norway (10)
16. United Arab Emirates (15)
17. Netherlands (18)
18. Panama (19)
19. Malaysia (17)
20. Slovakia (14)
Ranking by Percentage Growth
Finally, we again looked at percentage growth from early 2014 to 2015, where smaller countries have an advantage because their readership is growing off of a smaller base. So, while the United States may have the most page views and most page views per capita, it tends to grow more slowly than other smaller countries.
One might argue that this list is the best gauge of “Where Coffee is Hot,” as positioning can quickly change over the course of a single year. Bulgaria topped the list with year-over-year readership growth of more than 500%. We included 23 countries on this list, as they all showed growth in page views of more than 40% over 2014.
Ranking by Percentage Growth from 2014 to 2015:
1. Bulgaria
2. Hungary
3. Panama
4. Turkey
5. Israel
6. United Arab Emirates
7. Puerto Rico
8. Finland
9. Greece
10. Thailand
11. Poland
12. Pakistan
13. Romania
14. Colombia
15. Japan
16. Indonesia
17. India
18. Norway
19. Saudi Arabia
20. Sweden
21. United States
22. Netherlands
23. Malaysia
Tomorrow, we’ll post a piece on “Where Coffee in Hot in the U.S.”
