Pop

[Javaness2]

I decided to do a survey of player activity in EGF member countries. The survey was not very broad at all, and only looks at the number of people competing in a given year. In order to make some comparisons, I have chosen the years 2000 and 2005 to use as reference points. They give pre, and post, Hikaru boom figures. Then on top of that we have 2010, 2011, and 2012 to suggest the current trend.

I was surprised by the expansion in player population in Romania and Turkey. Most of the leading members have shown a drop in numbers over recent years. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean a decline in the number of Go players. The figures below represent only the tournament players, as sourced from the EGD. Makes you wonder about 1 vote per country

Current Major Nations, over 200 players

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Germany           789 1359 1219 1181 1145
France            714 722  1210 1152 1045
Russia            327 453  783  737  851
Romania           277 276  573  601  629
Turkey            4   74   264  282  347
United Kingdom    342 405  376  357  329
Netherlands       255 330  350  338  287
Poland            205 436  238  280  232
Czech Republic    225 257  253  234  232
Italy             136 135  239  244  225
Spain              61 207  233  232  213
Ukraine           181 185  217  203  206

Current Minor Nations, under 200 players

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Finland     75 218 224 196 178
Hungary     94 104 109 116 126
Switzerland 90 112 126 125 99
Sweden      54 139 136 102 93
Austria     48 87  88  83  82
Slovakia   100 78  76  78  77
Croatia     63 59  63  52  66
Lithuania   14 62  55  47  65
Belgium     67 103 86  74  62
Slovenia    46  43 52  52  53
Ireland      9  14 37  49  46
Israel       3  33 40  24  42
Norway      14  36 32  37  38
Denmark     30  39 37  30  22
Portugal     7  15 18  12  15
Cyprus       0  23 16  14  15
Latvia       1   1  1   1  15
Belarus      4   5  3   8   9
Luxembourg   3  16  4   2   5
Bulgaria     0   0 18   7   5
Bosnia      11  20 24  18   4
Azerbaijan   0   4  2   2   4
Armenia      2   1  1   1   1

I am not completely certain how Serbia has been classified in previous years, so I have omitted it from the list.