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Couchsurfing by the numbers

by Aaron Hotfelder (RSS feed) on Sep 1st 2008 at 12:30PM

Just how popular is Couchsurfing these days? According to the site's most recent stats, sleeping on other people's couches is pretty darn popular: there are over 700,000 registered users and 622,000 successful "surfings" have taken place since the inception of the site four years ago. Couchsurfers live in approximately 47,000 cities and towns (wow!), and the most popular destinations are Paris, London, Montreal, and Berlin, respectively.

Couchsurfing reports that 51.4% of its users are male, 40.4% are female and the rest are unknown (or undecided). Couchsurfers can speak over 1,200 languages, with English, French, Spanish, and German being the most predominant. The least-spoken languages, in case you were wondering, are Ligurian, Manchu, and Sibe. I confess to not knowing what exactly those are.

Perhaps the most impressive Couchsurfing statistic is its rate of growth over the last four years. In July of 2004, 536 new Couchsurfers signed up for the site. Four years later, in July 2008, about 55,000 signed up in the same amount of time.

Haven't tried Couchsurfing yet? Head over to the site and see what all the fuss is about.

[link via the Freakonomics blog]

Filed under: Budget Travel, Internet Tools

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