Europe's data protection hotspots: Where interest is highest

Interest in data protection continues to boom among Germans. Particularly since the hype surrounding artificial intelligence, this topic has gained even more traction. At Chatarmin, we took a closer look at the trend and analyzed where interest in data protection topics is greatest in selected European countries. For our analysis, we analyzed the ten most searched Google queries per month in the respective national language in 20 selected European countries from January 2019 to August 2020 in relation to “data protection” and created a ranking based on the regional reference in relation to 100,000 inhabitants. The result:

United Kingdom and Germany with the most searches

With an average of 61.8 monthly searches per 100,000 inhabitants, the United Kingdom leads the ranking. Germany follows in second place with 37.9 searches, while Switzerland comes in third with 33.8 searches. Spain is in fourth place with 29.9 requests per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Austria with 25 and France with 20.1. These countries dominate the European data protection interest in relation to population.

Moderate interest in smaller and southern European countries

In smaller countries such as the Netherlands (16.2) and Portugal (18.8), interest in the topic of data protection remains moderate. In Northern Europe, Sweden, often considered a pioneer in data protection, has a surprisingly low volume of 5.1 search queries per 100,000 inhabitants. The situation is similar in Italy (3.4) and Greece (1.2).

Lower interest in Eastern Europe

Eastern European countries record the lowest search volumes in comparison. Poland reaches 11.8 queries per 100,000 inhabitants and is therefore still in the midfield. Countries such as Serbia (1.1), Romania (0.4) and Hungary (0.2) occupy the last places in the ranking.

“In German-speaking countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland, it is particularly noticeable that data protection topics are often searched for in connection with mobile devices such as cell phones,” explains Johannes Mansbart, CEO of chatarmin.com. ”In contrast, in countries such as France and the United Kingdom, computers dominate as the most common device associated with data protection search queries. These differences may result from different usage habits or indicate unequal risk perception on different devices.”

About the research

The ten most searched Google queries per month in 20 selected European countries from January 2019 to August 2020 were analyzed in relation to “data protection” in the respective national language. A ranking was created based on the regional reference and the search volume was set in relation to 100,000 inhabitants.