The map above shows which word appears most often on each country’s English language Wikipedia page. For example, on the Wikipedia page about Canada, the word ‘Quebec’ appears more often than any other.
Note, that this excludes: “Country”, linking words, demonyms and “government”.
There are a few interesting findings. For example,
- On the North Korea page, ‘South’ appears most often, whereas for South Korea ‘North’ appears most often.
- The most common word in on the UK page is ‘Ireland’ but the most common word on the Ireland page is ‘State’.
- Morocco’s is ‘Sahara’ and Western Sahara’s is ‘Moroc’ (Morocco in French)
- Most island countries have ‘Island’ as the most recurring word.
- Most countries of the former Soviet Union have ‘Soviet’ as their most common word.
- ‘World’ is the most common word across Europe and is likely due to World War One and Two.
- The United States most common word is ‘War’ (along with Spain’s)
To learn more about Wikipedia have a look at the following books:
- The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia
- You Could Look It Up: The Reference Shelf From Ancient Babylon to Wikipedia
- [Citation Needed]: The Best of Wikipedia’s Worst Writing
Find something interesting on the map? Then leave it in the comments section below:
Jacques says
Morocco’s is ‘Sahara’ and Western Sahara’s is ‘Maroc’ (Morocco in French), not ‘Moroc’
😉
Bukkiah says
United States page most frequent word is clearly “state” (534 total, 358 which are not in references area) not “war” (71 total, 55 above references area).
Methodology is insufficiently explained (or out of date with current content perhaps).
Also words like “postwar” are counted in my count (if you just search for war, then “award” etc would come up)
Brian Coffey says
Every country I checked was wrong. That unfortunately casts a lot of doubt on the veracity of all your maps.