Popularity of Basketball Around the World
Basketball is a very popular sport played all around the world, though it is more popular in certain countries particularly the US where it was invented. Here we use online search traffic for the term 'Basketball' to analyze which countries it is more popular. See also the lists of popular sports in many countries.
Basketball is most popular, based on online searches for that term, in the USA. By the large list below it is clear how well the sport of basketball has spread from where it was invented to around the world.
| ranking | Country | Regional Popularity * |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 100 |
| 2 | Philippines | 71 |
| 3 | Australia | 42 |
| 4 | Canada | 41 |
| 5 | Iraq | 32 |
| 6 | Mongolia | 29 |
| 7 | Lebanon | 26 |
| 8 | Lithuania | 23 |
| 9 | Macedonia | 22 |
| 10 | New Zealand | 20 |
| 11 | Puerto Rico | 20 |
| 12 | Afghanistan | 19 |
| 13 | Greece | 16 |
| 14 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 16 |
| 15 | Jamaica | 16 |
| 16 | Singapore | 15 |
| 17 | Fiji | 15 |
| 18 | Germany | 15 |
| 19 | Ghana | 15 |
| 20 | Estonia | 14 |
| 21 | Ireland | 13 |
| 22 | Zimbabwe | 13 |
| 23 | Uganda | 13 |
| 24 | Cameroon | 13 |
| 25 | Dominican Republic | 13 |
| 26 | Slovenia | 12 |
| 27 | Botswana | 12 |
| 28 | Georgia | 12 |
| 29 | Croatia | 12 |
| 30 | Trinidad and Tobago | 12 |
| 31 | Ethiopia | 11 |
| 32 | Nepal | 11 |
| 33 | Uruguay | 11 |
| 34 | Latvia | 10 |
| 35 | Hong Kong | 10 |
| 36 | United Kingdom | 10 |
| 37 | Nigeria | 10 |
| 38 | Tanzania | 10 |
| 39 | Kenya | 10 |
| 40 | Senegal | 9 |
| 41 | Albania | 9 |
| 42 | United Arab Emirates | 8 |
| 43 | Costa Rica | 8 |
| 44 | Honduras | 8 |
| 45 | Malaysia | 8 |
| 46 | Cote d'Ivoire | 8 |
| 47 | Myanmar | 7 |
| 48 | Sri Lanka | 7 |
| 49 | Austria | 7 |
| 50 | Nicaragua | 7 |
| 51 | Mauritius | 7 |
| 52 | Panama | 7 |
| 53 | Israel | 6 |
| 54 | Indonesia | 6 |
| 55 | Switzerland | 6 |
| 56 | South Korea | 6 |
| 57 | Denmark | 6 |
| 58 | Kuwait | 6 |
| 59 | El Salvador | 6 |
| 60 | Jordan | 6 |
| 61 | Norway | 6 |
| 62 | Bulgaria | 6 |
| 63 | Guatemala | 6 |
| 64 | Ecuador | 5 |
| 65 | Mexico | 5 |
| 66 | India | 5 |
| 67 | Chile | 5 |
| 68 | Czechia | 5 |
| 69 | Netherlands | 5 |
| 70 | Thailand | 5 |
| 71 | Belgium | 4 |
| 72 | Morocco | 4 |
| 73 | South Africa | 4 |
| 74 | Tunisia | 4 |
| 75 | Moldova | 4 |
| 76 | Syria | 4 |
| 77 | Slovakia | 4 |
| 78 | Bangladesh | 4 |
| 79 | Hungary | 4 |
| 80 | Oman | 4 |
| 81 | Portugal | 4 |
| 82 | Azerbaijan | 4 |
| 83 | Iran | 4 |
| 84 | Paraguay | 3 |
| 85 | Pakistan | 3 |
| 86 | Venezuela | 3 |
| 87 | Bolivia | 3 |
| 88 | Colombia | 3 |
| 89 | Peru | 3 |
| 90 | Sweden | 3 |
| 91 | France | 3 |
| 92 | Spain | 3 |
| 93 | Poland | 3 |
| 94 | Finland | 3 |
| 95 | Taiwan | 3 |
| 96 | Algeria | 3 |
| 97 | Romania | 3 |
| 98 | Türkiye | 3 |
| 99 | Saudi Arabia | 3 |
| 100 | Egypt | 2 |
| 101 | Palestinian Territory | 2 |
| 102 | Argentina | 2 |
| 103 | Italy | 2 |
| 104 | Belarus | 2 |
| 105 | Russian Federation | 2 |
| 106 | Viet Nam | 2 |
| 107 | Ukraine | 1 |
| 108 | Japan | 1 |
| 109 | China | 1 |
| 110 | Brazil | 1 |
* Regional Popularity is a relative term (proportional to the most popular term and related to the popularity of other terms in each region), and does not represent an actual number of searches.
Source
- This list is derived from Google Insights for Search, collected over a four year period (Jan 2007 to Jan 2011).
Related Pages
- most popular sports in many countries
- other top 10 lists of the world's most popular sports
- Other world sport lists
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Old Comments
Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.
- Homas Chahri (2015)
What that means? How is it done? Do you pretend basketball is more popular in Irak than in Lithuania, Serbia not in this top, France #91whereas UK is #36, Spain #92...is it really a study? it looks like random numbers! - Rob Admin Thomas Chahri (2015)
It's not random numbers, though not easy to comprehend. Google provides this data based on searches on this topic around the world. The numbers represent the popularity of basketball searches relative to searches for other terms in each country. - Thomas Chahri Rob (2016)
The results seems very far from the reality of basketball country. I think too that methodology is wrong. Iraq, Mongolia, Afghanistan on the top??? It would be better to look at number of people playing basketball, in how many people go to see games, see NBA on tv or in NBA league pass. Obviously you didn't rank with the right elements, you have non-basketball countries in the top 20, whereas countries in which basketball is one of the 5 major sports ranked 100 and more (Brazil-Italy-Russia-China).How many people did attend the Brazil Basketball Div 1? And how many in Mongolia? In Botswana same popularity than in Croatia? Something goes very wrong. For me you looked for terms not used in each language, it provides a fully non-sense - Del (2014)
canada ? he just drew up the rules and allowed dribling, try England and look up "netball" a girls game - Vincent Bianchi (2020)
Basketball is more popular in the philippines than the us...the us has 5 popular sports - football soccer basketball baseball hockey. The philippines has only one... - ADI (2019)
Isn't Basketball a Canadian sport?? - Disqus_FZcsNmwhLX aDI (2019)
The creator of basketball was born in Canada, but he became an American citizen and created basketball in America. Basketball originated in America. - Alex (2015)
what do the numbers in regional popularity mean - Rob Admin alex (2015)
I know it sounds a bit confusing. The regional popularity value is calculated based on how it relates to the most popular term and also to other terms in the region. - Chenay kelly (2015)
which country plays basketball the most???? - Bieber (2013)
is that all of the countries? - Loool bieber (2019)
No this world has a whole lot more than that - Mysterygirl (2013)
how are we suposed to count all these - Bigbouch (2014)
basket ball was created in Canada - Hugh G. Rection bigbouch (2014)
James Naismith invented the game in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the Basketball Hall of Fame is located. Last time I checked, MA isn't in Canada. - MrHolmes bigbouch (2015)
It was created in the US, but by a Canadian. James Naismith was born and grew up mostly in Ontario, Canada.
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