<p>
The EURid registry managing the single gTLD for the European Union, .EU, has released its report for the 3rd quarter of this year. Its total registrations amounted to 3,617,536 as of September 30, down 6,155 names from the end of the previous quarter, showing a clear downward trend in the domain zone. Although quarterly losses do not look too bad, over the year, the .EU domain lost 130,343 domain names.</p>
<p>
The impending Brexit is cited as the main reason for the TLD’s shrinking, something confirmed by EURid statistics: over the year, the number of domains registered by British legal entities and individuals in the .EU zone plummeted by as much as 43.3 percent. Curiously though, the number of domain names registered in Ireland, which is not actually planning to leave the European Union, has increased by exactly the same share, 43.3 percent. Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, had the biggest drop with registrations down 49 over the year.</p>
<p>
As for any upward trends, Portugal tops the list of growth countries with a 39.2 percent rise in the number of registrations compared with the previous quarter, and 103.8 percent compared with the previous year. The .EU average domain name renewal level was 78.3 percent. However, analysts fear that this figure may also decline in the future. To offset the decline, EURid is constantly running registrar promotions; yet, it is well known that cheap domain names are often registered without any specific purpose and are never renewed.</p>
