According to data published by Dominios.es, the total number of registered ‘.es’ domains at the close of the 2024 financial year stands at 2,094,772. Most of these registrations are under the primary ‘.es’ domain, with 2,009,933 names recorded. Other domain extensions include: ‘.com.es’: 73,429; ‘.org.es’: 6,878; ‘.nom.es’: 2,819; ‘.gob.es’: 1,204; ‘.edu.es’: 509 The last two extensions are restricted for exclusive use by government entities and educational institutions, respectively.
The distribution of ‘.es’ domains by autonomous community is as follows:
- Andalusia: 266,496
- Aragon: 49,078
- Asturias: 43,867
- Balearic Islands: 41,449
- Canary Islands: 60,013
- Cantabria: 18,272
- Castile-La Mancha: 55,234
- Castile and Leon: 78,124
- Catalonia: 246,678
- Community of Madrid: 409,773
- Community of Valencia: 215,424
- Extremadura: 24,863
- Galicia: 89,209
- La Rioja: 33,801
- Murcia: 56,520
- Navarra: 18,871
- Basque Country: 47,618
In the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, there were 1,316 and 1,123 registrations, respectively.
Outside of Spain, Germany accounts for the highest number of ‘.es’ domain registrations, with 46,792. The United States follows with 42,795, while France and the United Kingdom have 28,516 and 22,145 respectively. An additional 196,814 domains are registered across other countries worldwide.
The ‘.es’ country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is managed by Red.es, a public entity under the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, via the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence. Red.es carries out this role in coordination with a network of accredited registrars who provide domain registration and related services to individuals and organisations.
Registrar Agents
As domain registration has evolved, so too has the number of authorised Registrar Agents. By the end of 2024, there were 106 accredited agents, a significant increase from the original 12 in 2004. Today, almost 100% of all ‘.es’ domains are managed through these registrars.
Top Registrars by Volume of ‘.es’ Domains
- IONOS: 369,895
- ARSYS: 186,169
- SCIP: 145,788
- REGISTRAR.EU: 124,691
- ACENS TECHNOLOGIES: 120,584
- GODADDY: 113,525
- DINAHOSTING: 110,172
- OVH HISPANO: 102,525
- PIENSASOLUTIONS: 83,040
- TECNOCRATICA: 74,010
- NOMINALIA: 60,135
- CDMON: 58,229
- STRATO: 45,207
- TUCOWS: 37,314
- KEY-SYSTEMS: 35,939
- REST: 419,974
Full statistical information is available here.
Registrars support the management, customer service, and promotion of the ‘.es’ domain. They also provide value-added services such as website design, email, and content management. To become accredited, registrars must pay an initial fee, meet specific technical and financial requirements, and enter into a formal agreement with Red.es.
Global Standing of ‘.es’ Domains
Having surpassed the 2 million domain mark, Spain remains among the top 25 countries globally in terms of territorial ccTLD domain registrations, based on data from the Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB)
Red.es, through Dominios.es, represents Spain within CENTR, the European association of top-level registries. CENTR provides a forum for knowledge-sharing, joint initiatives, and representation of registries in industry discussions.
‘.es’ domains are a prominent online identity for the Spanish-speaking community, which includes nearly 600 million people worldwide. These domains offer strong legal safeguards under Spanish law, protecting against abusive or speculative registrations.
Milestones of ‘.es’ Domains
- 1989: Following the assignment of the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) ‘.es’ to Spain by ICANN, its management during the initial years was entrusted to RedIRIS, the national academic and research network.
- 1990: The first domain registration is granted to nic.es, referring to the English acronym for Network Information Center.
- 2000: Responsibility for managing ‘.es’ domains is transferred to the public entity Retevisión, which was subsequently restructured into Red.es.
- 2003: First phase of liberalisation begins, with the introduction of the initial Registrar Agents and the opening of third level ‘.es’ domains.
- 2005: Second phase of liberalisation is implemented, allowing for the registration of second level ‘.es’ domains and prompting a significant increase in domain registrations.
- 2007: Multilingual characters used in Spanish and other co-official languages in Spain are incorporated into the ‘.es’ domain registry.
- 2008: The number of ‘.es’ domains surpasses one million.
- 2009: 20th Anniversary of ‘.es’ celebrated at FICOD.
- 2010: Procedures are introduced to regulate the allocation and management of domain names under the ‘.es’ top-level domain.
- 2014: 25th Anniversary marked with the launch of DNSSEC security protocols.
- 2018: Compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is implemented.
- 2019: 30th anniversary of the ccTLD assignment; partnership signed with INCIBE.
- 2020: Collaboration established with the National Library.
- 2022: Agreements with the Secretary of State for Security and CCN-CERT. Domain count exceeds 2 million.
- 2023: Renewal of Anycast Servers.
- 2024: Further enhancement of cybersecurity measures within the .es domain registry.
For more details, visit: www.dominios.es