November 2018: Six New Countries and Our 24,000th Listing
In November 2018 we added six new countries, bringing coverage to 190, and passed 24,000 listings. We finished Tennessee and North Carolina, started Portugal and described a planned Geographic Notes feature.
November 2018 brought six new countries, a net of 52 new pool listings and our 24,000th listing, all covered in this update. The site is now stable and working as it should.
Site activity
In November we added six countries: Angola, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Liberia and Sudan. The directory now has coverage in 190 countries. We added a net of only 52 new listings, but our 24,000th was among them.
We also completed a review of all the listings in the US states of Tennessee and North Carolina. We are now updating the listings in Portugal, which has 304 of them. After Portugal we plan to review Virginia, the last of the 50 US states in this round of reviews, and then move on to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
A planned feature: Geographic Notes
One enhancement we would like to add is a set of "Geographic Notes". They would work like the existing Facility Notes, but would tell foreign travelers about swimming customs that may differ from those at home. Most pools in France do not allow men to swim in boxer-style trunks. Pools in Japan generally do not let you swim with a tattoo that is not covered by a bandage. Greek pools usually require several medical certifications before they allow you to swim.
We would also like to tell summer visitors where to find seasonal pools in the cities they visit. Entering that kind of information listing by listing is not practical. It would take an upgrade to the database and some new code in the listing template.
Database statistics
- As of November 30, 2018: 24,024 swimming facilities in 190 countries and 13,201 cities.
- Pools: those facilities have 26,105 full-size, year-round pools, as we define those terms in our FAQ.
The 10 countries with the most listings are:
- United States: 7,573
- United Kingdom: 2,304
- France: 1,591
- Germany: 1,454