Did you know that [#India](https://www.waivio.com/object/india), [#Malaysia](https://www.waivio.com/object/malaysia) and [#Venezuela](https://www.waivio.com/object/venezuela) are the most popular country hashtags on Steem?

This particular list focuses on full-name hashtags. For example, it includes [#China](https://www.waivio.com/object/china), but not [#CN](https://www.waivio.com/object/cn) (rating: 4K), which would have put China in the first place.

We focused on full country names because for the majority of countries, abbreviations are used much less often than full names. For example, the hashtag [#India](https://www.waivio.com/object/india) has a rating of 1.8K, while the corresponding 2-letter [#IN](https://www.waivio.com/object/in) abbreviation has a rating of only 31.

It is also important to note that users in the United States, the United Kingdom and a number of other countries rarely add country labels to their posts.

And all that being said, let's compare these results with the list of countries sorted by population.

<center>![Source: Waivio.com / Countries list](https://waivio.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/1571689633_0dd8e31b-b6c1-47d3-8ada-2fa3f4c837a9)</center>
<center>Source: Waivio.com / Countries list</center>
Interactive version of this list can be found here:

[Countries](https://www.waivio.com/object/bog-countries) - [https://www.waivio.com/object/bog-countries/list](https://www.waivio.com/object/bog-countries/list)

It becomes clear that the adoption of Steem, with a few exceptions of course, generally corresponds well to the number of people living in these countries. And this shows that the Steem social network is decentralized and that the platform offers equal chances for success.

<center>![Source:  Wikipedia.org](https://waivio.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/1571689676_af1a25ee-1c4b-42fb-952c-806635897972)</center>
<center>Source:  Wikipedia.org</center>
Complete list of countries by population can be found here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population) 

**Methodology of calculating hashtag ratings**

Ratings are effectively combined revenues by authors and curators on posts with links to specific hashtags.

For example, if 3 hashtags have been used in a post and this post earned the equivalent of 3 SBDs, each of these hashtags will increase their rating by 1 SBD.

<center>![Post by @gandhibaba](https://waivio.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/1571689709_efacc0ec-e122-4e88-bf30-c44abc18d3ae)</center>
<center>Post by @gandhibaba</center>
Similarly, the author's expertise in hashtags is calculated. In a way, it is like the user's share in the overall rating of the hashtag.

For example, if we take #Bitcoin hashtag, we can see the list of experts - all users, who have accumulated expertise in this hashtag by referencing it in their posts.

Even the curators who have upvoted these posts are gaining expertise in the hashtag.

<center>![List of #Bitcoin experts](https://waivio.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/1571689753_f02085b1-f1cc-49fb-ad48-21d86e27766b)</center>
<center>List of #Bitcoin experts</center>
And the list of Experts can be very long, especially for popular hashtags such as [#Bitcoin](https://www.waivio.com/object/bitcoin) or [#India](https://www.waivio.com/object/india).

Finally, it is easy to see domain expertise for Steem users directly on their profile pages.

<center>![@KingsCrown's domain expertise](https://waivio.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/1571689853_31f06c6c-07fa-4daf-86e3-7d02d95b6b22)</center>
<center>@KingsCrown's domain expertise</center>

For example [@KingsCrown](https://www.waivio.com/@kingscrown) has a lot of expertise in cryptos, actively using [#Busy](https://www.waivio.com/object/busy), [#Palnet](https://www.waivio.com/object/palnet) and [#Steemleo](https://www.waivio.com/object/steemleo).

Steem open social blockchain offers unprecedented transparency for both financial and social transactions, yet empowers users to become the main beneficiaries of their reputation, knowledge and time. 

Check out your own profile on [Waivio.com](https://www.waivio.com/). You might learn something new about your own public image ;-)

Just [#keepsteeming](https://www.waivio.com/object/keepsteeming)!