Cookies

censuswall sets two cookies, and both are there to count readers. In Europe and the UK, you are asked before either one is set.

The two cookies

The site uses Google Analytics to count how many people read each page. To do that, it puts two small files, called cookies, in your browser:

_ga — gives your browser a random number, so that if you come back next week you are counted as the same reader rather than a new one. Kept for two years.
_ga_G-44HRCRVRZX — remembers when your current visit began, so that reading six pages counts as one visit. Kept for two years.

Neither holds your name, your address, or anything you type into this site. What they do hold is a number that is the same each time you visit, so they are a way of recognising a browser, and Google receives it along with the page you read and the country you read it from.

Being asked first

If you are reading from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, nothing is counted until you say yes. A line appears at the foot of the page with two buttons, and the two cookies above are set only if you choose Allow. Choose No thanks and they are never set at all.

Everywhere else the counting begins straight away, and you can still refuse it in the ways below.

Your answer is kept in your browser as censuswall.consent.v1, so the question is asked once rather than on every page. Clearing this site's data brings it back. To know which country to ask from, your browser fetches one small file from this site, /cdn-cgi/trace, which returns the country our host sees for your connection. It sets nothing, and we do not keep it.

Saying no

Your browser can refuse them: every major browser can block cookies for one site, and most have a setting for blocking tracking. Google also publishes an opt-out add-on that switches Google Analytics off everywhere. Nothing on this site stops working if you block them — the pages are built before you arrive, and the counting is the only thing that is lost.

Small things kept in your browser

The site keeps up to three things in your browser's local storage, on your device only, and never sends them anywhere:

on the Map, whether you chose the globe or the flat map (censuswall-map-view);
on Play, your best score in each round (censuswall.play.v1);
if you have been asked about counting, your answer (censuswall.consent.v1).

None of those is a cookie, and none identifies you. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes them. What you type on Your year or Compare is never stored: it is gone when you close the page. The contact form sets no cookie either and keeps nothing here: what you write goes by email, as Privacy explains.

The other visit counter

Pages are also counted by Cloudflare Web Analytics, which the site's host adds. That one sets and reads no cookies and stores nothing in your browser. See Privacy.

Your browser's own copy

Like every website, pages and pictures are kept in your browser's cache so they load faster next time. That cache holds only what everyone downloads, and your browser's settings can clear it.

If this changes

If advertising is ever added, this page will list every cookie it sets, and you will be asked first where the law requires it.

Last updated 21 September 2026.