CIRA, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, reports that the 750,000th registration of a .ca domain name was recorded this week, marking a 50% rise in the number of such registrations in under two years. A snippet from their news release:

“The phenomenal growth of dot-ca registrations is the result of increased awareness of the value of dot-ca and the trust Canadians place in it,” says Bernard Turcotte, President and CEO of the Ottawa-based Canadian Internet Registration Authority. “Dot-ca still offers the best opportunity to get the domain name you want when compared with the larger dot-com registry.”

“Dot-ca is reserved for Canadians and defines an organization or individual who meets Canadian presence requirements,” explains Mr. Turcotte.

According to the press release, when CIRA took over the .ca registry, there were 60,000 names registered there. By 2003, there were 250,000 .ca names registered and in March 2005, that number had doubled to 500,000.