On Saturday 24 July  we will celebrate 25 years since the first .uk web addresses were registered.

Since its inception in 1985, the .uk registry has witnessed the huge growth in the Internet and become the fourth largest domain registry in the world with over 8.5 million domains.

Throughout its 25 years of growth, .uk has developed a strong reputation as a trusted and globally respected domain.

Key milestones include:

• 1985: First registrations of .uk
• 1996: Nominet set up to manage the .uk domain name space, 26,000 registrations on the register
• February 2000: 1 million registrations
• May 2006: 5 million registrations
• Today: There are now more than 8.5 million .uk domain registrations.

After 25 years, .uk remains a relevant and trusted environment that presents the most appropriate, local information for web users. Research from Nominet shows that 77 per cent of British consumers preferred to use a .uk rather than a .com when searching for information online and that at a small business level, 9 out of 10 companies choose a .uk as the domain for marketing their business.

Lesley Cowley, CEO, Nominet, says, "We are delighted to celebrate 25 years of .uk. In that time, the Internet has changed the lives of billions of people around the World. As businesses, we rely on it for buying and selling goods, as governments for interacting with citizens, and as individuals for organising and managing many aspects of our lives, whether that be online banking, shopping or entertainment.

Understanding this, Nominet, our registrars and the wider Internet community are all working to ensure that .uk continues to be developed efficiently, effectively and most of all, responsibly – with Internet users at the heart of everything we do. This is referenced in the trust UK consumers place in .uk.

As for the future – we are looking forward to working closely with the Internet community to uphold the trusted reputation of .uk and to continue to make the Internet a safer, more trusted place for all."