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Wikipedia's 'Non-breaking Space' Density in Article Text
This page examines the prevalence of non-breaking spaces (NBSP) within the text of Wikipedia articles. An NBSP is a character that prevents a line break from occurring between two words, often used to keep phrases like 'New York' together. We're measuring the median density of these spaces – essentially, the average proportion of characters in an article that are NBSPs.
These figures are derived from the publicly available text dumps of Wikipedia articles. By analysing these dumps, we can quantify how often authors choose to use NBSPs. This seemingly small detail can offer insights into how writers aim to control the visual presentation of their text, potentially highlighting efforts to improve readability, specific authoring styles, or even subtle differences in how articles are translated or adapted across languages.