Overview
Vatican City sites run JavaScript notably below the global rate
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.4% |
| Antibot | 15.9% |
| CAPTCHA | 24.9% |
| JavaScript | 34.9% |
| Rate Limiting | 11.5% |
| TLS | 15.6% |
WAF stands at 92.4%, close to the global rate of 93.1%. JavaScript (34.9%) is 6.4 points below the global benchmark of 41.3%. Antibot (15.9%), TLS (15.6%), and Rate Limiting (11.5%) also run below global averages. Sample size is 410 sites.
Barrier Landscape
JavaScript tops Vatican City's active secondary barriers
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.4% |
| Antibot | 15.9% |
| CAPTCHA | 24.9% |
| JavaScript | 34.9% |
| Rate Limiting | 11.5% |
| TLS | 15.6% |
| Has robots.txt | 78% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 13.4% |
WAF is present on 92.4% of sites. Among secondary barriers, JavaScript ranks highest at 34.9%, followed by CAPTCHA at 24.9%. Rate Limiting (11.5%) is the least deployed secondary barrier.
Most Vatican City sites carry just one barrier
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 5.1% |
| 1 barrier | 35.6% |
| 2 barriers | 30% |
| 3 barriers | 20.2% |
| 4 barriers | 6.3% |
| 5 barriers | 2.7% |
| 6 barriers | 0% |
35.6% of sites carry exactly one barrier — the modal count. 5.1% have no barriers. Sites with three or more barriers account for 29.2% of the sample. Sample size is 410 sites.
More than half of Vatican City sites are Simple to access
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.5 |
The browser-based median recommended tier is 1, meaning more than half of sites are accessible via plain HTTP requests. The mean tier is 1.52. Sample size is 410 sites.
Most Vatican City sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 62% |
| 2 - Easy | 26.8% |
| 3 - Moderate | 9.5% |
| 4 - Complex | 1% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.7% |
Tier 1 accounts for 62.0% of sites and Tier 2 for 26.8%, giving a combined 88.8%. Tier 3 covers 9.5%, Tier 4 covers 1.0%, and Tier 5 covers 0.7%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers, SEO audit, and SEO bots are named at identical rates
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 13.9% |
| SEO / search indexing | 13.4% |
| SEO audit tools | 13.7% |
| Commercial scrapers | 10% |
| Social / content scrapers | 11.7% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 5.6% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.5% |
Across all 410 Vatican City sites, 13.9% name at least one AI crawler in their robots.txt, SEO audit tools are named on 13.7%, and SEO/search indexing bots on 13.4% — a notably tight cluster. Social/content scrapers reach 11.7%.
Vatican City sites use blanket Disallow rules more than most countries
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 38.8% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 32.4% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 1% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 5.9% |
22.0% of Vatican City sites have no robots.txt. Uniform per-agent rules apply to 38.8% of all sites, path-level mixed rules to 32.4%, blanket Disallow: / to 5.9%, and mixed AI posture to 2.0%.
GPTBot is the most-blocked and most-allowed bot in Vatican City
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 12.4% | 1.7% |
| CCBot | 8% | 1.5% |
| ClaudeBot | 9.5% | 1.2% |
| Google-Extended | 10.5% | 0.5% |
| Bytespider | 6.3% | 0.7% |
| meta-externalagent | 3.9% | 0.5% |
| ChatGPT-User | 5.6% | 1.2% |
| PerplexityBot | 6.1% | 1.2% |
| Applebot-Extended | 6.6% | 0.5% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 4.1% | 1% |
| anthropic-ai | 4.1% | 1% |
GPTBot is named in a Disallow rule on 12.4% of all Vatican City sites — the highest block rate among AI agents. GPTBot also leads on the allow side at 1.7% of all sites. Sample size is 410 sites.
Music and Sports sites in Vatican City all name a bot
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Music | 100% |
| Sports | 100% |
| Design | 90% |
| General | 90% |
| Mass Media | 90% |
| Newspapers | 90% |
| Online Services | 90% |
| Publishing | 90% |
| Food & Beverages | 88.9% |
| Advertising & Mktg | 83.3% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 80% |
| Education | 80% |
| Entertainment | 80% |
| Software & Dev | 80% |
| Telecom | 80% |
Music and Sports are the only two sectors where every site names at least one bot to restrict in a Disallow rule. Design, General, Mass Media, Newspapers, Online Services, and Publishing each reach 90%.
Vatican City's Publishing sites lead in explicitly allowing crawlers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Publishing | 80% |
| Education | 70% |
| General | 60% |
| Mass Media | 60% |
| Online Services | 60% |
| Software & Dev | 60% |
| Travel & Tourism | 60% |
| Wellness | 60% |
| Food & Beverages | 55.6% |
| Photography | 55.6% |
| Advertising & Mktg | 50% |
| Airlines | 50% |
| Entertainment | 50% |
| Finance | 50% |
| Museums | 50% |
Publishing is the top sector, with 80% of its sites naming at least one bot to allow in an Allow rule. Education follows at 70%. General, Mass Media, Online Services, Software & Dev, Travel & Tourism, and Wellness each reach 60%.
Industry Patterns
Retail is Vatican City's hardest sector to access programmatically
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | 80% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 40% | 40% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Airlines | 80% | 30% | 0% | 60% | 10% | 20% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Education | 100% | 10% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% | 10% | 30% | 40% | 30% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Travel & Tourism | 100% | 30% | 0% | 80% | 10% | 20% | 70% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Automotive | 100% | 16.7% | 33.3% | 16.7% | 16.7% | 0% | 66.7% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Entertainment | 100% | 10% | 40% | 50% | 10% | 0% | 90% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Publishing | 90% | 20% | 30% | 50% | 10% | 0% | 90% | 50% | Tier 2 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 28.6% | 28.6% | 42.9% | 42.9% | 42.9% | 71.4% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Advertising & Mktg | 100% | 16.7% | 66.7% | 16.7% | 0% | 16.7% | 100% | 16.7% | Tier 2 |
| Distance Learning | 90% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 20% | 0% | 70% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Finance | 90% | 30% | 10% | 20% | 20% | 10% | 60% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Science | 70% | 0% | 0% | 20% | 0% | 0% | 40% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 75% | 12.5% | 25% | 25% | 12.5% | 12.5% | 62.5% | 12.5% | Tier 1 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 20% | 90% | 20% | Tier 1 |
Retail records the highest tier median (3) and a mean recommended tier of 2.50. Airlines follows at 2.35 and Education at 2.10. Sample size is 410 sites; individual sector counts are small.
Libraries is Vatican City's most accessible sector programmatically
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 22.2% | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0% | 11.1% | 88.9% | 11.1% | Tier 1 |
| IT Services | 100% | 0% | 0% | 50% | 20% | 0% | 70% | 0% | Tier 1 |
| Music | 100% | 40% | 60% | 50% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 10% | Tier 1 |
| Newspapers | 90% | 10% | 30% | 40% | 0% | 20% | 90% | 60% | Tier 1 |
| Photography | 88.9% | 22.2% | 44.4% | 33.3% | 22.2% | 77.8% | 77.8% | 11.1% | Tier 1 |
| General | 100% | 0% | 60% | 60% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 30% | Tier 1 |
| Software & Dev | 80% | 30% | 20% | 0% | 20% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 1 |
| Government | 90% | 10% | 20% | 20% | 10% | 0% | 50% | 0% | Tier 1 |
| Mass Media | 100% | 0% | 60% | 60% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 30% | Tier 1 |
| Online Services | 100% | 0% | 60% | 60% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 30% | Tier 1 |
| Sports | 100% | 0% | 20% | 60% | 0% | 0% | 100% | 20% | Tier 1 |
| Computer & Video Games | 100% | 22.2% | 11.1% | 33.3% | 11.1% | 11.1% | 88.9% | 0% | Tier 1 |
| Adult | 100% | 10% | 20% | 10% | 20% | 0% | 50% | 10% | Tier 1 |
| Banking | 90% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 0% | 0% | 70% | 0% | Tier 1 |
| Libraries | 100% | 0% | 0% | 20% | 0% | 0% | 60% | 0% | Tier 1 |
Libraries records the lowest mean recommended tier at 1.20 — the sole floor value in the bottom-industries table. Adult and Banking follow at 1.30. Sample size is 410 sites; individual sector counts are small.