Over two million Raspberry Pi computers have been sold worldwide, less than two years since the device first went on sale in February 2012.

Sales of the palm-sized computer have accelerated in the past year, having reached the one million mark in January. With it taking almost exactly a year for the company to hit this platinum milestone, Raspberry Pi Foundation spokesperson Liz Upton said that it was a surprise to reach two million so soon.

"It was a bit of a shock at the end of last week when we got the latest sales figures and discovered that the 2,000,000th Raspberry Pi was sold in the last week of October," she said. "We don't know who owns it – if you bought one between October 24 and October 31st, it might be yours."

Designed to promote the teaching of computer science in schools, the single board device has also proved to be popular with hobbyists due to its portable size and low cost.

The first 2,000 devices were produced in China in February 2012, before production was moved to the UK seven months later. Since then over one million Raspberry Pis have been produced in Sony's Pencoed factory, South Wales, by the Foundation's manufacturing partners RS Components and Premier Farnell, where up to 12,000 devices are made each day.

Last week, Raspberry Pi was featured on the Nominet Trust 100, a global list compiled to celebrate 100 of the "world's most inspiring social tech ventures".