Author: WP Compendium

This article is part of a detailed multi-part article series aimed at helping you grow a successful business online with WordPress.

For more information about of the article series, go here:

• Using WordPress To Grow Your Small Business

In this blog post, we present some impressive statistics about WordPress that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world rely on WordPress to power their business websites and blogs and what kind of businesses use WordPress today.

WordPress Usage Statistics

In short:

• WordPress started as a blogging tool in 2003.
• WordPress offers users two formats: a hosted platform (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).
• 23 out of every hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for installing a new WordPress site.
• There are well over 60 million installations of WordPress worldwide. This number is growing everyday.
• WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites around the world are powered by WordPress.
• WordPress sites around the world publish an average of 24 posts per second.
• WordPress sites receive over 22 billion monthly pageviews.
• WordPress blogs receive around 50 million comments per month.
• WordPress has been translated into over 70 languages.
• More than 60% of all websites using a content management system are powered by WordPress.
• Over 37,000,000 searches made each month on Google are for WordPress related terms.
• WordPress is completely free to download, use and modify. WordPress is built using an open source content management system.
• WordPress code is built and improved upon by volunteers. Thousands of people from all over the world work on developing and improving the WordPress application every day.
• WordPress is continually being updated to fix bugs and improve both its features and security.
• WordPress can deliver your content online to visitors worldwide. WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 languages.
• The WordPress repository currently makes available thousands of free plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
• There is practically no limit to what you can do using WordPress.

WordPress CMS Market Share

In simple terms, a content management system (CMS), is a web tool for non-technical users. It is a web application designed to make it easier for non-technical website users to add, modify and manage content on their site.

WordPress started in 2003. It was originally a simple program developed by co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Since then, it has become the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of websites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

WordPress is owned by Automattic.com, which currently employs around 300 people, all of whom are home-based. Despite its distributed model and so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the software) currently attracts more unique visitors than Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo.com, Twitter, and eBay …

(WordPress.com monthly uniques. Source: Automattic.com)

Here are just some of the latest statistics on WordPress:

WordPress is the world’s leading CMS platform and powers over 30% of the web …

(WordPress usage figures. Source: trends.builtwith.com/cms)

In terms of CMS usage, no other platform even comes close to WordPress …

(WordPress Market Share. Source: w3techs.com)

In fact, more websites are now being built with the WordPress CMS platform.

WordPress is so popular, that even trying to keep up with statistics on WordPress is very difficult because the information changes so often.

For example, at the time this article was published, this is the current number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …

(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)

Note: The above download figures represents only the most recent version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet upgraded their WP installations to the latest version …

(WordPress versions in current use. Source: https://wordpress.org/about/stats)

Even as this post was being written, the number of downloads is already increasing. If you click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter site, expect to see a much higher number of downloads … perhaps even a different version, as WordPress continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.

Regarding updates, WordPress has made available to users over one hundred new software updates to date …

(Over one hundred new versions of WordPress have been released since 2003)

WordPress currently releases a new version every 3-4 months or so …

(WordPress regularly releases new version updates honoring famous Jazz musicians)

An interesting fact, is that all major WordPress updates are typically named after famous Jazz music artists, eg:

• v.2.0 = Duke Ellington (December 31, 2005),
• v.2.5 = Michael Brecker (March 29, 2008),
• v.3.2 = George Gershwin (July 4, 2011),
• v.3.6 = Oscar Peterson (August 1, 2013),
• v.4.1 = Dinah Washington (December 18, 2014),
• etc …

Who Uses WordPress?

Who doesn’t use WordPress? All different kinds of businesses and people from all walks of life are using WordPress to publish content about everything and anything.

Well-known brands, business of all sizes, retail companies, celebrities, politicians, famous actors, educational institutions, government sectors, local organizations – even nations are using WordPress sites …

WordPress.org Web Site Showcase

Here are just some of the growing number of businesses, organizations and people who have chosen to build their online presence with WordPress:

• Global Brands & Companies: Factory Jackson, Glad, Groupe Renault, Groupe Vivendi, Mercedes-Benz, etc …
• Celebrities, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: Alanis Morissette, Rush, Nancy Pelosi, Justin Bieber, Dallas Mavericks, The Rolling Stones, Mötley Crüe, Howie Mandel, Russell Brand, etc …
• Colleges & Educational Institutions: University of Manitoba Today, Stony Brook University School of Journalism, Bates College, MIT Sloan Management Review, etc.
• Magazines & Online Media: Tribune Media, The New Yorker, FiveThirtyEight, CBS New York, etc.
• Governments, Not For Profits & Community Organizations: San Pellegrino Terme, Chicago Weather Center, Maryland National Road Association, AIDS Project Rhode Island, Amnesty International Korea, etc.

Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress offers users the choice of two formats: a hosted platform (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).

• Businesses prefer to download the self-hosted version, which can be installed in their own domain and freely modified to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are used for business activities.
• More than half of all WordPress users use the hosted version on WordPress.com
• In 2014, WordPress blogs (blogs hosted either on WordPress.com or externally-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 new blog posts every second (around 1.5 million per day).

WordPress provides a live map that lets you see blog post updates around the world in real-time …

WordPress (Hosted Version) – Activity Worldwide

In other articles, we will compare the difference between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.

Additional Statistics About WordPress

WordPress Plugins

WordPress users can download and install over 37,000 free WP plugins …

(WordPress.org plugin repository)

We have published a detailed article about WP plugins here:

• Adding New Functionality To Your Site With Plugins

WordPress Themes

WordPress users can also access over 1,700 WP themes at no cost …

(WordPress.org free themes repository)

We have written a comprehensive article about WordPress themes here:

• About WP Themes – A Guide For Newbies

WordPress Language Translations

WordPress has been translated and localized into over seventy languages and dialects in addition to English …

(WordPress.org language translations)

Searching Online For WordPress

The search term “WordPress” alone receives around 2.7 million searches per month on Google. Including WordPress-related terms (e.g. “WordPress themes”, “WP plugins”, ”WordPress tutorials”, etc. brings the total number of searches online for WordPress terms to more than 37 million …

(WP-related searches online)

If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress is searched online 5 x more than Joomla and 9x more often than Drupal.

WordPress Rates

According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, one quarter of all users who participated in the survey stated that they make a full-time living off WordPress. An earlier survey conducted by WordPress (2012) also found that the median hourly rate of WordPress projects is around US$50.

You can find WordPress designers and developers for hire by searching on freelancing sites like Upwork.com …

According to Upwork.com, the typical job cost ranges for WordPress are between $10 – $500 …

(Source: Upwork)

As you can clearly see, WordPress is poised for continued growth for a long time to come.

In other blog posts, we will cover the following:

• Why WordPress is the best choice when you need a platform for growing your small business online,
• Dozens of reasons why you should choose WordPress for your website or blog, including a detailed breakdown of the unique benefits, features, and advantages of using WordPress,
• How to automate your business with WordPress,
• How to generate more traffic to your website, get more leads, and sell more products and services with WordPress.
• Plus, we’ll be publishing ongoing ”how to” tutorials and examples on how to use WordPress to expand your business online, while also saving thousands of dollars on website development and web design costs.

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References:

The above figures were sourced from various locations around the web, including the following sites:

• https://wordpress.org
• https://wordpress.com
• http://automattic.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress
• http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress/all/all
• http://trends.builtwith.com/cms
• http://ma.tt/2014/10/sotw-2014
• https://managewp.com/14-surprising-statistics-about-wordpress-usage
• http://torquemag.io/13-surprising-wordpress-statistics
• https://websitebuilder.org/resources/amazing-facts-you-probably-dont-know-about-wordpress

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