This article is part of an article series designed to help you succeed online with WordPress.
For an overview of the article series, go here:
In this article, we present a number of surprising WordPress facts and figures that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world use WordPress to power their websites and what kind of businesses and people use WordPress today.
Impressive Statistics About WordPress
Below is a summary of what you will learn in this post:
- WordPress began as a blogging tool in 2003.
- WordPress offers two formats: a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable software (WordPress.org).
- 22 out of every one hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for installing a new WordPress website.
- There are over 60 million installations of WordPress worldwide. This number grows every day.
- WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites around the world are driven 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 sites that use a content management system are powered by WordPress.
- Over 35,000,000 searches made each month on Google are for WordPress related terms.
- WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify. The WordPress application is built using an open source content management system.
- WordPress is continually built by volunteers. People from all over the world are at work developing and improving WordPress each day.
- The WordPress core program is updated on a regular basis to address bugs and improve its ease of use 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 almost no limit to what you can build using WordPress.
WordPress Market Dominance
A content management system (CMS), is a web tool for non-technical users. It is designed to make it easy for non-technical website users to add, modify and manage all content on their website.
WordPress began in 2003. It was originally written by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. It is currently the most downloaded 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 being a distributed company and having so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the software) currently attracts more unique views per month than Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo.com, and Twitter …
(WordPress [hosted version] monthly uniques. Source: http://automattic.com/about)
Here are just some of the latest statistics on WordPress usage:
WordPress is the world’s leading CMS platform and powers over 30% of the web …
(WordPress CMS usage statistics. 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 and blogs are being built with the WordPress CMS platform.
WordPress is so popular, that even keeping up with the latest statistics on WordPress is difficult because the data changes so often.
For example, at the time this post was written, this is the number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …
(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)
Note: The above download number represents only the most recently released version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet upgraded their WP installations to the latest version …
(WordPress versions currently in use. Source: https://wordpress.org/about/stats)
As this article was being written, the number of downloads has already increased. If you were to click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter site, you will see a much higher download number … perhaps even a newer version, as the WordPress community continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.
Speaking of updates, WordPress has made available over one hundred new software versions since 2003 …
(Over one hundred new versions of WordPress have been made available in its first 11 years)
WordPress currently releases a new updated version every 3-4 months or so …
(WordPress regularly releases new versions honoring famous Jazz musicians)
Interestingly enough, all major WordPress upgrades are traditionally named in honor of Jazz musicians, eg:
- v.1.5 = Billy Strayhorn (February 17, 2005),
- v.2.3 = Dexter Gordon (September 24, 2007),
- v.3.0 = Thelonious Monk (June 17, 2010),
- v.3.3 = Sonny Stitt (December 12, 2011),
- v.4.1 = Dinah Washington (December 18, 2014),
- etc …
Who Is Using WordPress
A better question is who doesn’t use WordPress? All kinds of enterprises and people from all walks of life use WordPress to publish content about everything and anything.
Leading brands, business of all sizes, technology companies, celebrities, sports stars, famous musicians, educational institutions, government sectors, local organizations – even countries are using WordPress sites …
WP Site Showcase
Here are just some of the many businesses, companies and people who have chosen to build their online presence with WordPress:
- Global Brands & Companies: Aqua Hotels and Resorts, Boardshorts.com, Dassault Aviation, Groupe Vivendi, Vogue, etc …
- Famous People, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: US Air Force General Chuck Yeager, Ariana Grande, The Meredith Vieira Show, Justin Bieber, The Sacramento Ballet, The Rolling Stones, Blondie, Howie Mandel, Jason Mraz, etc …
- Colleges & Educational Institutions: Georgia State University, International Relations Online at American University, UCF College of Medicine, The University of Mary Washington, etc.
- Magazines & Online Media: Fortune, New York Post, IMC TV, CBS New York, etc.
- Governments, Not For Profits & Community Organizations: Open.NASA.gov, Chicago Weather Center, Maryland National Road Association, CURE International, Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, etc.
Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress offers users two formats: a hosted platform (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable software (WordPress.org).
- Businesses often choose the self-hosted version, which can be installed in their own domain names and modified to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are business marketing or sales purposes.
- 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 blog posts every second (around 1.5 million per day).
You can see a live map that shows the latest activity across its hosted platform …
WordPress.com – Activity
In other tutorials, we will examine the difference between WordPress.com (hosted) vs WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.
Additional Statistics About WordPress
WordPress Plugins
WordPress users have access to over 37,000 free WP plugins …
(WordPress free plugins directory)
We have published a great article about plugins here:
WordPress Themes
WordPress users can also download and install over 1,700 free themes …
(WP theme directory)
We have written a detailed article about WP themes here:
WordPress Translations
WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 languages in addition to English …
(WordPress.org language translations)
Searching Online For WordPress
The search term “WordPress” alone receives around 2.7 million monthly searches on Google. Including WordPress-related terms (e.g. “WordPress themes”, “WP plugins”, ”WordPress tutorials”, etc. brings the total number of online searches for WordPress terms to more than 30 million …
(WordPress searches online)
If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress is searched online five times more than Joomla and 9x more often than Drupal.
WordPress Developers
According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, 25% of 33,000 WP 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 US$50.
You can find WordPress developers and designers for hire at freelancing sites like Upwork …
According to Upwork, the typical job cost ranges for WordPress are around $10 – $500 …
(Source: Upwork.com)
As you can see from the above information, WordPress is poised for continued growth for a long time to come.
In other blog posts, you will learn:
- Why WordPress is the best choice when you need a vehicle for growing your small business online,
- Over 50 compelling reasons why you should choose WordPress for your website or blog, including a detailed review of the benefits, features, and advantages of using WordPress,
- How to automate your business with WordPress,
- How to drive more traffic to your site, get more leads, and how to sell more products and services with WordPress.
- Plus, we’ll provide many step-by-step tutorials and practical examples and tips of how you can use WordPress and expand your business online, while also saving thousands of dollars on web development and website design costs.
Subscribe below & receive 101+ useful WordPress tips that will help grow your business online faster ...
Information Sources:
The information for this article was 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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