This blog post is part of an article series designed to help small businesses grow and succeed online with the WordPress CMS platform.
For more information about of the article series, go here:
In this article, you will learn a number of surprising WordPress statistics that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world use WordPress to power their business websites and blogs and what kind of people and businesses are using WordPress today.
WordPress: Useful Facts And Statistics
In short:
- WordPress began in 2003.
- WordPress is available as a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable software (WordPress.org).
- 23 out of every hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for a new WordPress website.
- There are over 60 million installations of WordPress worldwide. This number is growing every day.
- WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites worldwide are built with 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 worldwide that use a CMS application are powered by WordPress.
- Over 35 million searches made each month on Google are for terms related to WordPress.
- WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify. WordPress is built using an open source content management system.
- WordPress is continually worked on by volunteers. People from all around the world are at work developing and improving the WordPress application each day.
- WordPress is continually being updated to eliminate bugs and improve its features and security.
- WordPress delivers content online to visitors worldwide. WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 languages.
- WordPress currently makes available thousands of free WP plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
- There is practically no limit to what you can build using WordPress.
WordPress CMS Market Dominance
In simple terms, a content management system (CMS), is a website tool for non-technical users. It is designed to make it easy for non-technical website owners to add, edit and manage content on their website.
WordPress began in 2003. It was originally a simple program developed by co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. It is currently the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and accessed by tens of millions of people every day.
WordPress is owned by Automattic.com, which currently employs around 300 people, all of whom work from home. Despite its distributed model and having so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the WordPress software) currently attracts more unique views per month than Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Twitter, and Yahoo …
(WordPress [hosted version] monthly uniques. Source: http://automattic.com/about)
Here are just some of the latest WordPress usage stats:
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 market share, no other platform even comes close to WordPress …
(WordPress Market Share. Source: w3techs.com)
In fact, more and more websites and blogs are using WordPress.
WordPress is so popular, that keeping up with the latest statistics on WordPress is very difficult because the information changes so frequently.
For example, at the time this article was published, here is the number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …
(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)
Note: The above download figure represents only the most recent version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet upgraded their installations to the latest version …
(WordPress versions currently in use. Source: https://wordpress.org/about/stats)
As this post 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 page, expect to see a much higher figure … perhaps even a different version, as WordPress continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.
Speaking of updates, WordPress has made available to users over 100 new updates to date …
(Over one hundred new WordPress versions have been released to date)
WordPress currently releases a new software update every 3-4 months or so …
(WordPress regularly releases new software updates honoring famous Jazz musicians)
Curiously enough, all major WordPress version releases are typically named after well-known Jazz music artists, eg:
- v.1.2 = Charles Mingus (May 22, 2004),
- v.2.3 = Dexter Gordon (September 24, 2007),
- v.2.9 = Carmen McRae (December 18, 2009),
- v.3.4 = Grant Green (June 13, 2012),
- v.3.8 = Charlie Parker (December 12, 2013),
- etc …
Who Is Using WordPress?
In a nutshell, all different types of organizations and people from all walks of life are using WordPress to blog about everything and anything.
Popular corporations, business of all sizes, technology companies, celebrities, sports stars, famous musicians, colleges, government sectors, local organizations – even nations use WordPress sites …
WP Web Site Showcase
Here are just some of the businesses, organizations and people who are using WordPress:
- Global Brands & Corporations: Factory Jackson, Dole, Panic, Groupe Vivendi, Vogue, etc …
- Celebs, Politicians, Sports Stars, Actors & Musicians: US Air Force General Chuck Yeager, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, Kylie Minogue, Brian Smith, Dallas Mavericks, Steve Blake, LA Lakers, William Shatner, Channing Tatum, Russell Brand, etc …
- Colleges & Educational Institutions: Georgia State University, International Relations Online at American University, Bates College, The University of Mary Washington, etc.
- Magazines & Online Media: Tribune Media, The New Yorker, IMC TV, Enterprise Magazine, etc.
- Government Sites, Public Services & Humanitarian Organizations: Sweden’s Official Site, Chicago Weather Center, Maryland National Road Association, Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Amnesty International Korea, etc.
Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress is available in two formats: a hosted application (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 marketing and promoting businesses.
- 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 posts per second (around 1.5 million per day).
WordPress publishes a live map that lets you see blog post updates around the world in real-time …
WordPress (Hosted Version) – Live Activity
In later tutorials, we will discuss the differences 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 plugins from the WordPress free plugins repository …
(WordPress.org free plugins directory)
For more information about WordPress plugins see this post:
WordPress Themes
WordPress users can also access over 1,700 free WordPress themes from the WordPress theme directory …
(WordPress.org themes directory)
For a detailed article about themes see this post:
WordPress In Different Languages
WordPress has been translated and localized into over seventy international languages in addition to English …
(WP languages)
WordPress Searches
The search term “WordPress” alone receives around 2.7 million searches per month on Google. Including WordPress-related terms (e.g. “WP themes”, “WordPress plugins”, “WordPress tutorials”, etc. brings the total number of searches online for WordPress terms to around 30 million …
(WP searches online)
If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress is searched 5 x more than Joomla and nine times more often than Drupal.
WordPress Rates
According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, one quarter of WP users who responded to the survey stated that they make a full-time living off WordPress. An earlier survey conducted by WordPress (2012) also found that the average hourly rate of WordPress projects is US$50.
You can find WordPress developers and designers for hire by searching on freelancing sites like Upwork.com …
According to Upwork, the typical WordPress job cost ranges are between $10 – $500 …
(Source: Upwork)
As you can see, there is no end in sight for how much further WordPress can continue to grow and dominate in the CMS arena.
In other blog posts, you will learn:
- Why WordPress is the smartest option when it comes to choosing a platform for growing your business online,
- Over 50 compelling reasons why you should choose WordPress for your website or blog, including a comprehensive breakdown of the unique benefits, features, and advantages of using the WordPress platform,
- How to automate your business marketing with WordPress,
- How to drive targeted traffic to your site, get more leads and subscribers, and sell more products and services with WordPress.
- Plus, we’ll be publishing new step-by-step tutorials and tips of how you can use WordPress to expand your business presence online, while also saving thousands of dollars on the costs of website development and web design.
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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://wptrainme.com
- 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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