This article is part of an article series designed to help small businesses grow online.
For an overview of the article series, go here:
In this blog post, you will learn a number of impressive WordPress facts and figures that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world use WordPress and what kind of people and businesses are using WordPress today.
WordPress: Facts And Figures
A brief summary:
- WordPress started in 2003.
- WordPress offers two formats: a hosted platform (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).
- 22 out of every hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for a new WordPress site.
- There are well over 60 million installations of WordPress worldwide. This number increases everyday.
- WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites around the world 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 built with 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. The WordPress application is distributed as an open source content management system.
- WordPress is worked on by volunteers. People from all over the world are at work developing and improving the WordPress software every day.
- The WordPress core application is continually being updated to eliminate bugs and improve its usage and security.
- WordPress can deliver your content online to visitors worldwide. WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 international languages.
- The WordPress repository currently makes available thousands of free WordPress plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
- There is almost no limit to what someone can do using WordPress.
WordPress Usage
In simple terms, a content management system (CMS), is a web tool for non-technical users. It is designed to make it easier for non-technical website owners to add, modify and manage all content on their website.
WordPress started in 2003. It was originally a simple program developed by co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. WordPress is now the largest self-hosted CMS application 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 WordPress) currently attracts more unique visitors than Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo.com, eBay, and Twitter …
(WordPress.com monthly uniques. Source: Automattic.com)
Consider the following statistics on WordPress usage:
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 market share, no other platform even comes close to WordPress …
(WordPress Market Share. Source: w3techs.com)
In fact, more and more websites are powered by WordPress.
WordPress is so popular, that even keeping up with statistics on WordPress is difficult because the information changes so frequently.
For example, at the time this post was written, 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 recently released version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet updated their sites to the latest version …
(WordPress versions in current use. Source: https://wordpress.org/about/stats)
As this article was being written, the number of downloads is already increasing. If you click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter page, you should expect to see a much higher figure … perhaps even an updated 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 100 new updates since 2003 …
(Over one hundred new versions of WordPress have been made available since 2003)
WordPress currently releases a new software update every 3-4 months …
(WordPress regularly releases new software updates named after famous Jazz musicians)
here is an interesting fact: all major WordPress version releases are traditionally named in honor of well-known Jazz musicians, eg:
- v.2.1 = Ella Fitzgerald (January 22, 2007),
- v.2.7 = John Coltrane (December 10, 2008),
- v.2.9 = Carmen McRae (December 18, 2009),
- v.3.7 = Count Basie (October 24, 2013),
- v.4.0 = Benny Goodman (September 4, 2014),
- etc …
Who Uses WordPress
In a nutshell, all types of companies and people are using WordPress to blog about every kind of topic imaginable.
Giant brands, businesses, technology companies, celebrities, sports stars, famous artists, colleges, government department sites, not-for-profits – even countries are using WordPress-powered sites …
WordPress Showcase
Here are just some of the growing number of sites, institutions and people who have built their online presence with WordPress:
- Global Brands & Corporations: Bata, DC Diaper Bank, Dassault Aviation, McDonald’s Singapore, Mercedes-Benz, etc …
- Famous People, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: Garth Brooks, Rush, Nancy Pelosi, Brian Smith, Dallas Mavericks, Steve Blake, LA Lakers, Blondie, Gabriel Iglesias, Russell Brand, etc …
- Colleges & Educational Institutions: Nicholls State University, International Relations Online at American University, Bates College, Lafayette College, etc.
- Magazines & Online Media: Time Inc., New York Post, IMC TV, LinkedIn, etc.
- Governments, Public Services & Humanitarian Organizations: Sweden’s Official Site, Chicago Weather Center, São Paulo Carnival, Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Amnesty International Korea, etc.
Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress offers users two formats: a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable software (WordPress.org).
- Businesses clearly prefer the self-hosted version, which can be installed on their own domain and modified to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are used for marketing or promoting businesses.
- More than half of all WordPress users use the hosted version on WordPress.com
- In 2014, blogs belonging to the WordPress network (blogs hosted either on WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 posts per second (around 1.5 million posts per day).
You can see a live map showing the latest user activity across its hosted service …
WordPress.com – Activity Around The World
In later posts, we compare the difference between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.
Other WordPress Statistics
WordPress Plugins
WordPress users can download and install over 37,000 free WP plugins …
(WordPress.org plugin directory)
For more information about WP plugins see this post:
WordPress Themes
WordPress users can also access over 1,700 free themes …
(WordPress.org themes repository)
We have published a comprehensive article about WP themes here:
WordPress Translations
WordPress has been translated and localized into over seventy languages and dialects 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. “WordPress themes”, “WordPress plugins”, “WordPress tutorials”, etc. brings the total number of online searches for WordPress terms to more than thirty-seven million …
(WP searches online)
If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress is searched online 5 x as much as Joomla and nine times more often than Drupal.
WordPress Rates
According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, 25% of all WordPress users who responded to the survey said that they make a full-time living off the WordPress CMS. An earlier survey conducted by WordPress (2012) also found that the average hourly rate of WordPress projects is around US$50.
You can find WordPress developers and designers for hire at freelancing sites like Upwork …
According to Upwork.com, the typical WordPress job cost ranges are around $10 – $500 …
(Source: Upwork.com)
As you can see, there is no end in sight for how much further WordPress can continue to grow.
In other articles, we will explore the following areas of WordPress in detail:
- Why WordPress is the best option in most situations when it comes to choosing a vehicle to grow your small business online,
- Over fifty compelling reasons why you should choose WordPress for your business website or blog, including a detailed review of the benefits, features, and advantages of using the WordPress platform,
- Ways to automate your business with WordPress,
- How to generate more traffic, get more leads and subscribers, and sell more products and services with WordPress.
- Plus, we’ll be publishing lots of tutorials and examples on how to use WordPress to grow your business online, and save thousands of dollars on the costs of web development and website design.
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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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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)