WordPress – Useful Facts And Statistics

This article provides statistical information and data on WordPress usage worldwide …

This article is part of a multi-part series of articles designed to help you grow a successful business online.

WordPress

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

In this blog post, you will learn some impressive facts and figures 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 people and businesses use WordPress today.

Statistics And Usage About WordPress

Below is a summary of what this blog post will cover:

  • WordPress started 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 100 new domains registered in the U.S. are for installing a new WordPress website or blog.
  • There are over sixty 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 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 that use a content management system are driven by WordPress.
  • Over 35,000,000 searches are made on Google each month for WordPress related terms.
  • The WordPress application is completely free to download, use and modify. The WordPress application is distributed as an open source content management system.
  • WordPress is continually built and improved upon by volunteers. Thousands of people from all around the world are at work developing and improving the WordPress software on an ongoing basis.
  • WordPress is updated on a regular basis to fix 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 languages and dialects.
  • The WordPress repository currently makes available thousands of free WP plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
  • There is almost no limit to what you can build using WordPress.

WordPress Usage

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

WordPress started 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 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 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 Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, and Yahoo.com …

WordPress (hosted version) unique visits

(WordPress.com unique monthly visits. Source: http://automattic.com/about)

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

(WP CMS usage statistics. Source: trends.builtwith.com/cms)

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

WP usage stats

(WordPress Market Share. Source: w3techs.com)

In fact, more sites are now being powered by the WordPress CMS application.

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

For example, at the time this post was written, this is the number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …

WP downloads

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

Information

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

WP versions currently in use

(WP versions in current 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 site, you should expect to see a much higher download figure … perhaps even a different 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 100 new software updates in its first 11 years of existence …

WP release archive

(Over 100 new versions of WordPress have been released in its first 11 years)

WordPress currently releases a new update every 3-4 months …

WP release versions

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

Info

here is an interesting fact: all major WordPress updates are typically named after famous Jazz musicians, eg:

  • v.1.5 = Billy Strayhorn (February 17, 2005),
  • v.2.5 = Michael Brecker (March 29, 2008),
  • v.3.1 = Django Reinhardt (February 23, 2011),
  • v.3.7 = Count Basie (October 24, 2013),
  • v.3.9 = Jimmy Smith (April 16, 2014),
  • etc …

Who Is Using WordPress?

A better question is who isn’t using WordPress nowadays? All kinds of companies and people from all walks of life use WordPress to blog about every kind of topic imaginable.

Large brands, businesses, retail companies, celebrities, politicians, famous artists, colleges, government department sites, community organizations – even nations are using WordPress-powered sites …

WordPress.org Web Site Showcase

WP Showcase

Here are just some of the businesses, organizations and people who have built their online presence with WordPress:

  • Global Brands & Corporations: Bata, Public Storage Canada, Dassault Aviation, Group Bouygues, Mercedes-Benz, etc …
  • Celebs, Politicians, Sports Stars, Actors & Musicians: Garth Brooks, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, Nancy Pelosi, Brian Smith, Usain Bolt, The Rolling Stones, Mötley Crüe, Gabriel Iglesias, Sylvester Stallone, etc …
  • Universities & Educational Institutions: Georgia State University, Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Bridge, UCF College of Medicine, Salve Regina University, etc.
  • Magazines & Online Media: Thrive Magazine, The New Yorker, IMC TV, Dusty Cartridge, etc.
  • Government Sites, Public Services & Community Organizations: San Pellegrino Terme, Canadian Museum of History, Maryland National Road Association, Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Amnesty International Korea, etc.

Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress is available as 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 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, blogs that are part of the WordPress network (blogs hosted either on WordPress.com or externally-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 new posts every second (around 1.5 million posts per day).

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

WordPress (Hosted Version) - Live Users WorldWide

WordPress (Hosted Version) – Live Activity

In later posts, we explain the main differences between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.

Other WordPress Statistics

WordPress Plugins

WordPress users can download and install over 37,000 WP plugins for free from the WordPress plugins directory …

WordPress plugins directory

(WordPress.org free plugins repository)

For a detailed article about plugins go here:

WordPress Themes

WordPress users can also download and install over 1,700 free WP themes from the WordPress themes directory …

WordPress.org free themes repository

(WP themes directory)

For a detailed article about WordPress themes see this post:

Translations Of WordPress

WordPress has been translated and localized into over 70 international languages and dialects in addition to English …

WP language translations

(WordPress language translations)

WordPress Searches

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

(WP-related searches online)

(WP searches online)

If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress gets 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, a quarter of all 33,000 WP 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 median hourly rate of WordPress projects is US$50.

You can find WordPress developers and designers for hire at freelancing sites like Upwork.com

WordPress Developers

According to Upwork.com, the typical cost for WordPress jobs is between $10 – $500 …

WordPress Job Cost Overview - Upwork.com

(Source: Upwork.com)

As you can see from the above information, the growth and popularity of WordPress is predicted to continue for a long time to come.

In other articles, we will address the following:

  • Why WordPress is the smartest option when it comes to choosing a platform for growing your small business online,
  • Over fifty compelling reasons why you should choose WordPress for your business website or blog, including a comprehensive breakdown of the unique benefits, features, and advantages of using WordPress,
  • Ways to automate your business marketing with WordPress,
  • How to generate targeted traffic, get more leads and subscribers, and sell more products and services with WordPress.
  • Plus, we’ll be regularly posting lots of tutorials and useful examples of how to use WordPress and grow your business presence online, and save thousands of dollars on web development and website design costs.

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References:

The information for this post was sourced from various locations around the web, including the following sites:

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