WordPress – Useful Facts And Statistics

This blog post is part of a detailed multi-part article series aimed at helping small businesses grow online.

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

• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

In this article, you will learn some statistics about WordPress that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world rely on WordPress and what kind of businesses are using WordPress today.

Some Impressive Statistics About WordPress

A brief summary:

• WordPress began as a blogging tool in 2003.
• WordPress is available in two formats: a hosted platform (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable software (WordPress.org).
• 23 out of every one hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for installing a new WordPress site.
• There are over sixty million installations of WordPress. This number grows every day.
• 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 websites using a content management system are built with WordPress.
• Over 30,000,000 searches are made on Google each month for WordPress related terms.
• The WordPress application is 100% free to download, use and modify. The WordPress application is distributed as an open source content management system.
• WordPress code is continually built by volunteers. People from all over the world work on developing and improving the WordPress software every day.
• The WordPress application is updated on a regular basis to eliminate 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 seventy international languages and dialects.
• The WordPress repository currently makes available thousands of free WordPress plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
• There is practically no limit to what you can build with WordPress.

WordPress CMS Popularity

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

WordPress began in 2003. It was originally written by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Since then, it has grown to become the most downloaded self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of websites 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 its distributed model and so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the WordPress software) currently attracts more unique visitors than Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Twitter, and Yahoo …

(WordPress [hosted] unique views. Source: http://automattic.com/about)

Consider the following statistics on WordPress usage:

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

(WP CMS 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 and blogs are using WordPress.

WordPress is so popular, that even keeping up with the latest statistics on WordPress is very difficult because the numbers change so often.

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

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

Note: The above figure represents only the most recent version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet updated their installations to the latest release …

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

As this article was being written, the number of downloads has already grown. If you were to click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter site, expect to see a much higher figure … 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 100 new updates to date …

(Over 100 new versions of WordPress have been released since 2003)

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

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

Incidentally, all major WordPress releases are traditionally named after 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.3.4 = Grant Green (June 13, 2012),
• v.4.1 = Dinah Washington (December 18, 2014),
• etc …

Who Uses WordPress

A better question is who doesn’t use WordPress nowadays? All different types of enterprises and people from all walks of life use WordPress to publish content about everything under the sun.

Well-known corporations, business of all sizes, retail companies, celebrities, sports stars, famous musicians, colleges, government department sites, not-for-profits – even nations are using WordPress 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: Sony Music, Dole, Method Products, Group Bouygues, Vogue, etc …
• Famous People, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: US Air Force General Chuck Yeager, Ariana Grande, Nancy Pelosi, Beyoncé, Dallas Mavericks, The Rolling Stones, William Shatner, Howie Mandel, Jason Mraz, etc …
• Colleges & Educational Institutions: University of Manitoba Today, International Relations Online at American University, Washington University’s School of Law, Salve Regina University, etc.
• Magazines & News Media: Time Inc., The New Yorker, IMC TV, Dusty Cartridge, etc.
• Government Sites, Not For Profits & Community Organizations: Sweden’s Official Site, Canadian Museum of History, The National Art Gallery of Maldives, Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, etc.

Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress is available in two formats: a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable software (WordPress.org).

• Businesses prefer the self-hosted version, which can be installed on their domain names and modified to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are set up for commercial activities.
• 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 self-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 new posts per second (around 1.5 million per day).

WordPress.com publishes a live map showing user activity across its hosted service …

WordPress.com – Activity Worldwide

In other posts, we examine the difference between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.

Additional WordPress Statistics

WordPress Plugins

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

(WordPress.org free plugins repository)

We have written a comprehensive article about WordPress plugins here:

• Using WordPress Plugins To Extend Your Site’s Functionality

WordPress Themes

WordPress users also have access to over 1,700 WordPress themes at no cost from the WordPress theme repository …

(WP free themes repository)

We have written a comprehensive article about WordPress themes here:

• Understanding WordPress Themes – A Practical Guide

WordPress Language Translations

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

(WordPress.org languages)

WordPress Searches Online

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

(WordPress searches online)

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

WordPress Developers

According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, a quarter of all users who answered 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 US$50.

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

According to Upwork, the typical WordPress job cost ranges are around $10 – $500 …

(Source: Upwork)

As you can see from the information above, WordPress is poised for continued growth for a long time to come.

In other articles, you will learn:

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

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References:

The above statistics 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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