WordPress – Useful Facts And Statistics

This article is part of a series of articles aimed at helping you succeed online with the WordPress CMS.

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

• Mastering WordPress – The Small Business Owner’s Guide

In this blog post, you will learn some impressive WordPress usage facts and figures that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world rely on WordPress to power their business websites and what kind of businesses use WordPress today.

Some Useful Facts And Figures About WordPress

In short:

• WordPress began as a blogging tool in 2003.
• WordPress offers users 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 installing a new WordPress website or blog.
• There are over 60 million installations of WordPress. This number increases everyday.
• WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites worldwide are powered 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 using a content management system are powered by WordPress.
• Over 30 million searches made each month on Google are for terms related to WordPress.
• The WordPress application is 100% free to download, use and modify. WordPress is distributed under an open source content management system.
• WordPress code is continually built and improved upon by volunteers. People from all around the world work on developing and improving the WordPress software on an ongoing basis.
• The WordPress software is regularly updated to address bugs and improve both its features and security.
• WordPress delivers 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 WordPress plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
• There is practically no limit to what type of site you can build with WordPress.

WordPress Popularity

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

WordPress started in 2003. It was originally written by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. WordPress is now the widely-used self-hosted CMS-based publishing platform 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 its distributed model and so few employees, WordPress.com (the hosted version of the WordPress software) currently attracts more unique views per month than Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo.com, Twitter, and eBay …

(WordPress [hosted version] monthly uniques. Source: Automattic.com)

Here are just some of the latest stats on WordPress:

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

(WP usage figures. 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 sites are now powered by the WordPress CMS application.

WordPress is so popular, that keeping up with the latest statistics on WordPress is very difficult because the data changes so often.

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

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

Note: The above number represents only the most recently released version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet updated 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 shot up. If you were to click on the link above and visit the WordPress download counter page, expect to see a much higher download figure … perhaps even an updated version, as the WordPress development team continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.

Regarding updates, WordPress has made available over one hundred new software versions to date …

(Over one hundred new versions of WordPress have been made available to date)

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

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

here is an interesting fact: all major WordPress upgrades are named in honor of well-known Jazz musicians, eg:

• v.2.1 = Ella Fitzgerald (January 22, 2007),
• v.2.5 = Michael Brecker (March 29, 2008),
• v.2.8 = Chet Baker (June 11, 2009),
• v.3.6 = Oscar Peterson (August 1, 2013),
• v.4.0 = Benny Goodman (September 4, 2014),
• etc …

Who Uses WordPress

In a nutshell, all types of companies and people from all walks of life are using WordPress to blog about every kind of topic imaginable.

Giant brands, business of all sizes, technology companies, celebrities, politicians, famous actors, universities, government sectors, not-for-profits – even countries are using WordPress …

WordPress.org Site Showcase

Here are just some of the growing number of sites, organizations and people who use WordPress:

• Businesses & Companies: Bata, Public Storage Canada, Method Products, Groupe Vivendi, Mercedes-Benz, etc …
• Celebs, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: Garth Brooks, Ariana Grande, Pixies, Justin Bieber, Dallas Mavericks, Steve Blake, LA Lakers, Katie Couric, Gabriel Iglesias, Sylvester Stallone, etc …
• Colleges & Educational Institutions: Georgia State University, International Relations Online at American University, Washington University’s School of Law, Salve Regina University, etc.
• Magazines & Media: Time Inc., Time.com, IMC TV, Enterprise Magazine, etc.
• Government Sites, Not For Profits & Community Organizations: Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, Chicago Weather Center, Slow Food Italia, Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Rotary Means Business – Rotary Club, etc.

Earlier, we mentioned that WordPress offers users the choice of 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 customized to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are used for running some kind of business.
• 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 self-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 blog posts per 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) – Activity Around The World

In other articles, we cover the main differences between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.

Other Statistics About WordPress

WordPress Plugins

WordPress users have access to over almost 40,000 free plugins …

(WP free plugins directory)

For more information about WP plugins see this post:

• WP Plugins Extend Your Web Site’s Capabilities

WordPress Themes

WordPress users also have access to over 1,700 free WP themes …

(WordPress themes directory)

For more information about WP themes see this post:

• About WordPress Themes – A Useful Guide For Beginners

Translations Of WordPress

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

(WordPress languages)

Searching Online For WordPress

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

(WordPress-related 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 WordPress users who answered the survey said 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 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 clearly see from the above facts and figures, the growth of WordPress is expected to continue for a long time to come.

In other blog posts, we will address the following areas of WordPress:

• Why WordPress is an ideal vehicle for growing your business online,
• Dozens of reasons why you should choose WordPress for your website or blog, including a detailed review of the unique benefits, features, and advantages of using WordPress,
• Ways to automate your business with WordPress,
• How to generate targeted traffic, get more leads and subscribers, and how to sell more products and services with WordPress.
• Plus, we’ll be providing lots of step-by-step tutorials and examples on how to use WordPress to grow your business online, while also saving thousands of dollars on website development and web design costs.

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Sources:

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://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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