This blog post is part of a detailed series of articles designed to help small businesses grow online.
For an overview of the article series, see this post:
In this article, you will learn a number of facts and figures 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.
WordPress: Useful Facts And Figures
Below is a summary of what this blog post will cover:
- WordPress started 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 a new WordPress website or blog.
- There are well over sixty million installations of WordPress. This number is growing everyday.
- WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites around the world 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 that use a CMS application are driven by WordPress.
- Over 35,000,000 searches are made on Google each month for terms related to WordPress.
- WordPress is 100% free to download, use and modify. The WordPress application is built using an open source content management system.
- WordPress code is built by volunteers. People from all around the world are at work developing and improving WordPress on an ongoing basis.
- The WordPress core functionality is continually being updated to address 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 languages.
- WordPress currently makes available thousands of free WordPress plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
- There is practically no limit to what can be built using WordPress.
WordPress Usage
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 easier for non-technical website users 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. Since then, WordPress has become the widely-used self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites 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 the software) currently attracts more unique visitors than Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo.com, eBay, and Twitter …
(WordPress.com monthly uniques. Source: Automattic.com)
Here are just some of the latest figures on WordPress usage:
WordPress is the world’s leading CMS platform and powers over 30% of the web …
(WordPress CMS 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 websites today are being built on the WordPress CMS application.
WordPress is so popular, that trying to keep up with statistics on WordPress is quite difficult because the data changes so often.
For example, at the time this article was written, here is the current number of downloads of the latest WordPress version …
(Source: https://wordpress.org/download/counter)
Note: The above download number represents only the latest version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet updated their installations to the latest version …
(WordPress versions currently in use. Source: https://wordpress.org/about/stats)
Even 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 will see a much higher download number … perhaps even a different 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 over 100 new updates in its first 11 years of existence …
(Over one hundred new WordPress versions have been made available to date)
WordPress currently releases a new update every 3-4 months …
(WordPress regularly releases new versions named after famous Jazz musicians)
An interesting fact, is that all major WordPress upgrades have a tradition of being named in honor of well-known Jazz musicians, eg:
- v.1.2 = Charles Mingus (May 22, 2004),
- v.2.5 = Michael Brecker (March 29, 2008),
- v.3.2 = George Gershwin (July 4, 2011),
- v.3.4 = Grant Green (June 13, 2012),
- v.3.9 = Jimmy Smith (April 16, 2014),
- etc …
Who Uses WordPress?
In a nutshell, all types of businesses and people use WordPress to publish content about everything and anything.
Well-known brands, business of all sizes, retail companies, celebrities, sports stars, famous artists, colleges, government sectors, not-for-profits – even countries use WordPress to run their official websites …
WordPress Showcase
Here are just some of the sites, institutions and people who have chosen to build their online presence with WordPress:
- Businesses & Companies: Aqua Hotels and Resorts, Dole, GDF SUEZ, McDonald’s Singapore, Hyatt Blog, etc …
- Celebrities, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: Alanis Morissette, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, The Meredith Vieira Show, Beyoncé, Usain Bolt, Steve Blake, LA Lakers, Blondie, Channing Tatum, Russell Brand, etc …
- Universities & Educational Institutions: University of Manitoba Today, International Relations Online at American University, Bates College, Salve Regina University, etc.
- Magazines & News Media: Time Inc., Time.com, Facebook Newsroom, Dusty Cartridge, etc.
- Governments, Public Services & Humanitarian Organizations: Sweden’s Official Site, Canadian Museum of History, Slow Food Italia, UK Government Cabinet Office Digital Team, Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, 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 in their domain 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, WordPress blogs (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).
WordPress.com provides a live map showing the latest activity across its hosted platform …
WordPress (Hosted Version) – Activity Worldwide
In later tutorials, we discuss the differences between WordPress.com (hosted) vs WordPress.org (self-hosted) versions.
Additional WordPress Statistics
WordPress Plugins
WordPress users have access to over almost 40,000 free WordPress plugins …
(WordPress.org plugin directory)
We have written a comprehensive article about WordPress plugins here:
WordPress Themes
WordPress users can also access over 1,700 WordPress themes for free …
(WordPress free themes directory)
We have published a comprehensive article about themes here:
WordPress In Different Languages
WordPress has been translated and localized into over seventy languages and dialects in addition to English …
(WordPress.org languages)
WordPress Searches
The search term “WordPress” alone receives around 2.7 million searches per month on Google. Additional WordPress-related terms (e.g. “WP themes”, “WP plugins”, ”learn WordPress”, etc. brings the total number of searches online for WordPress terms to around thirty-seven million …
(WordPress searches online)
If you compare searches for WordPress to other CMS platforms, WordPress gets searched five times more than Joomla and nine times more often than Drupal.
WordPress Rates
According to WordPress’ own “State of the Word” 2014 survey, 25% of WP users who responded to the survey stated 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 designers and developers for hire at freelancing sites like Upwork …
According to Upwork, the typical cost for WordPress jobs is between $10 – $500 …
(Source: Upwork.com)
As you can see from the information presented above, the growth and popularity of WordPress is expected to continue for many years to come.
In other articles, we will cover the following:
- Why WordPress is an ideal platform to grow your small 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,
- How to automate your business with WordPress,
- How to drive more traffic to your site, get more leads, and sell more products and services with WordPress.
- Plus, we’ll provide loads of ”how to” tutorials and examples of how to 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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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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