WordPress – Useful Facts And Statistics

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

This article is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you succeed online.

WordPress

For an overview of the article series, go here:

In this article, you will learn a number of WordPress usage statistics that will help you understand why millions of businesses around the world choose WordPress and what kind of businesses and people are using WordPress today.

How Popular Is WordPress? Some Facts And Figures About WordPress Usage

Below is a summary of what we will cover:

  • WordPress began in 2003.
  • WordPress is available in two formats: a hosted application (WordPress.com) and as a self-hosted, downloadable application (WordPress.org).
  • 22 out of every one hundred new domains registered in the U.S. are for a new WordPress website or blog.
  • There are over sixty million installations of WordPress worldwide. This number grows everyday.
  • WordPress powers over 30% of the internet. Over one-third of all websites around the world are driven 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 37,000,000 searches are made on Google each month for WordPress related terms.
  • The WordPress application is 100% free to download, use and modify. WordPress is distributed under an open source content management system.
  • WordPress code is worked on by volunteers. People from all over the world are at work developing and improving WordPress functionality each day.
  • The WordPress software is regularly updated to eliminate bugs and improve both 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.
  • WordPress currently makes available thousands of free WP plugins, themes, and widgets to WordPress users.
  • There is almost no limit to what type of site you can build using WordPress.

WordPress CMS Popularity

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

WordPress began 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 Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, and Yahoo …

WordPress.com unique visits

(WordPress.com unique monthly views. Source: Automattic.com)

Here are just some of the latest stats on WordPress usage:

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

WordPress usage stats

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

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

WP CMS usage stats

(WordPress Market Share. Source: w3techs.com)

In fact, more and more websites today are being powered by the WordPress CMS application.

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

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

WP downloads

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

Info

Note: The above download figures represents only the latest version of WordPress. Around one third of all current users have not yet updated their sites to the latest release …

WordPress versions currently in use

(WordPress 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 page, expect to see a much higher download number … perhaps even an updated version, as the WordPress developer community continually updates the software to fix security issues and bugs, and add new or improved features.

Speaking of updates, WordPress has made available to users over one hundred new software updates since 2003 …

WP release archive

(Over one hundred new WordPress versions have been released in its first 11 years)

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

WP release versions

(WordPress regularly releases new software versions named after famous Jazz musicians)

Info

Interestingly enough, all major WordPress updates are named after Jazz musicians, eg:

  • v.1.5 = Billy Strayhorn (February 17, 2005),
  • v.2.3 = Dexter Gordon (September 24, 2007),
  • v.2.9 = Carmen McRae (December 18, 2009),
  • v.3.7 = Count Basie (October 24, 2013),
  • v.4.1 = Dinah Washington (December 18, 2014),
  • etc …

Who Uses WordPress?

In a nutshell, all different kinds of enterprises and people use WordPress to blog about everything and anything.

Giant brands, businesses, technology companies, celebrities, politicians, famous musicians, educational institutions, government sectors, community organizations – even nations are using WordPress to publish web content and run their official websites …

WP Website Showcase

WordPress.org Site Showcase

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

  • Businesses & Corporations: Aqua Hotels and Resorts, Boardshorts.com, Panic, Group Bouygues, Mercedes-Benz, etc …
  • Celebs, Politicians, Sports Stars, Artists & Musicians: US Air Force General Chuck Yeager, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, Nancy Pelosi, Brian Smith, Usain Bolt, The Rolling Stones, Mötley Crüe, Gabriel Iglesias, Jason Mraz, etc …
  • Universities & Educational Institutions: University of Manitoba Today, Stony Brook University School of Journalism, Bates College, MIT Sloan Management Review, etc.
  • Magazines & Media: Time Inc., The New Yorker, InStyle News, LinkedIn, etc.
  • Governments, Public Services & Community Organizations: Open.NASA.gov, Chicago Weather Center, Maryland National Road Association, 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 own domains and modified to suit their needs. In fact, most WordPress self-hosted installations are set up for business applications.
  • 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 externally-hosted WordPress sites) published on average 17 new posts per second (around 1.5 million posts per day).

WordPress provides a live map showing the latest activity across its hosted service …

WordPress (Hosted Version) - Activity Around The World

WordPress.com – Live Users WorldWide

In other articles, we present 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 37,000 WordPress plugins at no cost from the WordPress plugins directory …

WordPress free plugins directory

(WordPress.org free plugins repository)

We have published a great article about WP plugins here:

WordPress Themes

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

WP themes repository

(WordPress.org free themes repository)

For a detailed article about themes go here:

WordPress Translations

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

WordPress language translations

(WP 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”, “WordPress plugins”, ”WordPress SEO”, etc. brings the total number of online searches for WordPress terms to around thirty-five million …

(WordPress-related searches online)

(WP 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, one quarter of all WP users who participated in the survey stated that they make a full-time living off WordPress. 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 by searching on freelancing sites like Upwork.com

WP Freelance Developers

According to Upwork.com, the typical job cost ranges for WordPress are between $10 – $500 …

WP Job Cost Overview - Upwork.com

(Source: Upwork.com)

As you can clearly see from the above statistics, there is no end in sight for how much further WordPress can continue to grow.

In other blog posts, we will explore the following areas:

  • Why WordPress is an ideal platform to grow your small business online,
  • Over 50 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 the WordPress CMS platform,
  • Ways to automate your business marketing with WordPress,
  • How to generate targeted traffic, get more leads, and sell more products and services with WordPress.
  • Plus, we’ll be providing lots of tutorials and examples of how you can use WordPress and grow your business presence online, while also saving thousands of dollars on web development and web design costs.

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References:

The above statistics were sourced from various locations around the web, including the following sites:

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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)

Originally published as WordPress – Useful Facts And Statistics.