WordPress stats: market share<\/h2>\n\n\n\nI<\/strong>t powers 43% of the internet<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_1-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress<\/a> has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a homebrew successor to b2\/cafelog. It now powers a whopping 43.6% of all websites on the internet. That\u2019s according to data from W3Techs<\/a>, which suggests the software tool\u2019s growth remains steady.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBetween 2011 and 2019, WordPress established itself as a CMS force to be reckoned with. By the start of 2020, over one in three websites were using it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The competition isn\u2019t exactly nipping at its heels, either. Coming in second place on the market share league table is Shopify, powering an estimated 3% of all websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It holds a 64.1% share of the CMS market<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_2-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nTo call WordPress the market leader in the CMS sector is something of an understatement. The software\u2019s market share of 62.5% puts a gulf the size of the Grand Canyon between it and closest competitor Shopify, which is clinging to a 5.2% slice of the pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the distance between WordPress and its nearest rival doesn\u2019t paint a clear enough picture of its dominance, its share of the CMS market is a greater percentage than all other content management systems put together. That\u2019s Shopify, Joomla, Wix, the lot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
14.7% of the world\u2019s top websites use WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"Top](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/14.7-of-the-worlds-top-websites-use-wordpress.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress itself may be free and open-source, but that doesn\u2019t mean its user base is limited to frugal start-ups and small businesses looking to save a few pennies. In fact, some of the biggest companies in the world have made it their CMS platform of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 14% of the world\u2019s biggest websites are WordPress sites. These include the Walt Disney Company\u2019s website, Sony Music\u2019s online portal and the official PlayStation blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over 1000 new WordPress sites join the world\u2019s top 10 million websites daily<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"1000](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_4-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIf you want an idea of how much WordPress\u2019 user base is growing and the impact this is having on the wider internet, this stat should do the trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around 1000 new WordPress sites join the top 10 million most popular websites on the net every single day. This proves that WordPress sites are not just prolific, but many of them seem to be absolutely nailing SEO too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WordPress plugin and theme stats<\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe Avada theme may have raked-in around $39 million from sales<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"Avada](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/avada-theme-raked-in-over-39-million-sales.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress themes allow users to customise the appearance of their website, but you knew that, right? What you might not know is exactly how profitable some of these themes are for their creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take the phenomenally-popular Avada, for instance. Since 2022<\/a> it sells for $69 a pop and they say<\/a> that it’s racked up over 980,000 sales since launch back in 2012.
Even assuming they sold everything at the original ‘Starter’ price<\/a> of $40, some quick maths will tell you that amounts to a staggering $39 million!<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are more than 58,000 free WordPress plugins<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_6-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOne of the big benefits of using WordPress is the ability to extend functionality or add snazzy new features to your website with the free plugins that are available. There\u2019s a mind-boggling array on offer from WordPress.org<\/a>, with the number now exceeding 59,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese plugins have racked up more than 1.5 billion downloads between them. If those downloads were people, they\u2019d outnumber the population of China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If that\u2019s not incredible enough, that 59,000 figure is just the official plugins available through WordPress. There are also thousands of third-party ones to buy or pick up for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WooCommerce powers over 29% of online stores<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WooCommerce](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/woocommerce-powers-over-29-of-online-stores.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSome WordPress plugins have been more successful than others, but WooCommerce is in a league of its own. This open-source e-commerce platform began life as just another WordPress add-on in 2008. These days, it powers 29.4% of web\u2019s online stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sitting on top of the core CMS, WooCommerce integrates commerce with content and is fully customisable. According to stats from Datanyze<\/a>, its market share makes it the world\u2019s most popular e-commerce platform. Squarespace Online Stores isn\u2019t too far behind with a 21.1% slice, fending off competition from third-placed Shopify.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAkismet has blocked over 500 billion spam posts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"Akismet](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_8-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNot every comment that lands on a WordPress article is an insightful take on the content in question or even the ramblings of anonymous trolls. Far worse than the latter are spam comments, which are unavoidable where market leading CMS platforms are concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luckily, there are countless tools out there to help you deflect spam messages away from your comments section. Among the most popular is Akismet. This freemium plugin has stopped over 555 billion spam posts<\/a> in their tracks since it launched in 2005. Is it any wonder that it\u2019s one of the most-downloaded WordPress add-ons of all time?<\/p>\n\n\n\nHalf of all WordPress themes on ThemeForest make at least $1,000 per month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"Half](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/half-of-all-wordpress-themes-make-1k-monthly.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBeing a WordPress developer can be lucrative and rewarding, but so too can being a WordPress theme creator. Exactly half of the WordPress themes available over on ThemeForest rake in a minimum of $1,000 every month<\/a>. And if that\u2019s not enough, 5% of the bestselling themes on there are making a cool $10,000 a month for their developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress stats: users<\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe latest version has been downloaded over 15 million times<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_10-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress version 6.6 was released into the wild in July 2024. Needless to say, it\u2019s rather popular and has been downloaded more than 97 million times since then!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That number is growing by the second: you can check where it\u2019s up to in real-time on the WordPress download counter webpage<\/a>. Just keep in mind that this is the number of times the CMS has been downloaded, not the number of active WordPress websites.
Version 6.7 is on track to be super popular too with nearly 14 million downloads in the first week since it launched on 12 November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress users submit 70 million new posts per month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"Number](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/wordpress-users-submit-70-million-new-posts-per-month.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt should come as no surprise that a mammoth amount of content is published through WordPress. According to the official numbers<\/a>, WordPress users publish around 70 million new posts each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat\u2019s a lot of content to consume, but it\u2019s obvious web users can\u2019t get enough of it. Those posts are attracting serious engagement, with 77 million new comments<\/a> landing on them every month. Spare a thought for the webmasters who have to moderate all of that…<\/p>\n\n\n\nOver 409 million people view WordPress articles each month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"Over](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/409-million-people-view-wordpress-articles-each-month.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress can boast a staggering readership (vicariously, at least). Over 409 million people<\/a> view 20 billion pages hosted on its sites per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat are those articles about? Well, everything! We\u2019ve already touched on what kind of businesses use the platform and it\u2019s an eclectic mix. Everyone from CNN to UPS has published content through WordPress. Then there are the scores of bloggers, hobbyists and influencers to factor-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1.1 million new WordPress domains were registered every six months<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/1.1-million-new-wordpress-domains-were-registered-every-six-months.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBack in 2015, a survey from BuiltWith<\/a> found that WordPress is responsible for 1.1 million new domain registrations every six months. That\u2019s a jaw-dropping amount and you can only imagine how it might have changed over the last five years, given WordPress\u2019 rapid growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress.com attracts 90 million monthly unique visitors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress.com](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/wordpress.com-attracts-90-million-monthly-unique-visitors.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAccording to SEMrush, the official WordPress website attracts over 90 million unique visitors every month. While that isn\u2019t enough to dethrone the online behemoths, such as Google on 3 billion and Facebook.com with 1.8 billion monthly uniques, it\u2019s impressive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Especially impressive considering the size of the organisation. While a lot of open-source work is done by volunteers, WordPress employs 1,148 people, a fraction the size of Google\u2019s 118,899-strong workforce in 2019 or Facebook\u2019s employee headcount of 44,942. Even eBay, which has 100 million monthly unique visitors, has 30,000 members of staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WordPress stats: community, location and language<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWordPress is available in 208 locales<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_15-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress has already achieved domination of the global CMS market, so it makes sense that they’d want to see it translated into virtually every language known to man. It still has a way to go, but WordPress is currently available in 208 locales<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere\u2019s an important distinction to make between locale and language. A language is obviously what you speak, read and write in. A locale includes a tonne of region-specific information such as numbers, dates and times for that location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WordPress has an entire team dedicated to translating the software into as many locales as possible. Of the 208 translations released so far, 65 have reached 95-100% conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over 70% of all WordPress content is written in English<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"70%+](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/over-70-of-all-wordpress-content-is-written-in-english.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress hosts posts in more than 120 different languages, but a sizeable majority of them are written in English. Figures<\/a> straight from the horse\u2019s mouth confirm that 71% of all WordPress blogs were typed up in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBy comparison, the second most-used language on WordPress is Spanish with a 4.7% share. European tongues dominate the software tool, although content written in Indonesian is surprisingly prevalent, making up 2.4% of all blogs on the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been 1,274 WordCamps to date<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_17-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordCamps<\/a> are laid-back, locally organised conferences about all things WordPress. The first of these get-togethers was arranged by Matt Mullenweg in 2006 and the concept really caught on. Since then, 1,274 WordCamp events have taken place around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLocal communities have been arranging their own conferences, and their efforts have seen events held in 405 cities across 65 countries. You can find out when the next ones are taking place on the official WordCamp website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordCamp Europe 2020 drew 8,600 registrations<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordCamp](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/wordcamp-europe-2020-drew-8600-registrations.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFolks flock from all over the world to get a piece of the WordCamp action and, despite pandemics and lockdowns; 2020\u2019s online event had 8,600 registrants and more than 2,500 people signed up to participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The record number of people in attending in person was in 2019, when 2,734 people turned-up in Vienna. 2024 drew an impressive 2584 attendees<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are over 2 million topics on the official WordPress support forum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"Topics](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/over-2-million-topics-on-the-official-wordpress-support-forum.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhen you\u2019re powering a sizeable percentage of the web, it\u2019s a good idea to have a place the masses can turn for technical support and advice. This is where the official WordPress support forums<\/a> come in, and like the platform itself, they\u2019re rather popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo date, you\u2019ll find more than 2,030,000 topics on said forums. They include everything from how-to topics, technical support, feedback requests and help with themes and plugins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WordPress business and financial stats<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWordPress employs 1,148 people<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_20-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAutomattic is the parent company behind WordPress and it likes to keep a relatively lean workforce – compared to your average tech giant, at least. There are currently 1,732 people employed by the firm across 92 different countries, speaking 116 languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This impressive display of collaboration doesn’t count all the voluntary contributors. For example, 605 people<\/a> contributed to WordPress 5.6 and many more have pitched in since then<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n25% of WordPress users are making a full-time living off the platform<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/25-of-wordpress-users-are-making-a-full-time-living-off-the-platform.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAt this stage, it should already be obvious that there\u2019s money to be made through WordPress, from e-commerce to WordPress hosting<\/a> and everything in between. Many of its users are taking full advantage of this. In 2014 Matt Mullenweg said<\/a> that a quarter of them are making a full-time living through the platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe average WordPress developer salary is between $50,034 and $76,083<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_22-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCountless people make a good living from WordPress development and the average salary for this job in the US is $61,184 per year. That\u2019s according to PayScale<\/a>, but other recruitment sites beg to differ. Glassdoor, for instance, claims the average salary is $72,000.
In the UK, recruitment specialists Indeed estimate that the average salary for a WordPress developer is \u00a333,493, but there\u2019s some discrepancy on this side of the Atlantic, too. Glassdoor reckons it\u2019s \u00a336,000 and Reed up to \u00a342,500 per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress stats: security<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWordPress has denied 80% of DMCA takedown requests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_23-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDigital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests are commonplace in a world where anyone can post pretty much anything onto the internet. As the world\u2019s leading CMS, WordPress is inundated with these requests. Whether it\u2019s someone with legitimate grounds to feel ripped off or a fraudulent chancer trying their luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WordPress offers complete transparency about the number of DMCA requests it receives. Between January 2014 and June 2024, the total number it has handled is 116,087<\/a>. Of those claims, 26% resulted in content being altered or removed, and 74% saw WordPress tell the claimant to jog on, proving it isn\u2019t afraid to push back to protect freedom of speech.
For 2024 so far<\/a>; Automattic has received 3,337 notices that resulted in just 13% of cases where some kind of removal action took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOnly 27% of WordPress users are running the latest version<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"65%](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_24-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s a good idea to update WordPress to the most recent version so you’ll benefit from the added protection of the latest security enhancements. A quality managed WordPress hosting<\/a> plan will automatically update the version for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMany WordPress users take security seriously with over 65% of WordPress users having updated<\/a> to version 6.6 or higher. 6.7 is most-used edition, but it\u2019s a tad worrying that a third of the platform\u2019s customers are running an outdated build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n49% of hacked WordPress websites were running an outdated version<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"40%](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_25-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress can be safe and secure, but when you\u2019re the world\u2019s largest CMS, a barrage of hacking attempts is bound to come your way. The platform is well equipped to shield its users from malware, phishing and other sinister things from the darkest reaches of the internet. But it has a better chance of doing that if you update it to the latest version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WordPress team has always done a good job at staying one step ahead of the hackers thanks to the security fixes included in every CMS update. When something insidious does get through the net, it\u2019s usually the result of a dodgy third-party plugin or the user running an outdated version of the CMS. According to Securi in 2023<\/a>, nearly 40% of hacked WordPress installations were using an older edition of the software; so make sure yours is bang up to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOther WordPress stats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n382 years\u2019 work have gone into WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"272](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_26-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNot literally, of course, because that would only be possible if WordPress\u2019 creators were some kind of immortal time travellers. But that\u2019s roughly how many \u2018person-years\u2019 have been invested in the creation of the world\u2019s biggest content management system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 272 year estimate was calculated by Open Hub<\/a> based on how many lines of code there are in WordPress 6.6 and how much it would cost to have them written. There are 996,990 lines of code and it would cost around $14,969,076 to produce, in case you\u2019re interested in the specifics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt takes just five minutes to install WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/it-takes-just-five-minutes-to-install-wordpress.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress prides itself on user-friendliness and accessibility and part of that ethos is its rapid setup time. Automattic say that it\u2019s possible to install the software in five minutes or less. Around the same amount of time it should take to make a decent cup of tea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, with our managed hosting, WordPress is already installed and ready for use right away. If you want to install it on our Linux Web Hosting<\/a> or Managed Hosting<\/a>, it takes about 30 seconds using our one-click installer.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress is active 24 hours a day<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/wordpress-is-active-24-hours-a-day.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s the CMS that never sleeps! WordPress is active 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Comments and posts land on its websites around the clock. The WordPress website has a live map of global activity<\/a> so you can follow this perpetual flow of content in real-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOver 294,000 searches in the UK for \u201cWordPress\u201d each month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_29-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThere are over 106,000 searches in Google for \u201cWordPress\u201d each month in the UK. Globally, there are over 2.3 million searches per month \u2013 which is nearly 28 million a year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An episode of Strike Back features a WordPress-guided missile<\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress-guided](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/an-episode-of-strike-back-features-a-wordpress-guided-missile.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nYou know you\u2019ve made it big when you find your way into pop culture. That\u2019s what happened to WordPress in May of 2010 when British military drama Strike Back ran a storyline involving a WordPress-guided missile<\/a>. In the fifth episode of season one, the platform\u2019s post.js file was used to steer a warhead towards its target.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo, there you have it: WordPress can guide missiles. Okay, that\u2019s not really true but when programmers spotted the anomaly, they did add a line of code reading \u2018weapon locked\u2019 into the original file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pick of your pocket-sized devices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"90%+](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_31-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThere are 5.52 billion<\/a> internet users in the world and 96.2%<\/a> of them use mobile phones to get online: which makes having mobile-friendly websites a big deal!
All of WordPress\u2019s first-party themes<\/a> are mobile responsive and Twenty Twenty-Four<\/a>, which is included with versions 6.4-6.6, is the most widely used first-party theme in use on the platform.
The most prevalent third-party themes are also fully responsive and represent a large portion of the WordPress userbase:
Hello Elementor – 12.03%
Astra Theme – 11.71%
Divi – 7.33%<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress: Easy to access<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress's](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_32-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress is committed to making its platform accessible to everyone<\/a>. It includes features that support users who face challenges when using the internet, such as screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, adjustable font sizes, colour contrasts and more.
With nearly 60%<\/a> of the US population with disabilities living in households with an internet connection accessibility is a tremendously important consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress speaks your language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"49%](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_33-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n44% of all WordPress websites<\/a> have their language set to English (US). The next most widely used languages are Spanish (Spain) with 5.8% closely followed by Japanese at 5.7% and German in 4th place with 5.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPHP-Press<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"Only](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_34-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOnly 4.5%<\/a> of WordPress websites are running PHP 8.3<\/a>, which is the latest version at the time of writing. The most used PHP framework in use is version 7.4 with 33.7% of all installs making use of it. 8.1 and 8.2 aren\u2019t far behind with 19.7% and 20.6% respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress and dated databases<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"21%](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_35-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe most popular databases<\/a> behind WordPress are MySQL<\/a> 8.0 with 21.3% and MySQL 5.7 with 20.2%. MariaDB<\/a> 10.6 is next with 19.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress supports<\/a> MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.5+ which means that a lot databases.. are out of date by not running the latest versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress is an intercontinental effort<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"Developers](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2021\/01\/Icons-HI-and-SM-2024_36-2048x745.png.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe WordPress community is vast and active, with thousands of contributors working on core updates, plugins, themes, translations, and support forums.
WordPress 6.6 \u201cDorsey\u201d was worked on by contributors from all over the world<\/a>!
The USA put the most in with 1033 contributions followed by Australia with an impressive 762.
Spain made 711 contributions and the UK pitched in 468. Japan and India were the next greatest contributors with 368 and 344 respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n![\"Interesting](\"https:\/\/www.20i.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/WordPress-Infographic.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nTo the best of our knowledge all figures are correct as of November 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nDon’t let hackers in to your WordPress website: check out our Complete Guide to WordPress Security<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nInterested in WordPress web hosting<\/a>? Check out 20i’s lightning-fast Managed WordPress Hosting<\/a>. It’s fantastic value, including features like WordPress Staging<\/a> and a free CDN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress<\/a> has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a homebrew successor to b2\/cafelog. It now powers a whopping 43.6% of all websites on the internet. That\u2019s according to data from W3Techs<\/a>, which suggests the software tool\u2019s growth remains steady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between 2011 and 2019, WordPress established itself as a CMS force to be reckoned with. By the start of 2020, over one in three websites were using it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The competition isn\u2019t exactly nipping at its heels, either. Coming in second place on the market share league table is Shopify, powering an estimated 3% of all websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To call WordPress the market leader in the CMS sector is something of an understatement. The software\u2019s market share of 62.5% puts a gulf the size of the Grand Canyon between it and closest competitor Shopify, which is clinging to a 5.2% slice of the pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the distance between WordPress and its nearest rival doesn\u2019t paint a clear enough picture of its dominance, its share of the CMS market is a greater percentage than all other content management systems put together. That\u2019s Shopify, Joomla, Wix, the lot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress itself may be free and open-source, but that doesn\u2019t mean its user base is limited to frugal start-ups and small businesses looking to save a few pennies. In fact, some of the biggest companies in the world have made it their CMS platform of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 14% of the world\u2019s biggest websites are WordPress sites. These include the Walt Disney Company\u2019s website, Sony Music\u2019s online portal and the official PlayStation blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want an idea of how much WordPress\u2019 user base is growing and the impact this is having on the wider internet, this stat should do the trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around 1000 new WordPress sites join the top 10 million most popular websites on the net every single day. This proves that WordPress sites are not just prolific, but many of them seem to be absolutely nailing SEO too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress themes allow users to customise the appearance of their website, but you knew that, right? What you might not know is exactly how profitable some of these themes are for their creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take the phenomenally-popular Avada, for instance. Since 2022<\/a> it sells for $69 a pop and they say<\/a> that it’s racked up over 980,000 sales since launch back in 2012. One of the big benefits of using WordPress is the ability to extend functionality or add snazzy new features to your website with the free plugins that are available. There\u2019s a mind-boggling array on offer from WordPress.org<\/a>, with the number now exceeding 59,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These plugins have racked up more than 1.5 billion downloads between them. If those downloads were people, they\u2019d outnumber the population of China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If that\u2019s not incredible enough, that 59,000 figure is just the official plugins available through WordPress. There are also thousands of third-party ones to buy or pick up for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some WordPress plugins have been more successful than others, but WooCommerce is in a league of its own. This open-source e-commerce platform began life as just another WordPress add-on in 2008. These days, it powers 29.4% of web\u2019s online stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sitting on top of the core CMS, WooCommerce integrates commerce with content and is fully customisable. According to stats from Datanyze<\/a>, its market share makes it the world\u2019s most popular e-commerce platform. Squarespace Online Stores isn\u2019t too far behind with a 21.1% slice, fending off competition from third-placed Shopify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not every comment that lands on a WordPress article is an insightful take on the content in question or even the ramblings of anonymous trolls. Far worse than the latter are spam comments, which are unavoidable where market leading CMS platforms are concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily, there are countless tools out there to help you deflect spam messages away from your comments section. Among the most popular is Akismet. This freemium plugin has stopped over 555 billion spam posts<\/a> in their tracks since it launched in 2005. Is it any wonder that it\u2019s one of the most-downloaded WordPress add-ons of all time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being a WordPress developer can be lucrative and rewarding, but so too can being a WordPress theme creator. Exactly half of the WordPress themes available over on ThemeForest rake in a minimum of $1,000 every month<\/a>. And if that\u2019s not enough, 5% of the bestselling themes on there are making a cool $10,000 a month for their developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress version 6.6 was released into the wild in July 2024. Needless to say, it\u2019s rather popular and has been downloaded more than 97 million times since then!<\/p>\n\n\n\n That number is growing by the second: you can check where it\u2019s up to in real-time on the WordPress download counter webpage<\/a>. Just keep in mind that this is the number of times the CMS has been downloaded, not the number of active WordPress websites. It should come as no surprise that a mammoth amount of content is published through WordPress. According to the official numbers<\/a>, WordPress users publish around 70 million new posts each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a lot of content to consume, but it\u2019s obvious web users can\u2019t get enough of it. Those posts are attracting serious engagement, with 77 million new comments<\/a> landing on them every month. Spare a thought for the webmasters who have to moderate all of that…<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress can boast a staggering readership (vicariously, at least). Over 409 million people<\/a> view 20 billion pages hosted on its sites per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are those articles about? Well, everything! We\u2019ve already touched on what kind of businesses use the platform and it\u2019s an eclectic mix. Everyone from CNN to UPS has published content through WordPress. Then there are the scores of bloggers, hobbyists and influencers to factor-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in 2015, a survey from BuiltWith<\/a> found that WordPress is responsible for 1.1 million new domain registrations every six months. That\u2019s a jaw-dropping amount and you can only imagine how it might have changed over the last five years, given WordPress\u2019 rapid growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to SEMrush, the official WordPress website attracts over 90 million unique visitors every month. While that isn\u2019t enough to dethrone the online behemoths, such as Google on 3 billion and Facebook.com with 1.8 billion monthly uniques, it\u2019s impressive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially impressive considering the size of the organisation. While a lot of open-source work is done by volunteers, WordPress employs 1,148 people, a fraction the size of Google\u2019s 118,899-strong workforce in 2019 or Facebook\u2019s employee headcount of 44,942. Even eBay, which has 100 million monthly unique visitors, has 30,000 members of staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress has already achieved domination of the global CMS market, so it makes sense that they’d want to see it translated into virtually every language known to man. It still has a way to go, but WordPress is currently available in 208 locales<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s an important distinction to make between locale and language. A language is obviously what you speak, read and write in. A locale includes a tonne of region-specific information such as numbers, dates and times for that location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress has an entire team dedicated to translating the software into as many locales as possible. Of the 208 translations released so far, 65 have reached 95-100% conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress hosts posts in more than 120 different languages, but a sizeable majority of them are written in English. Figures<\/a> straight from the horse\u2019s mouth confirm that 71% of all WordPress blogs were typed up in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By comparison, the second most-used language on WordPress is Spanish with a 4.7% share. European tongues dominate the software tool, although content written in Indonesian is surprisingly prevalent, making up 2.4% of all blogs on the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordCamps<\/a> are laid-back, locally organised conferences about all things WordPress. The first of these get-togethers was arranged by Matt Mullenweg in 2006 and the concept really caught on. Since then, 1,274 WordCamp events have taken place around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Local communities have been arranging their own conferences, and their efforts have seen events held in 405 cities across 65 countries. You can find out when the next ones are taking place on the official WordCamp website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Folks flock from all over the world to get a piece of the WordCamp action and, despite pandemics and lockdowns; 2020\u2019s online event had 8,600 registrants and more than 2,500 people signed up to participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The record number of people in attending in person was in 2019, when 2,734 people turned-up in Vienna. 2024 drew an impressive 2584 attendees<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\u2019re powering a sizeable percentage of the web, it\u2019s a good idea to have a place the masses can turn for technical support and advice. This is where the official WordPress support forums<\/a> come in, and like the platform itself, they\u2019re rather popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To date, you\u2019ll find more than 2,030,000 topics on said forums. They include everything from how-to topics, technical support, feedback requests and help with themes and plugins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Automattic is the parent company behind WordPress and it likes to keep a relatively lean workforce – compared to your average tech giant, at least. There are currently 1,732 people employed by the firm across 92 different countries, speaking 116 languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This impressive display of collaboration doesn’t count all the voluntary contributors. For example, 605 people<\/a> contributed to WordPress 5.6 and many more have pitched in since then<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this stage, it should already be obvious that there\u2019s money to be made through WordPress, from e-commerce to WordPress hosting<\/a> and everything in between. Many of its users are taking full advantage of this. In 2014 Matt Mullenweg said<\/a> that a quarter of them are making a full-time living through the platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Countless people make a good living from WordPress development and the average salary for this job in the US is $61,184 per year. That\u2019s according to PayScale<\/a>, but other recruitment sites beg to differ. Glassdoor, for instance, claims the average salary is $72,000. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests are commonplace in a world where anyone can post pretty much anything onto the internet. As the world\u2019s leading CMS, WordPress is inundated with these requests. Whether it\u2019s someone with legitimate grounds to feel ripped off or a fraudulent chancer trying their luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress offers complete transparency about the number of DMCA requests it receives. Between January 2014 and June 2024, the total number it has handled is 116,087<\/a>. Of those claims, 26% resulted in content being altered or removed, and 74% saw WordPress tell the claimant to jog on, proving it isn\u2019t afraid to push back to protect freedom of speech. It\u2019s a good idea to update WordPress to the most recent version so you’ll benefit from the added protection of the latest security enhancements. A quality managed WordPress hosting<\/a> plan will automatically update the version for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many WordPress users take security seriously with over 65% of WordPress users having updated<\/a> to version 6.6 or higher. 6.7 is most-used edition, but it\u2019s a tad worrying that a third of the platform\u2019s customers are running an outdated build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress can be safe and secure, but when you\u2019re the world\u2019s largest CMS, a barrage of hacking attempts is bound to come your way. The platform is well equipped to shield its users from malware, phishing and other sinister things from the darkest reaches of the internet. But it has a better chance of doing that if you update it to the latest version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WordPress team has always done a good job at staying one step ahead of the hackers thanks to the security fixes included in every CMS update. When something insidious does get through the net, it\u2019s usually the result of a dodgy third-party plugin or the user running an outdated version of the CMS. According to Securi in 2023<\/a>, nearly 40% of hacked WordPress installations were using an older edition of the software; so make sure yours is bang up to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not literally, of course, because that would only be possible if WordPress\u2019 creators were some kind of immortal time travellers. But that\u2019s roughly how many \u2018person-years\u2019 have been invested in the creation of the world\u2019s biggest content management system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 272 year estimate was calculated by Open Hub<\/a> based on how many lines of code there are in WordPress 6.6 and how much it would cost to have them written. There are 996,990 lines of code and it would cost around $14,969,076 to produce, in case you\u2019re interested in the specifics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress prides itself on user-friendliness and accessibility and part of that ethos is its rapid setup time. Automattic say that it\u2019s possible to install the software in five minutes or less. Around the same amount of time it should take to make a decent cup of tea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, with our managed hosting, WordPress is already installed and ready for use right away. If you want to install it on our Linux Web Hosting<\/a> or Managed Hosting<\/a>, it takes about 30 seconds using our one-click installer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the CMS that never sleeps! WordPress is active 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Comments and posts land on its websites around the clock. The WordPress website has a live map of global activity<\/a> so you can follow this perpetual flow of content in real-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are over 106,000 searches in Google for \u201cWordPress\u201d each month in the UK. Globally, there are over 2.3 million searches per month \u2013 which is nearly 28 million a year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know you\u2019ve made it big when you find your way into pop culture. That\u2019s what happened to WordPress in May of 2010 when British military drama Strike Back ran a storyline involving a WordPress-guided missile<\/a>. In the fifth episode of season one, the platform\u2019s post.js file was used to steer a warhead towards its target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, there you have it: WordPress can guide missiles. Okay, that\u2019s not really true but when programmers spotted the anomaly, they did add a line of code reading \u2018weapon locked\u2019 into the original file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 5.52 billion<\/a> internet users in the world and 96.2%<\/a> of them use mobile phones to get online: which makes having mobile-friendly websites a big deal! WordPress is committed to making its platform accessible to everyone<\/a>. It includes features that support users who face challenges when using the internet, such as screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, adjustable font sizes, colour contrasts and more. 44% of all WordPress websites<\/a> have their language set to English (US). The next most widely used languages are Spanish (Spain) with 5.8% closely followed by Japanese at 5.7% and German in 4th place with 5.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only 4.5%<\/a> of WordPress websites are running PHP 8.3<\/a>, which is the latest version at the time of writing. The most used PHP framework in use is version 7.4 with 33.7% of all installs making use of it. 8.1 and 8.2 aren\u2019t far behind with 19.7% and 20.6% respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most popular databases<\/a> behind WordPress are MySQL<\/a> 8.0 with 21.3% and MySQL 5.7 with 20.2%. MariaDB<\/a> 10.6 is next with 19.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress supports<\/a> MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.5+ which means that a lot databases.. are out of date by not running the latest versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WordPress community is vast and active, with thousands of contributors working on core updates, plugins, themes, translations, and support forums. To the best of our knowledge all figures are correct as of November 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t let hackers in to your WordPress website: check out our Complete Guide to WordPress Security<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interested in WordPress web hosting<\/a>? Check out 20i’s lightning-fast Managed WordPress Hosting<\/a>. It’s fantastic value, including features like WordPress Staging<\/a> and a free CDN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt holds a 64.1% share of the CMS market<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n14.7% of the world\u2019s top websites use WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOver 1000 new WordPress sites join the world\u2019s top 10 million websites daily<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress plugin and theme stats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Avada theme may have raked-in around $39 million from sales<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Even assuming they sold everything at the original ‘Starter’ price<\/a> of $40, some quick maths will tell you that amounts to a staggering $39 million!<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are more than 58,000 free WordPress plugins<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWooCommerce powers over 29% of online stores<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAkismet has blocked over 500 billion spam posts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHalf of all WordPress themes on ThemeForest make at least $1,000 per month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress stats: users<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The latest version has been downloaded over 15 million times<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Version 6.7 is on track to be super popular too with nearly 14 million downloads in the first week since it launched on 12 November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress users submit 70 million new posts per month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOver 409 million people view WordPress articles each month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1.1 million new WordPress domains were registered every six months<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress.com attracts 90 million monthly unique visitors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress stats: community, location and language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
WordPress is available in 208 locales<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOver 70% of all WordPress content is written in English<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThere have been 1,274 WordCamps to date<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordCamp Europe 2020 drew 8,600 registrations<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThere are over 2 million topics on the official WordPress support forum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress business and financial stats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
WordPress employs 1,148 people<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n25% of WordPress users are making a full-time living off the platform<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe average WordPress developer salary is between $50,034 and $76,083<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In the UK, recruitment specialists Indeed estimate that the average salary for a WordPress developer is \u00a333,493, but there\u2019s some discrepancy on this side of the Atlantic, too. Glassdoor reckons it\u2019s \u00a336,000 and Reed up to \u00a342,500 per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress stats: security<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
WordPress has denied 80% of DMCA takedown requests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
For 2024 so far<\/a>; Automattic has received 3,337 notices that resulted in just 13% of cases where some kind of removal action took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOnly 27% of WordPress users are running the latest version<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n49% of hacked WordPress websites were running an outdated version<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOther WordPress stats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
382 years\u2019 work have gone into WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt takes just five minutes to install WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress is active 24 hours a day<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOver 294,000 searches in the UK for \u201cWordPress\u201d each month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAn episode of Strike Back features a WordPress-guided missile<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe pick of your pocket-sized devices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
All of WordPress\u2019s first-party themes<\/a> are mobile responsive and Twenty Twenty-Four<\/a>, which is included with versions 6.4-6.6, is the most widely used first-party theme in use on the platform.
The most prevalent third-party themes are also fully responsive and represent a large portion of the WordPress userbase:
Hello Elementor – 12.03%
Astra Theme – 11.71%
Divi – 7.33%<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress: Easy to access<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
With nearly 60%<\/a> of the US population with disabilities living in households with an internet connection accessibility is a tremendously important consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress speaks your language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPHP-Press<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress and dated databases<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWordPress is an intercontinental effort<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
WordPress 6.6 \u201cDorsey\u201d was worked on by contributors from all over the world<\/a>!
The USA put the most in with 1033 contributions followed by Australia with an impressive 762.
Spain made 711 contributions and the UK pitched in 468. Japan and India were the next greatest contributors with 368 and 344 respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n