WordPress dominates the online publishing industry, but sometimes it’s tough to understand just how much the web relies on the Content Management System (CMS). This is where WordPress statistics come in. Consider these our version of explaining how many Tom Brady’s tall the Empire State Building is!
In this post, we’re going to give you 38 WordPress statistics that are sometimes hard to believe. However, they’re all true, and show how much the platform permeates through the web. We’ll split the statistics into a few different categories. Here’s the list so you can jump around the post:
- Usage Statistics and Insights
- WordPress Version Statistics
- Plugins Statistics
- Themes Statistics
- WooCommerce Statistics
- WordPress Security Statistics
- Fun-to-Know WordPress Stats
WordPress Usage Statistics and Insights
Users make WordPress, and it’s interesting to see just how much we all make use of the platform. This first batch of WordPress statistics looks at the general lay of the land. Later, we’ll break these numbers down a little further.
- At this time, WordPress powers 65.1 percent of all websites as a content management system. This percentage accounts for 42.7 percent of all websites. (Source: w3Techs)
- Currently, there are over 455 million WordPress websites across the globe. (Source: Techjury)
- WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS. It has 64.3 percent of the global CMS market share. (Source: CodeInWP)
- The percentage of websites using WordPress accounts for 42.7 percent of all websites on the internet. (Source: w3Techs)
- The reports from WordPress.com show that over 409 million people read more than 20 billion pages each month. (Source: WordPress)
- WordPress.com users create 27 posts every second. (Source: Digital)
- WordPress.com hosts blogs written in over 120 languages. English is the top-used language with 71 percent. Spanish follows it with 4.7 percent. (Source: WordPress.com)
WordPress Version Statistics
WordPress is almost like a ‘living document’. Much like other software, the development team iterates through versions on a regular basis. Because there are so many of these previous versions, we have a lot of statistics on them! Here’s a quick selection of some of the interesting ones.
- The release history of WordPress includes 49 major versions since the platform’s inception. (Source: Wikipedia)
- Version 6.4 has been downloaded nearly 73 million times – and the number is increasing every second as you read this post! (Source: WordPress)
- Roughly 52 percent of WordPress users go with version 6.4, while 12 percent of WordPress sites use Version 6.3. (Source: WordPress)
- WordPress.org gives the date for a new version – 6.5 – as of March 2024. (Source: WordPress)
WordPress Plugins Statistics
Without plugins, WordPress wouldn’t be the CMS it is today. They help extend the functionality of your site, which means you can create something unique that meets your needs.
In addition, there are also plenty of WordPress statistics available relating to plugins. We’ll look at themes shortly, but until then, check out these awesome stats.
- There are roughly 59,208 free WordPress plugins available on the WordPress Plugin Directory. (Source: WordPress)
- Currently, the most installed WordPress plugin is the Classic Editor with over 5 million active installations.
- The second most downloaded WordPress.org plugin is the Elementor Website Builder with more than 5 million active installations.
- 47 percent of WordPress plugins have a donate button to support developers of the plugins.
- According to ManageWP, 44 thousand different plugins are responsible for nearly 1.3 billion total plugin downloads on WordPress.org. (Source: ManageWP)
- 57 percent of WordPress plugins have no reviews or ratings. (Source: WP User Manager)
WordPress Themes Statistics
Themes let us develop and design our sites without code, and with professionalism. Whenever we install a new theme, a world of possibilities opens up. As such, there are also lots of WordPress statistics about our theme usage. Let’s take a look at a few next.
- There are 11,610 free themes in the WordPress Theme Directory.
- The average price of a premium WordPress theme is $57.54/$59. (Source: CodeinWP)
- Most WordPress themes are powered by What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editors, which lets you see changes as you make them. Shane Melaugh and Paul McCarthy were the ones to introduce and create this functionality for WordPress.
- The most used WordPress theme is Hello Elementor with 11,510 websites, which accounts for 1.15 percent. (Source: BuiltWith)
- The second most popular WordPress theme is Divi with 10,591 websites using it.
- The Astra and GeneratePress Themes follow the top two themes as third and fourth respectively.
WooCommerce Statistics
WordPress isn’t only a blog publishing platform. On the contrary, it’s a chameleon. WooCommerce is its ‘official’ e-commerce platform, owing to its development by Automattic. Regardless, it’s a staple for thousands of WordPress websites, and we have the statistics to prove it!
- As of January 2nd 2024, there have been 286,243,798 downloads of WooCommerce from WordPress.org. (Source: WP User Manager)
- 28.19 percent of all online stores use WooCommerce. (Source: WebTribunal)
- 22 percent of the top one million e-commerce websites operate with WooCommerce.
- There are more than 6,000 plugins extending WooCommerce on WordPress.org alone. (Source: PluginRepublic)
- The company that owns WooCommerce – Automattic – also owns WordPress.com. Over 12 funding rounds up to 2021, the company has raised over $697 million. (Source: Crunchbase)
WordPress Security Statistics
WordPress is an inherently secure platform. As such, there are also WordPress statistics that can back this up. However, our focus here is on when things go wrong. Of course, with our in-depth guide, you won’t end up as part of the problem – you’ll already have the solution!
- The most common security vulnerabilities for WordPress websites include backdoor, older versions of software, plugins, loopholes, and Easter eggs. (Source: Smashing Magazine)
- 52 percent of reported vulnerabilities were caused by WordPress plugins, while 44 percent of hacking was due to outdated WordPress sites. (Source: KeyCDN)
Fun-to-Know WordPress Stats
Before we finish, let’s lighten up and give you some fun WordPress statistics to get your teeth into. These don’t necessarily fit into any of the other categories here, but on the other hand, they are worth knowing too!
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- The anti-spam plugin Akismet has blocked over 450 billion spam comments on over 6 million WordPress websites.
- The English version of WordPress is the most popular one. What’s more, only 68 percent of the other 120 languages available on the platform see use.
- Non-English WordPress downloads outranked the English ones in 2018.
- WordPress sites receive visits from over 400 million people each month.
- It was Christine Selleck Tremoulet, a friend of Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of WordPress) who suggested the name “WordPress.”
- Open-source WordPress has no CEO and does not have ownership from any one company.
- Volunteer developers all around the world help to run the WordPress project, alongside paid employees of various companies.
- You can find WordPress in 208 languages. (Source: WordPress)
Wrapping Up
WordPress is 20 years old, which is astonishing for a modern piece of software. It’s a testament to its rock-solid code base, unique collection of theme and plugin extensions, and more importantly, it’s volunteer community. Without all of these elements, these WordPress statistics wouldn’t make for good reading!
Which of these WordPress statistics did you find most mind-blowing? Let us know in the comments section below!