100+ Interesting WordPress Stats & Facts (2024)

Have you been searching for interesting WordPress stats and facts?

If you’re looking into starting a blog or website on WordPress, you might be searching for information about the power of WordPress and some hard evidence of what it can do. Or maybe you’re a WordPress fan and want to convince others that they should join the amazing WordPress community and you need stats to back up your claims. Whatever the reason, if you’re looking for WordPress statistics, you’re in the right place!

Get ready to take a deep dive into 100+ interesting WordPress stats and facts. Since this is a master list of WordPress statistics, here’s a table of contents to help guide you through the article and find the exact statistic or fact you’re looking for.

• The Popularity of WordPress
• WordPress Development
• The WordPress Community
• WordPress Events
• WordPress Plugins
• Themes for WordPress
• WordPress Security
• The WordPress Economy
• Miscellaneous WordPress Stats
• WordPress Fun Facts

First of all, before we jump into these awesome WordPress stats, let’s talk about the basics of what WordPress is.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an online, open source software that you can use to create a website. It’s one of the easiest and most powerful content management systems for websites and blogs available today, and it’s free to download and install as well.

It’s important to note that there are 2 “types” of WordPress, WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Here are the differences between the 2:

• WordPress.org – WordPress.org is a free software available for download and it can be installed on any WordPress hosting company.
• WordPress.com – WordPress.com is a hosted solution.

In this article, we’ll mostly be focusing on WordPress.org statistics but there are some WordPress.com stats included as well. If you want a more detailed breakdown on the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, check out our article, WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – Is One Really Better Than the Other?

Related: WordPress Review: MUST Read Before Launching a Site

Now, let’s get into these awesome WordPress stats!

WordPress Popularity – Statistics, Facts, and Figures

WordPress has become the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. Millions of bloggers and businesses, large and small, have chosen WordPress to start their websites. Here are some statistics and facts that demonstrate the popularity of WordPress.

1. WordPress powers 43% of the internet. (W3Techs)

2. Similarly, WordPress powers over 75 million sites on the web. (WordCamp)

3. A Google search of ‘WordPress’ gets you about 1,54,00,00,000 results. (Google)

4. WordPress’ share of the global content management market is 60.2%. (Search Engine Journal)

5. WordPress gets more monthly unique visitors than Amazon, and the same as Facebook (but with 25x fewer people on staff). (Codeinwp)

6. Over 60 million people chose WordPress to power their website or blog. (WordPress)

7. 14.7% of top 100 Websites are powered by WordPress. (WPBeginner)

8. As of 2014, tens of thousands of new WordPress.com sites are created every day. (WordPress)

9. There were 30 million Google searches for WordPress in December 2018. (Google trends)

10. WordPress.com users produce about 136.2 million new blog posts and 77.7 million new comments each month. (WordPress)

11. Over 409 million people view more than 20.7 billion blog pages on WordPress.com each month. (WordPress)

12. Every day more than 1014 WordPress sites and 496 WooCommerce stores join the top 10 million websites tracked by W3Techs. (WPBeginner)

13. WordPress is 10 times more popular than Joomla and 8.9 times more popular than Drupal. (Websitebuilder)

WordPress Development – Stats and Facts

WordPress has come a long way since it was introduced to the world. Check out these interesting WordPress statistics that showcase WordPress’ development over the years and how it came to be what it is now.

1. WordPress was released by its founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little as a fork of b2/cafelog. (Wikipedia)

2. The first version of WordPress was released on May 27, 2003, which makes WordPress older than Twitter and Facebook. (WPBeginner)

3. WordPress is not owned by any company. WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg created the non-profit organization, WordPress Foundation, to protect the freedoms offered by the software’s open source license. (WPBeginner)

4. WordPress.org has no CEO. The project is run by volunteer developers from all over the world. (WPBeginner)

5. Anyone can edit or add to WordPress’s core code as it is classified as open-source software licensed under the GPL. (WordPress.org)

6. WordPress is written in PHP programming language and uses MySQL for database. (WPBeginner)

7. WordPress 6.2, the latest version of WordPress, has been downloaded 33,994,095 times so far. (Take a look at how fast the WordPress Counter goes up!)

8. A total of 100+ versions of WordPress have been released to date. (WordPress)

9. 443 people contributed to WordPress 4.9, with 185 of them taking part for the first time. (CodeinWP)

10. Only 22.4% of WordPress websites are running the most current version of the software (5.0). (WordPress.org)

11. Major core updates of WordPress are released about every 152 days on the average. (CodeinWP)

12. The community behind WordPress also runs sister projects like bbPress, BuddyPress, and GlotPress. (WPBeginner)

13. The WordPress software incorporates the programming languages PHP, MySQL, Javascript, HTML, and CSS. (WPBeginner)

WordPress Community – Stats and Facts

The WordPress community is full of diverse and passionate users. Take a look at these awesome statistics that demonstrate how plentiful and unique the WordPress community is.

1. WordPress isn’t only for bloggers, businesses, and publications. Educational institutions like Cornell University, Harvard Blogs, The University of Maine, and Des Moines University are on WordPress. (WPBeginner)

2. Some government websites that use WordPress include Sweden’s Official Site, Milwaukee Police News, United States Mission Geneva, and the Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. (Websitebuilder)

3. Some notable users of WordPress.com include TechCrunch, TED, CNN, The National Football League, UPS, and more. (WordPress)

4. Other top websites and companies that use WordPress include Forbes, Mashable, The New York Times, Samsung, PlayStation, and Coca-Cola. (Skilled)

5. WordPress is most popular with businesses and least popular with news sites. (Torque)

6. Celebrities who use WordPress include Jay Z, Russel Brand, Sylvester Stallone, and Kobe Bryant. (Skilled)

7. WordPress is fully translated into 68 languages and partially translated into dozens more. (WPBeginner)

8. English downloads are now officially surpassed by non-English downloads of WordPress software. (WordPress.org)

9. WordPress.com hosts blogs written in over 120 languages. The top languages are English at 71%, Spanish at 4.7%, Indonesian at 2.4%, and Portuguese (Brazil) at 2.3%. (WordPress)

10. There are 2,030,000+ topics on the official WordPress support forum. (Codeinwp)

WordPress Events – Facts and Statistics

WordPress fans all over the world get together to learn from each other at WordPress events like WordCamp. Check out these stats that show how the love of WordPress brings people together.

1. The first WordCamp was organized in San Francisco by Matt Mullenweg in 2006. (WordCamp)

2. There have been 932 WordCamps so far, in 65 countries. (WordCamp)

3. All WordCamp organizers and speakers are unpaid volunteers — they do it for the love of WordPress. (WordCamp)

4. The WordCamp event in Europe in 2017 saw a record gathering of 1900 people coming from over 79 countries. (SoftwareFindr)

5. If you can’t make it to a WordCamp event in person, you can watch recordings of the events for free on WordPress.tv. (WordPress.tv)

6. Hundreds of thousands of WordPress users gather at monthly meetups in 436 cities worldwide. (WordPress)

7. Besides WordCamp events, there are a ton of other WordPress events happening all the time, all over the world. Get a list of upcoming events on WordPress.org.

WordPress Plugins – Stats, Facts, and Figures

WordPress plugins are like apps for your WordPress website. You can use plugins to make a WordPress website even more powerful than it already is. Check out these fascinating stats and facts about WordPress plugins.

1. WordPress plugin downloads crossed 1.48 Billion total downloads. (WPBeginner)

2. There are 60,397 free plugins in the official WordPress Plugin Directory, with more added every day. (WordPress)

3. Some of the most popular free WordPress plugins are Contact Form 7, Yoast SEO, Akismet Anti-Spam, and Jetpack by WordPress.com, all with over 5 million active installations each. (WordPress.org)

4. One of the most popular paid plugins for WordPress is Visual Composer with 2340 units sold per week. (Skilled)

5. There are over 6,000 premium WordPress plugins on CodeCanyon. Visual Composer, Slider Revolution, LayerSlider, and UberMenu are the best sellers. (Codeinwp)

6. On CodeCanyon, 80% of searches are focused on functionality (i.e. sliders, forms, calendars). (Codeinwp)

7. The most popular eCommerce plugin, WooCommerce, is installed on more than 5 million websites with over 58 million all time downloads. (WPBeginner)

8. Woocommerce powers 9% of all online stores. (Built With)

9. The most popular free page builder is Elementor with over 430,000 new downloads every week. (SoftwareFindr)

10. Hello Dolly is a completely useless but quite iconic plugin. The plugin displays a random lyric from the song Hello Dolly by Louis Armstrong in the upper right corner of your admin screen. (WPBeginner)

WordPress Themes – Statistics, Facts, and Figures

WordPress themes give your website an instant makeover. There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes you can download to give your website the exact look you want. Take a look at these stats about WordPress themes.

1. Themes were first introduced in 2005, with the first new default WordPress theme called Kubrick. (WPBeginner)

2. WordPress releases a new default theme every year. (Elegant Themes)

3. WordPress.org’s free theme directory has more than 5,800 free WordPress themes. (WPBeginner)

4. The most popular WordPress theme is a tie between Divi and Genesis, each is used on 10% of all WordPress sites, for a total of 20%. (Small Biz Trends)

5. Thousands of themes are sold by Commercial WordPress theme shops with an average price of $40 per theme. (WPBeginner)

6. Avada by ThemeForest is one of the most purchased WordPress themes of all time with over 450,000 customers. (ThemeForest)

7. 25% of all WordPress themes on ThemeForest have made at least $2,500 in a month. And 50% of their themes have made at least $1,000 in a month. (Envato)

8. 93% of overall ThemeForest sales come from responsive themes. (Codeinwp)

9. Over 70% of ThemeForest searches are focused on niche themes. (Codeinwp)

10. 2,125,962 is the number of times users switched their WordPress theme in the month of September 2018 alone. (WordPress.com)

Read more: Best WordPress Themes.

WordPress Security – Statistics and Facts

Since WordPress is the most popular CMS software in the world, it’s a common target for hacking attempts. There are a number of ways to protect your WordPress website including keeping your plugins updated and choosing a strong password, but here are some statistics about WordPress security you should know.

1. 83% of all CMS-based websites that were hacked in 2017 were running WordPress, which makes sense since WordPress holds 60% of the CMS market share. (WPBeginner)

2. 39% of hacked WordPress websites were using an outdated version of the software. (WPBeginner)

3. Almost 50% of WordPress sites are affected by a security vulnerability caused by an outdated or poorly coded WordPress plugin or theme. (WPBeginner)

4. 52% of reported WordPress security vulnerabilities relate to WordPress plugins. (KeyCDN)

5. A WordPress plugin vulnerability led to the Panama Papers Leak, the largest journalist data breach in history, with over 4.8 million emails exploited. (Wordfence)

6. Around 8% of WordPress sites were hacked due to a weak password. (WPBeginner)

7. Only 11.45% of WordPress sites use SSL Encryption as of 2016. (WPBeginner)

8. Google blacklists around 20,000 websites for malware, and around 50,000 for phishing, every single week. (WPBeginner)

9. Wordfence blocked 8,241,383,712 attacks on WordPress sites. (Wordfence)

10. The four most common WordPress malware infections are Backdoors, Drive-by downloads, Pharma hacks, and Malicious redirects. (Smashing Magazine)

11. WordPress has a built-in Auto Update System that automatically updates itself for minor releases and can push automatic plugin updates if a severe vulnerability is found. (WPBeginner)

You should read out the ultimate WordPress security guide for more details. Also, check out our articles on WordPress books including the books on security and best WordPress security plugins.

Also check: WordPress Website Security Checker

WordPress Economy – Stats, Facts, and Figures

WordPress powers a multi-billion dollar economy and creates thousands of jobs all over the world. Check out these awesome statistics about the WordPress economy that prove you can make money from WordPress too.

1. WordPress powers a multi-billion dollar economy. Many companies and professionals all over the world sell WordPress-based products, services, and solutions. (WPBeginner)

2. The most profitable WordPress companies are Automattic with a revenue of $1.3 billion, followed by Envato at $94 million and WPEngine at $73 million. (Websitebuilder)

3. There are a number of ways individuals can make money from WordPress: as a WordPress website designer, plugin/theme developer, SEO freelancer, website maintenance freelancer, WordPress content writer, and more.

4. The average salary for “Wordpress jobs” is $58,733. (SimplyHired)

5. The average salary for WordPress developers in the U.S. is $79,000. (Skilled)

6. A client looking for a custom WordPress site usually pays between $3,000 and $15,000 dollars to a remote freelancer. (ManageWP)

7. A custom-built WordPress website can cost up to $100,000. (PostStatus)

8. The top growing skills in the world of programming are PSD to WordPress and WordPress Plugins. (Upwork)

9. A Google search for ‘WordPress jobs’ turns up about 23,30,00,000 results. (Google)

10. 243,161 WordPress projects have been completed on Freelancer.com as of January 2015. That’s a total value of $60,571,205. (Codeinwp)

11. 25% of WordPress users make a full-time living off of the CMS. (Torque)

Miscellaneous WordPress Stats and Facts

There are so many awesome stats and facts about WordPress that they can’t all possibly fit into a particular category. So, here are some miscellaneous WordPress stats for you to check out as well.

1. WordPress.com receives over 20,000 support requests in an average month. (WordPress)

2. 70,399,151 files were uploaded to WordPress.com in December 2018 alone. (WordPress.com)

3. Twitter was embedded on WordPress.com sites over 200,000 times last month. (WordPress.com)

4. YouTube was embedded on WordPress.com sites over 2 million times in December 2018, and Flickr was embedded over 3 million times in the same month. (WordPress.com)

5. The famous ‘W’ WordPress logo was designed by Jason Santa Maria in 2005. (WordPress)

6. Christine Selleck Tremoulet, a prolific blogger and friend of WordPress co-founder Mullenweg, suggested the name WordPress. (Wikipedia)

7. Wednesday is the most popular day for downloading WordPress, while Sunday is the least popular day. (WPCentral)

8. WordPress can be installed in 5 minutes or less. (WordPress)

9. 28.1 million websites use Google Analytics. (SocialShepherd)

10. WordPress has a built-in multisite feature, which is hidden by default. It allows you to create a network of websites using the same WordPress installation. Check out this article on best plugins for WordPress multisite networks. (WPBeginner)

Fun WordPress Stats and Facts

Finally, the world of WordPress is a fun place to be, so we understand if you can’t get enough of it. So, enjoy these random fun facts about WordPress.

1. Wapuu is the unofficial mascot of WordPress, originally created by active members of the Japanese WordPress community. (Torque)

2. There’s a Wapuu for every WordCamp event and several other special variations of Wapuu as well. (Wapu.us)

3. The WordPress core developers are lovers of jazz music, so every major WordPress release is named after a famous jazz musician. (WordPress.org)

4. The WordPress Wiggle is the unofficial dance of the WordPress people. The song was commissioned by Zack Katz of GravityView. (WPShout)

5. The company behind WordPress.com, Automattic, closed its beautiful San Francisco office because their employees stopped showing up. (Quartz)

6. WordPress has been used to control a missile guidance system. (Dion Hulse, Lead Developer @ WordPress)

We hope you enjoyed learning more about WordPress with these interesting WordPress statistics, facts, and research. If you still want to discover more amazing information, tips, and tricks about WordPress, you might want to read our article on How to Start a Blog and Make Extra Income on the Side (with WordPress).