WordPress is a Content Management System that was launched back in 2003 for bloggers. Fast forward to 2024 and it has become one of the most popular platforms to build any kind of website.
But how popular is WordPress exactly? Is it actually as good as people claim?
Find out these answers as we have listed some of the most unbelievable WordPress statistics that we bet you didn’t know.
Key WordPress Statistics
WordPress is the most popular CMS that uses open-source technology. (BuiltWith)
The reason behind WordPress’s popularity is its ease of use and budget-friendly nature. You can build a WordPress website for around $60.
Also, because it’s open source, you have access to its core, meaning you can customize it however you like.
More than 810 million websites are powered by WordPress in 2024. (Search Logistics)
That’s almost 50% of all the websites on the internet. On the other hand, you could say, every 2 out of 5 websites worldwide use WordPress.
500+ sites are built every day using WordPress. (Search Logistics)
While only an average of about 60-80 per day are built on competitor platforms like Shopify and Squarespace.
WordPress has been translated into 208 languages. (WordPress)
English is the most popular language for using WordPress (71%), except for that, Japanese (5.9%), Spanish (5.8%), and German (5.7%) are also popular.
WordPress developer and designer jobs are in demand and also pay well. (Manaferra)
WordPress developer and designer salaries usually range from $40k-$120k+ per year in the US. But as a profession, developer jobs are more in demand than designers.
WordPress is the best CMS for SEO. (Search Engine Journal)
SEOs all over the world prefer to use WordPress as their CMS because it’s the most SEO-friendly content management system. That’s because WordPress is optimized for UX, metadata, mobile-friendliness, and more. Not to mention the huge collection of SEO plugins that can further help you optimize your site.
WordPress websites get 20 billion page views from 409 million visitors every month on average. (WordPress)
This stat shows how good WordPress is in terms of SEO. Other than the SEO-friendly nature of the open-source CMS, the SEO plugins and tools help boost search engine optimization efforts even more.
37 million searches are made for the term “WordPress” every month in search engines. (Search Logistics)
Not only that but WordPress is also a popular search term on YouTube, with 3000+ channels dedicated to sharing WordPress tutorials, news, information, and more.
Every second 17 new blog posts are published on WordPress. (WordPress)
That means over 70 million WordPress blogs are being posted every month with 77 million new comments.
WordPress Usage Statistics
45.8% of all websites on the internet use WordPress as of 2023. (W3Techs)
In 2022, it was 43.2% and in 2011 it was 13%. WordPress not only has the largest number of users, but it’s also growing at a steady pace. No other content management system has grown faster than WordPress for the last 12 years.
36% of the top-ranked websites are made by WordPress. (BuiltWith)
Although WordPress is the most popular among bloggers, top-tier websites like The New York Times, Bloomberg, Nike, and many others have used WordPress to build their sites.
Not only that, in every 2 minutes a top-ranking site switches to WordPress.
WordPress has a total 63.3% market share of the entire CMS market. (Search Logistics)
That means 6 out of 10 websites that have a CMS, are using WordPress. Other popular CMS are far behind, for example, Shopify has only 5.6%, and Wix has 3.7%.
Every six months, WordPress gets 1.1 million new domains. (Demand Sage)
That means WordPress gets more than 2 million new sites every year. This stat once again proves the growing popularity of WordPress.
WordPress.com gets more than 328 million visitors every month. (Exploding Topics)
That makes it the 67th most popular website in the world and also the most popular CMS platform.
WordPress is used in more than 178 countries. (Demand Sage)
Among all these countries, WordPress is the most popular in the USA, as it has more than 9 million websites followed by Russia with 550k websites.
WordPress is used by 97% of bloggers in the world. (Demand Sage)
At the beginning of its journey, WordPress was created for bloggers. Even though it has been embraced by every niche and industry, it is still the most popular platform for bloggers.
6.5 is the most popular WordPress version, which is used by 63.6% of users. (WordPress)
Also, the most popular version of PHP is 7.4 (40.7%), and the database version is MySQL 5.7.
WordPress Theme Statistics
31,000+ WordPress themes are available in the WordPress theme directory. (Search Logistics)
Among these themes around 9000 themes are free to download and the rest are premium.
The average premium WordPress theme costs $77.57. (Search Logistics)
Apart from the WordPress repository, you can also find premium themes in marketplaces like ThemeForest.
ThemeForest features 11,000+ premium WordPress themes. (ThemeForest)
These themes are broken down into niches and subcategories, so it’s really easy to find the best theme for your niche.
Hello and Astra are the most popular WordPress themes. (ThemeCo)
The Hello theme is made by Elementor and is mostly used by Elementor users. On the other hand, Astra is popular among general WordPress users as it is compatible with most WordPress page builders.
Divi is the most popular premium WordPress theme used by 3.8 million websites. (Colorlib)
Among all the premium WordPress themes, the Divi theme is the most popular because it is simple to use and comparatively cheaper than other premium WordPress themes.
Avada is the best-selling WordPress theme on ThemeForest with 967k sales. (ThemeForest)
The7 is the second most popular theme with 309.5k sales and Be is the third most popular with 302.9k sales.
WordPress Plugin Statistics
The Official WordPress Plugin Directory features over 60,000+ free and paid plugins. (Search Logistics)
WordPress introduced plugins since version 1.2, WordPress contributors started creating free plugins to extend the functionality of WordPress websites. Slowly, WordPress plugin development became an industry and many software companies specialize in developing premium WordPress plugins.
More than 18,262 plugins were developed and published in the WordPress plugin directory from 2016 to 2019. (Search Logistics)
Another stat that shows how WordPress plugin development became a growing industry. Because of the popularity of WordPress plugins, a specific niche has been created in the tech industry.
22.6% of all WordPress websites use Elementor to build their websites. (Search Logistics)
WooCommerce is the second most popular with 21% and WpBakery is a distant third with 11.6%. But keep in mind that, most of these websites use Elementor and WooCommerce at the same time.
53+ million WordPress sites are using at least 1 WordPress plugin. (Search Logistics)
Because of the convenience it provides, plugins are super popular among WordPress users. With the right plugins, you can turn your WordPress site into something amazing.
Yoast SEO is the most popular WordPress plugin with over 10 million+ active installations and 27,000+ reviews. (WordPress)
Yoast SEO is one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress that lets you optimize your content and offers suggestions to improve your overall SEO which has 660,000,000+ total downloads.
Elementor, Contact Form 7, and Classic Editor also have 10 million+ active installations. WooCommerce and Akismet are following behind with 7 million+.
WordPress Security Statistics
About 13,000 WordPress sites are hacked every day. (WP Mayor)
That means, every minute 9 WordPress websites are hacked, which adds up to 47 million sites per year.
44% of hacks happen because of outdated WordPress themes or plugins. (Sucuri)
So, that means keeping your WordPress website up-to-date is crucial for its security.
90% of WordPress vulnerabilities are related to third-party plugins. (WordFence)
Only 6% are because of WordPress themes and 4% are for core WordPress issues. That’s why it’s crucial that you choose your WordPress plugins carefully and do not use plugins that are not necessary. This way, you can reduce the risk of your website getting hacked by 94%.
WordFence, a WordPress security plugin has blocked 159 billion password attacks in 2022. (WordFence)
The plugin also blocked 3 million attacks at the start of 2023. So, using a security plugin for your WordPress website is a must.
8% of WordPress websites get hacked because of a weak password. (Escape Creative)
That’s why you have to use a strong password containing lowercase and uppercase letters with symbols.
WordPress Community Statistics
Up until 2024, there were 1243 WordCamps arranged globally. (WordCamp)
These WordCamps have been held in 398 different cities in 65 different countries.
The first-ever WordCamp was arranged in San Francisco in August 2006. (WordCamp)
Matt Mulenweg, the founder of WordPress arranged the first WordCamp. Around 500 WordPress users attended this event.
There are around 760 WordPress meetup groups worldwide in 108 countries. (Meetup)
These meetup groups have approximately 500,000 active members who arrange regular meetups to stay connected.
Final Thoughts
These WordPress statistics paint a clear picture: it’s the best platform for anyone looking to build a website.
From bloggers to e-commerce site owners, everyone is using WordPress to build their website because of its ease of use., SEO features, and it’s pocket-friendliness.
The reason why it became so much popular in recent years, is because it has evolved with the growing needs of its users. Similarly, you can also stay updated about WordPress with the stats we presented and predict future trends.