Usage, Trends, Facts, And More – MHaris
Interested in learning about the latest WordPress statistics?
Whether you run your own WordPress website or simply want to learn about the web’s most popular content management system, we have plenty of stats you’ll want to know about.
We’ve organized them into categories based on usage, themes, plugins, and security.
Editor’s top picks – WordPress statistics
These are the top WordPress stats in this article:
- WordPress powers over 32 million websites in the world. (BuiltWith)
- WordPress’ market share among sites that use a content management system is 62.8%. (W3Techs)
- 79.9% of sites use Version 6 of the WordPress software. (W3Techs)
- 19% of all ecommerce websites in the world use WooCommerce. (BuiltWith)
- More than 1.1 million WordPress websites were injected with malicious code in 2023. (Wordfence)
General WordPress statistics
1. There are more than 32 million WordPress websites in the world
According to BuiltWith’s data on web technology applications, there are 32,464,288 live WordPress sites in the world.
Source: BuiltWith1
2. WordPress is used by 43.2% of all websites on the web
W3Techs’ data on content management systems states that although 31.1% of all websites on the web do not use a detectable content management system (CMS), 43.2% use WordPress.
Here are the market shares of other CMSs based on the percentage of all websites that use them:
- WordPress – 43.2% of all websites in the world use this CMS
- Shopify – 4.3%
- Wix – 2.6%
- Squarespace – 2.1%
- Joomla – 1.7%
Source: W3Techs1
3. WordPress has a 62.8% market share among all content management systems
According to W3Tech’s data, WordPress is the most used content management system in the world.
It has a huge market share of 62.8% among websites who use a CMS.
Shopify comes in second, but its market share drops all the way down to 6.3%.
Here are other popular CMSs:
- WordPress – This CMS has a market share of 62.8%
- Shopify – 6.3%
- Wix – 3.8%
- Squarespace – 3.0%
- Joomla – 2.5%
Source: W3Techs1
4. Automattic was valued at $7.5 billion in 2021
Automattic is WordPress’ parent company. They own WordPress.com, WordPress.org, Tumblr and various plugins for WordPress, including WooCommerce and JetPack.
The company raised $300 million in one of its biggest rounds of funding in 2019.
That funding came from Salesforce Ventures in a Series D round of funding. The company had a valuation of $3 billion during this round.
According to a post from Automattic’s CEO in 2021, the company bought back $250 million worth of shares at a valuation of $7.8 billion.
Sources: TechCrunch / Ma.tt
WordPress usage statistics
5. 11.36% of WordPress sites are based in the United States
BuiltWith’s data on WordPress states that there are 3,689,032 live WordPress websites in the United States.
This means 11.36% of all WordPress sites are based in the United States, making it the most popular location for the CMS.
Here’s where other WordPress sites are located:
- United States – 11.36% of all WordPress sites are located here; this is 3,689,032 of all WordPress sites
- Germany – 5.23%; 1,698,134
- United Kingdom – 4.05%; 1,315,948
- France – 2.87%; 929,947
- Brazil – 2.80%; 909,342
Source: BuiltWith1
6. Version 6 of WordPress is used by 79.9% of WordPress sites
According to W3Techs’ data on WordPress, the vast majority of WordPress websites, or 79.9%, use the latest major release, which is Version 6 at the moment.
This means WordPress’ automatic security updates, released in Version 5, are working as intended.
In the past, many WordPress security issues were the result of admins not keeping WordPress core up to date.
Now, fewer than 20% of WordPress sites are using outdated versions of WordPress:
- Version 6 – 79.9% of all WordPress sites use this version of the CMS
- Version 5 – 15.1%
- Version 4 – 4.6%
- Version 3 – 0.3%
Source: W3Techs2
7. 42.91% of WordPress sites use PHP version 7.4
According to WordPress.org’ statistics of sites that use the CMS, the majority, or 42.91%, use PHP version 7.4.
16.13% use 8.1, 12.31% use 8.02 and 11.93% use 8.2.
Only 1.11% use the latest version 8.3, which was released in November of 2023.
Source: WordPress.org1
8. 29.65% of WordPress sites use MySQL version 5.7 as a database
WordPress’ stats reveal that the majority of WordPress sites use MySQL 5.7 for their database.
This represents 29.65% of all WordPress sites.
15.75% use MariaDB 10.6.
The latest version of MySQL is 8.3 while the latest version of MariaDB is 10.11. This means the majority of WordPress sites (or more likely their hosts) are behind in this technology as well.
Fortunately, the technologies used by the majority of WordPress sites are still supported.
Source: WordPress.org1
WordPress theme & plugin statistics
9. 23.3% of WordPress sites use Elementor
W3Techs also keeps track of how many websites use specific WordPress plugins available in the WordPress plugin directory.
They discovered Elementor to the most popular among all page builders:
- Elementor – This page builder is used by 23.3% of WordPress sites
- WPBakery* – 11.3%
- Beaver Builder – 1.1%
- Oxygen – 0.4%
- Divi Builder – 0.2%
*This may be an indicator of ThemeForest’s popularity as WPBakery is used by and included with most WordPress themes available on that marketplace.
Source: W3Techs2
10. WooCommerce is used by over 6 million websites in the world
According to BuiltWith’s data, there are 6,080,468 live WooCommerce websites on the web.
Source: BuiltWith2
11. WooCommerce is used by 19% of all ecommerce websites in the world
BuiltWith’s data on web platforms states that 19% of all ecommerce sites in the world use WooCommerce, the most popular ecommerce plugin available for WordPress.
This puts it in second place behind Shopify:
- Shopify – This ecommerce platform is used by 26% of all online stores
- WooCommerce – 19%
- Wix Stores – 11%
- Squarespace Add to Cart – 11%
- Ecwid – 5%
- Other – 23%
WooCommerce is also used by 15% of the top 1 million ecommerce websites on the web (compared to Shopify’s 23%), 9% of the 100,000 websites (compared to Shopify’s 19%), and 6% of the top 10,000 websites (compared to Shopify’s 18%).
WooCommerce drops down to the fourth position among the top 10,000 ecommerce websites, putting it behind Amplience (11%) and Magento (7%).
Source: BuiltWith3
12. WooCommerce is used by 21.1% of all WordPress sites
W3Techs’ data confirms WooCommerce as being one of the CMS’ most popular plugins.
It’s used by 21.1% of all WordPress sites.
Source: W3Techs2
13. There are over 59,000 free plugins available on WordPress.org
According to WordPress.org’s own data on its platform, there are 59,344 plugins available in the official WordPress plugin directory.
Source: WordPress.org2
14. There are over 12,000 free themes available for WordPress
While many sites use premium WordPress themes you won’t find in the official WordPress theme repository, there are 12,010 free themes available in the WordPress theme directory.
Source: WordPress.org3
15. Avada has made over 955,000 sales on ThemeForest
Avada is the most popular WordPress theme available on ThemeForest. It generated 955,130 sales.
It maintains a 4.78 average star rating from over 25,000 reviews.
Source: ThemeForest
WordPress security statistics
16. Over 1.1 million WordPress sites were infected with malicious code in 2023
In Wordfence’s latest report on WordPress security, the company stated that malicious files were found in over 1.1 million WordPress sites in 2023.
Source: Wordfence
17. There were over 4,800 vulnerabilities disclosed in the WordPress ecosystem in 2023
In Wordfence’s latest report on the state of WordPress security, the company stated that there were 4,833 vulnerabilities disclosed within the WordPress ecosystem in 2023.
This is more than double the amount of vulnerabilities that were disclosed in 2022.
Source: Wordfence
18. Over 1,900 of WordPress vulnerabilities disclosed in 2023 originated from XSS issues
Wordfence’s report states that cross-site scripting (XSS) was the most common type of vulnerability disclosed in the WordPress ecosystem in 2023.
1,963 of all disclosed vulnerabilities were XSS based. This is 40.62% of all vulnerabilities disclosed in 2023.
[wordfence-wordpress-vulnerabilities-by-category]
These were the other common vulnerability types disclosed in 2023:
- XSS – 1,963 of all vulnerabilities disclosed in 2023 were in this category
- Cross-site request forgery – 1,098
- Missing authorization and issues with authorization being bypassed – 885
- SQL injection – 279
- Information disclosure – 98
Source: Wordfence
19. Wordfence blocked more than 100 billion credential stuffing attacks in 2023
Wordfence is one of the most popular security plugins available for WordPress.
The company blocked over 100 billion credential stuffing attacks in 2023 alone, according to its own data.
Credential stuffing is a type of brute force attack in which attackers use stolen username and password combinations in login forms by way of automatic injection.
Wordfence says attacks on sites that use its plugin originated from over 74 million different IP addresses, most of which came from the United States.
Source: Wordfence
20. Wordfence documented over 42 billion web shell attacks in 2023
According to Wordfence, its security platform saw more than 42 billion web shell attacks in 2023.
A webshell attack injects a server with malicious code that allows the attacker to search for backdoors and other vulnerabilities it can exploit with additional scripts.
Wordfence says this type of attack doubled in 2023.
Source: Wordfence
WordPress community statistics
21. 70 WordCamps were held in 33 countries in 2023
Every year Automattic’s CEO Matt Mullenweg gives a “State of the Word” speech in which he discusses highlights among the WordPress industry in the last year as well as what the WordPress community should look forward to in the new year.
In State of the Word 2023, it was revealed that 70 WordCamps were held in 33 countries around the world in 2023.
WordCamps are large WordPress conferences where casual WordPress users and hardcore developers alike gather to celebrate and discuss all things WordPress.
Source: GoDaddy
22. There were 3,300 WordPress-related gatherings in 2023
In State of the Word 2023, Matt stated there were 3,300 gatherings in 2023, including WordPress School Days gatherings for children.
WordCamps and gatherings were made possible by 2,500 organizers.
Source: GoDaddy
23. 1,339 new contributors were added to WordPress.org in 2023
In State of the Word 2023, Matt said 1,339 new contributors joined WordPress.org.
WordPress.org is an open-source software, which means WordPress core as well as the plugins and themes available for the CMS are dependent on contributions made by regular developers who know and love WordPress but aren’t necessarily employed by Automattic.
Source: GoDaddy
24. 92.51% of opened tickets related to WordPress core were closed in 2023
According to WordPress’ A Year in Core report, 2,545 of the 2,751 tickets that were opened in relation to WordPress itself (as opposed to a theme or plugin) on the WordPress.org forums were closed in 2023.
365 were reopened.
Source: WordPress.org4
25. Over 2,000 contributions to WordPress came from users located in the United States in 2023
In WordPress’ A Year in Core report, the company stated that 2,062 of the contributions made to WordPress core in 2023 were made by users located in the United States.
795 contributions were made by users located in Russia while 683 came from users located in India.
Source: WordPress.org4
Final thoughts
That concludes our list of WordPress statistics.
We learned how influential WordPress is as a content management system as well as how influential it is as an ecommerce platform, even if Shopify is slowly taking over year after year.
We also learned how well WordPress’ automatic updates are doing at keeping WordPress websites secure and up to date.
Lastly, WordPress is well supported by the community that uses it.
Check out our reasons for using WordPress if you’re interested in creating your own WordPress site.
Sources
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