These WordPress Statistics Show Just How Huge the Platform Is

Nikolina Cveticanin

Updated: June 9, 2023

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If you have ever tried setting up a website or blog, chances are you’ve encountered WordPress. This is the simplest and most popular content management system on the planet. 

Powering more than a quarter of all websites on the internet, the platform’s impact is extensive. But with this great power comes great responsibility – and danger: WordPress also constitutes the most attractive target for cybercriminals.

That’s why our team at DataProt assembled a list of the latest WordPress statistics regarding the platform’s overall performance and the most common security issues that users are likely to encounter. 

Key WordPress Statistics for 2023

• According to data from 2023, 43% of the internet is powered by the WordPress platform.
• WordPress websites account for around 64.2% of the global CMS market share.
• There are more than 835 million websites currently operating on WordPress.
• WordPress hack statistics reveal that around 73% of installations are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
• More than 30,000 websites are hacked daily.
• Site statistics from WordPress show that over 500 websites are built daily on WordPress.
• There are about 60,000 free plugins on the WordPress plugin directory as of 2023.
• With over 126 million downloads, Contact Form 7 is the most widely used free WordPress plugin.
• There are 31,010 WordPress themes available for users as of 2023.

How Big is the Platform?

WordPress currently holds more than half of the global CMS market share at approximately 64.2%. Most websites on the internet are also powered or made through WordPress.

Its prominence shows that it is currently the most widely used content management system worldwide.

The statistics below will show the platform’s size as of 2023. 

1. WordPress statistics from 2023 show that the platform powers over 43% of the internet.

(Color Lib)

Some of the most exciting websites are running on WordPress. The long list includes The New York Post, TED, New York Observer, CNN, USA Today, TIME.com, National Post, Spotify, and NBC. Whether working on a blog or a company website, chances are good that you are also running on WordPress.

2. WordPress websites account for around 64.2% of the global CMS market.

(Zippia)

WordPress has been a king among content management systems for the last seven years. The platform dominates website use statistics and shares the top-five list with other heavy hitters, including Drupal, CPanel, Google Search Appliance, and Joomla.

3. There are more than 835 million websites currently operating on WordPress.

(Earth Web)

WordPress statistics underscore the platform’s status as the best in the game. With its numbers constantly climbing, WordPress can be described as the backbone or workhorse of today’s internet. Without the platform, it would be hard to imagine many of today’s high-profile media outlets, online retailers, commercial businesses, and blogs.

4. 500 websites are built daily on WordPress.

(ColorLib)

When the numbers are broken down, daily usage stats reveal that WordPress alone generates as many as 500 websites within the top 10 million websites. It is safe to assume that these figures will continue to rise, with the site maintaining its status as the fastest-growing CMS.

5. WordPress releases a new version every 150 days.

(CodeinWP)

The highest number of WordPress downloads are recorded on Wednesdays. Fridays are the least popular days for downloading a WordPress kit. Although 22% of all users tend to keep up with all updates, you can still operate older versions of the platform.

6. WordPress 6.2 is the latest version of WordPress, released on March 28, 2023.

(WordPress)

Ten Gutenberg releases are merged into the core of WordPress 6.2. The update entails enhancements like the addition of sticky position block support, the introduction of block inspector tabs, and the inclusion of HTML API in WordPress.

7. WordPress was over 8.8 million monthly searches worldwide in 2022.

(Get Ellipsis)

A look at global WordPress visitor statistics reveals a far higher figure. Around 8.8 million monthly searches are estimated to be on this keyword alone, up from 7.7 in early 2021. This is not counting searches like “WordPress templates,” “WordPress plugins,” or the misspelled “Word Press” and “WordPress” versions. 

Combining all the WordPress-related terms, abbreviations, and misspellings, we get a figure ranging from 10 million to 100 million monthly global searches.

8. The WordPress platform supports more than 60,000 plugins.

(WP Forms)

The most popular CMS constantly adds more plugins and improves its client’s UI. The company has seen more than 1.25 billion plugin downloads. 19 of those have surpassed the 1 million installation milestone.

The list of the most popular plugins includes valuable tools like:

• Hello Dolly
• W3 Total Cache
• Contact Form 7
• Really Simple CAPTCHA
• All-in-One SEO Pack
• Google Analytics by Yoast
• Google XML Sitemaps
• WordPress Importer
• Regenerate Thumbnails
• WooCommerce
• WP-PageNavi
• WP Super Cache
• Jetpack
• TinyMCE Advanced
• NextGEN Gallery
• Wordfence Security
• Yoast SEO
• Advanced Custom Fields
• Akismet.

9. WordPress 6.1 surpassed over 69 million downloads.

(Manaferra)

The number of downloads jumps each second. So, check the website’s download counter and see how fast it can grow. Introduced on 15th November 2022, it has launched a wave of updates from millions of users across the globe. Boasting such high download numbers, the company is unlikely to worry about a decline in popularity soon.

10. One of the most popular plugins among WordPress users is Yoast SEO, which has over 350 million downloads as of 2023.

(Wikipedia)

Yoast has been at the forefront of search engine optimization since 2010. The plugin pioneered techniques that have become widely known and elevated millions of websites by helping them rank higher on SERPs. 

With 80 staff members, Yoast is one of the most popular WP plugins. It provides coherent website readability and SEO analysis, increasing its visibility and competitiveness.

11. WordPress developers in the U.S. earn an average of $35.53 per hour.

(Indeed, Coursera)

According to Indeed, the salary rates of WordPress developers in America range from a minimum of $23.64 to a maximum of $53.39. Developers in WordPress are tasked with website building, enhancing WordPress software, or creating customized websites for clients.

Not all WordPress developers earn the same hourly rate – Deloitte currently offers the highest paycheck of $137/hr.

12. 25 well-known websites use WordPress as a content management system (CMS).

(WP Beginner)

We’ve already established this particular CMS’s popularity among internet users worldwide. Holding a significant share of overall internet traffic, the company has a reputation for providing the best platform for the web’s top 100 blogs, including BBC America, Van Heusen, The Walt Disney Company, Harvard University Gazette, Sony Music, and more. 

Cybersecurity on WordPress Statistics for 2023

With WordPress having the highest market share among all the Content Management Systems, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it will be an excellent target for hackers.

Take a look at the current WordPress cybersecurity statistics for 2023.

13. 36.7% of WordPress sites that get hacked weren’t up-to-date.

(WPBeginner)

The figure represented a steep decline from 2014, when 86% of outdated websites were exposed to cyberattacks. With 98% of the CMS’s vulnerabilities related to plugins, it has proven imperative to keep your website up-to-date while relying on WP security teams to keep you safe.

14. WordPress offers the best plugins for all-around website protection and active monitoring.

(Kinsta & Monster Insights)

As a popular CMS platform, WordPress offers its clients and users various features. These include updating plugins in new systems for website creation or updating. 

Here are the top plugins that WordPress offers:

• Sucuri Security
• iThemes Security
• JetPack
• Wordfence Security
• All In One WP Security & Firewall
• BulletProof Security

15. Top 5 languages used on WordPress in 2023.

(WordPress)

With many websites using and utilizing WordPress, the platform caters to various languages and users. This aims to create an inclusive web-developing environment that can adapt to different languages, cultures, designs, and purposes. 

Here are the top 5 commonly used languages on WordPress as of 2023.

• English – 71%
• Spanish – 4.7%
• Indonesian – 2.4%
• Portuguese – 2.3%
• French – 1.5%

16. WordPress hack statistics show that about 49.8% of installations are outdated and vulnerable to cyberattacks.

(Sucuri Security)

WordPress is notorious for being vulnerable to hackers and malicious software. The percentage of infected installation packages highlights the platform’s appealing record with cybercrimes. Most of these come from malicious admin users, which hackers then use to access through backdoors.

17. These are the top 5 WordPress Plugins in 2023.

(Hostinger)

WordPress releases new plugins to accommodate system and security changes. These plugins also cater to better SEO and flexible website building, helping clients and developers secure their platforms. 

Here are the WordPress plugins for 2023:

• Elementor – Page Builder Plugin.
• WooCommerce – WordPress eCommerce Plugin.
• Wordfence – WordPress Security Plugin.
• AIOSEO – WordPress SEO Plugin.
• WPForms – WordPress Form Builder Plugin.
• LiteSpeed Cache – WordPress Caching Plugin.

18. According to one study, 30.95% of Alexa’s top 1 million websites run vulnerable WordPress Version 3.6.

(WP Manage Ninja)

People are generally not too fond of updates. And when dealing with WordPress, updates can be a constant nuisance. But the stats show that WordPress is still the most popular CMS platform. 

As such, it is often targeted by malicious software and hackers. Older versions of the platform are likelier to fall victim to cyber-attacks. Therefore, if you’re using WordPress, the company insists you update your website to avoid such unpleasantries.

19. Wordfence reports up to 2,800 attacks on WordPress sites per second.

(Wordfence)

WordPress security plugin, Wordfence, recorded 3,587,357,094 blocked attacks in a single 30-day period. Meanwhile, 67,213 malicious IPs were blocked during the same period. Wordfence’s more than 100 million downloads speak volumes about the degree of cyberattacks, which are constantly rising.

20. WordPress user statistics show that 8% of websites get hacked due to weak passwords.

(WP Manage Ninja)

Strong passwords make up half of your cybersecurity. On the other hand, 39% of WP users experience vulnerabilities related to cross-site scripting (XSS) issues. Another 37% of cyberattacks result from vulnerabilities in WordPress core files, and WP themes cause 11%.

The WordPress Community

WordPress exhibits a very high level of inclusivity and encourages inter-cultural relationships as it is the only Content Management System that supports 162 different languages. 

This piqued your interest. Now read to find out more!

21. The WordPress.com website supports 162 different languages and publishes content in 120 languages.

(HostPapa)

However, only 62 languages are fully operational. WordPress Poyglots is working tirelessly on developing translation algorithms and adding more of the world’s languages to the platform. 

Translating WordPress software into another language is called Internationalization and localization. The Polyglots team ensures that WordPress core, plugins, and themes are translated, adapting the software to the technical requirements of local users from all over the globe.

According to CMS usage stats, the 11 most popular languages used in WordPress apart from English are Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, French, Urdu, Russian, Bengali, German, and Japanese.

22. WordPress has 1,069 Wordcamps located in 77 cities across the world.

(WordCamp Central)

First held in San Francisco in 2006, WordCamps represent locally-organized conferences sponsored by Automattic, Inc. to discuss everything related to WordPress. 

Since the platform is free and open-source, it relies on a strong community of contributors who take part in developing a WordPress site to service more than 75 million sites on the web. 

Holding events in 66 countries across the globe, WordCamps offers support for blogging newbies and professional WP developers, consultants, and others. The program includes scheduled lectures, less formal sessions, and other activities.

23. WordPress usage statistics show that 71% of all WP blogs are in English.

(Kinsta)

Spanish is a distant second with 5.1% of the posts. The stats illustrate the dominance of the English language on the internet. But WP claims that the future is bright for non-English speaking bloggers. 

It points to the platform’s continuing efforts to broaden the language scope by relying on a team of experts and open-source contributors. The third and fourth most commonly used languages are Indonesian (2.4%) and Portuguese (2.3%).

24. WordPress statistics reveal that every day, about 70 million new posts and 77 million new comments get added to their websites across the entire web.

(Creative Minds)

The figures add up to a monthly readership of around 409 million people. An average blog post contains approximately 1150 words; the average time spent on each post is about 16 seconds. 

Blogs have become an inseparable part of every website’s lifespan. Companies with a blog related to their business are 13 times more likely to generate a good investment return.

25. You can track the activity of all the WordPress sites in the world.

(WordPress) 

Since the CMS offers an elaborate statistics analysis system, it also lets you get an overview of all the activity on its sites across the globe. Judging by the stats, one thing remains clear – the sun never sets on the WordPress empire. From Australia to the U.S. and the southernmost tip of Africa.

Conclusion

WordPress has been one of the most accessible and popular Content Management Systems for website and blog owners since its launch. It has powered over a quarter of all websites on the internet, making website creation and management easy for everyone.

But with this great power comes great responsibility. And danger: WordPress also constitutes the single most attractive target for cybercriminals. Constant attention and adequate security measures should be implemented to avoid being taken unawares.

Vigilance is the watchword.