WordPress first launched in 2003 and has, in two decades, dominated the website CMS market.
In that time, it also gathered some landmark achievements, racked up some serious revenue for publishers, and continues to push the envelope for businesses.
So, whether you’re a WordPress web developer, journalist, businessperson, or a relevant WordPress stakeholder in any way, these facts and statistics shed more light on the No. 1 CMS.
Top 8 WordPress Statistics (Editor’s Pick)
- WordPress enjoyed a 27% growth over a decade after its launch.
- WordPress users generate about 70 million new posts monthly.
- 43% of all active websites in 2022 used WordPress.
- WordPress has over 60,000 free plugins for users as of January 2023.
- Over 90% of all WordPress exploits are carried out via plugins.
- 18 million WordPress users were affected by its most significant security breach.
- Automattic, the company behind WordPress, made $88 million in annual revenue in 2021.
- Senior WordPress developers can earn as much as $150,000/year.
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General WordPress Facts & Statistics
1. WordPress enjoyed a 27% growth over a decade after its launch.
In contrast, Shopify has grown over 30x since its launch in 2014, from only 0.1% of the market share to about 3.2%. However, Joomla lost about 0.4% in the same timeframe as WordPress’ growth.
2. WordPress’ global CMS market share hasn’t declined since 2018.
The CMS captured 29.2% of the market in 2018, grew to 32.7% in 2019, and maintained stellar growth to 35.4% in 2020. In the past two years (2021-2022), it has grown to 39.5% and 43% of the global browser market share, respectively.
3. 163 million unique visitors browse WordPress-powered websites every month.
These visitors are from 178 countries where WordPress has spread as of 2023.
WordPress Usage Statistics
4. WordPress is the CMS of choice on over 43% of all websites.
As of January 2023, it is also the choice content management system (CMS) on more than 63% of websites with discernable CMS.

5. 61.9% of WordPress users are already on version 6 as of January 2023.
This version was released on May 24, 2022, showing a massive adoption rate. In contrast, 30.9% of users were still using Version 5, while 6.7% were on Version 4.
6. WooCommerce is installed on 20% of all WordPress sites.
January 2023 data shows that Elementor comes second with 18.3%, while WPBakery ranks in the top 3 with 13.6%.
7. WordPress users generate about 70 million new posts monthly.
Likewise, there are 77 million new WordPress comments per month (as of January 2023)!
8. Almost 410 million users view WordPress pages monthly.
This Q1 2023 data translates to about 20 billion page views per month on the CMS.
9. 43% of all active websites in 2022 used WordPress.
Thus, account for over 455 million active websites in 2022.
10. WordPress is used on about 3 in 10 top 1 million websites.
The CMS powers 299,837 of the top 1 million websites, scoring 29.94% of its market share in 2023.

11. 2 million new websites are added to WordPress yearly.
Of these, there is a potential “top 1 million” WordPress site starting its journey every 2 minutes.
WordPress Statistics by Demography
12. 2023 data shows that the English language accounts for 71% of all WordPress blogs.
Spanish blogs take the second position with 4.7%, while Indonesian blogs (2.4%) wrap up the top 3. Note that WordPress is currently published in over 120 languages.
13. In 2023, WordPress powers over 3.8 million websites in the USA.
This is more than 50% higher than the second-placed region, Germany, with just over 1.7 million WordPress-powered websites. The UK is third, with slightly over 1.4 million WordPress sites.
14. 97% of bloggers use WordPress in 2023.
However, blogging is just one use case for the platform. It is also used as a CMS, online shop, etc.
WordPress Plugin Statistics
15. WordPress has over 60,000 free plugins for users as of January 2023.
However, over half (57%) of these plugins aren’t rated by users. The WordPress Classic Editor plugin is the most installed, with over 5 million active installations.

16. Yoast SEO has more than 460 million downloads as of January 2023.
It also has over 5 million active installs, but the exact number is unknown since WordPress does not reveal above 5 million.
17. Jetpack is the most installed speed optimization plugin on WordPress in 2023.
With more than 5 million active installations, it beats second-placed WP-optimize more than 5x with its 1 million+ active installs. NitroPack is in third place with 100,000+ installs.
18. As of 2023, Contact Form 7 is the most popular WordPress contact plugin with 5 million+ installs.
But it is in close contention with WP Forms, which recently reached 5 million+ installs. Ninja Forms has 900,000+ installs, claiming third place.
19. The Wordfence Security plugin has been downloaded more than 273 million times as of 2023.
However, it has only about 4 million active installations. iThemes Security is second on the list, with 1 million active installs.
20. More than 3 million WordPress users trust Updraft Plus for backups.
2023 data shows that BackWPUp is in second place with over 700,000+ active installations.
21. 8.6% of websites use WooCommerce.
WordPress users have downloaded this plugin more than 135 million times, and it is currently used by over 20% of WordPress sites.
22. Over 90% of all WordPress exploits are carried out via plugins.
Themes are second on the list. WPScan noted 47 vulnerabilities across different themes in H1 2021 alone.

WordPress Theme Statistics
23. WordPress has an extensive library of 31,000+ free and paid themes.
There are more paid than free themes, with the latter representing about 10,000+ of the total count in January 2023.
24. Divi is the most used WordPress theme across the top 1 million WordPress websites.
January 2023 data shows that the theme is used by 1.42% of the top 1 million WordPress sites, followed closely by the Astra theme with 1.23% of that market share. Hello Elementor wraps up the top three with 0.99%.
25. Divi is used by 6% of all WordPress websites.
Astra is in second place with 5% of all WordPress site installations, and Hello Elementor retains third place with 4% of the market share. Other themes outside the top 10 account for 77% of installations across active WordPress websites in 2023.
26. The Twenty Twenty-One theme reached 9000 downloads in a day in 2021.
In 2022, it reached 10,000 daily downloads on the 16th of November. As of 2023, this theme has 900,000+ active installations, the same as the Twenty Twenty-Two theme.
27. Astra is the most popular WordPress theme in the USA, with 11% of the market share in Q1 2023.
Divi slips to second place here, gathering just 9% of the market share. Again, Hello Elementor is third, but far back at 5%. Other themes account for the remaining 74% of the market share.
28. The Twenty-Twenty-Three theme already has more than 500,000+ active installations.
Its highest download rate so far is below 1,500 daily downloads, but it is on the path to surpassing the total active installations of its two predecessors in 2023.
WordPress Security Statistics
29. 18 million WordPress users were affected by its most significant security breach.
This breach took place in 2011, compromising users and their probate information.

30. WordPress was potentially exposed to 602 vulnerabilities in H1 2021.
In the same timeframe, Wordfence blocked 4 million malicious requests from hackers and banned IPs on WordPress websites.
WordPress Revenue Statistics
31. As of January 2023, Avada is the most-sold WordPress website builder, garnering over 866,000 sales.
$69 per sale amounts to over $59 million in sales revenue alone. In second place is far-off Enfold, with 246,000+ sales, costing $59 per license.
32. WordPress is used by 30% (and climbing) of all online shops.
That puts the platform at about 4 million active shops in 2022. In fact, WooCommerce (the WordPress e-commerce solution) currently has more than 5 million active installs.
33. You can run a WordPress site for as little as $60/year.
However, the average WordPress theme costs $77.57.

34. Automattic, the company behind WordPress, made $88 million in annual revenue in 2021.
The company had over 1,700 employees in the reporting timeframe, accounting for about $49,107 per revenue/employee.
WordPress Version Statistics
35. WordPress Version 6.1 is used by the majority (77.2%) of websites on version 6.
Even though Version 6.7 has been out for a while, January 2023 data shows it has only been used by less than 0.1% of all WordPress websites running version 6. That is the same value for all other subversions of version 6, except version 6.0 (22.8%).
WordPress Statistics for Developers
36. The average WordPress developer earns $57,000 per year.
Developers also charge an average of $20-$100 per hour, depending on their location.
37. In 2022, over 500 websites were built daily with WordPress.
In contrast, content management systems like Shopify and Squarespace are used to create 60-80 sites daily.
38. 69% of WordPress users only use it as a CMS.
2022 research shows that a smaller percentage (20%) use it as a blog, while 6% of users combine both use cases.
39. Senior WordPress developers can earn as much as $150,000/year.
Entry-level WordPress developers are usually paid $40,000/year but can start earning up to 70,000 yearly after gaining 3-5 years of experience.
Lost in Translation?
With WordPress, that would never be an issue, given that it caters to over 100 languages. However, the CMS’ users should understand how it’s growing, what plugins are evolving, what security risks to avoid, and how to get the best out of the platform.
Armed with the data and statistics above, you have what you need to take on the WordPress world!
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