In the past two decades, WordPress has helped countless businesses go online and has made a massive impact on the web. To better understand the most popular open-source CMS in the world and its community, let’s explore some of the important statistics related to WordPress usage, plugins, themes, and more.
WordPress, which began as a blogging platform in 2003, has developed into a robust multi-purpose content management system with tens of thousands of plugins and themes available to users.
WordPress's user base is growing as it has evolved over the years. WordPress, which was formerly used mainly by bloggers, is now used by e-commerce enterprises, journalism organizations, and a variety of other organizations. WordPress powers two out of every five websites on the internet.
As WordPress continues to evolve, so does its user base. Once used primarily by bloggers, WordPress is now used by ecommerce businesses, news organizations, and many others. In fact, two out of every five websites on the internet use WordPress.
WordPress Statistics
WordPress Usage Statistics
1. WordPress is used by 45.8% of all websites on the internet. (W3Techs, 2023)
- According to data from W3Techs, WordPress was used by 45.8% of all websites on the internet in 2023. This is an increase from 43.2% in 2022. That means that more than two out of every five websites use WordPress.
2. WordPress usage has increased an average of 12% per year since 2011. (W3Techs, 2022)
- In 2011, WordPress was used by 13.1% of websites. Since then, WordPress usage has increased 12% per year on average, bringing its total to 43.2% in 2022.
3. WordPress is used by 65.2% of all websites using a content management system. (W3Techs, 2022)
4. WordPress powers 36.28% of the top 1 million websites. (BuiltWith, 2022)
5. Roughly every two minutes, another top 10 million site starts using WordPress. This suggests that more than 1000 WordPress sites within the top 10 million sites were created every day of the year. (W3Techs, 2022)
6. WordPress has been the fastest-growing content management system for 12 years in a row. In 2021, WordPress gained the most websites, adding 9.3% to its already impressive user base. (W3Techs, 2022)
7. 20.4% of WordPress websites use WooCommerce. The next most popular subcategories are Elementor and WPBakery, with 15.9% and 15.3% of WordPress websites using the respective page builders. (W3Techs, 2022)
WordPress Plugin Statistics
8. There are almost 60,000 free plugins in the official WordPress plugin directory. (WordPress, 2022)
9. Yoast SEO has the most active installations and five-star ratings in the WordPress plugin directory. (WordPress 2022)
WordPress Theme Statistics
10. There are over 9,000 free themes in the official WordPress theme repository. (WordPress, 2022)
11. There are over 20,000 WordPress themes in total, including premium options. (Colorlib, 2023)
- According to research from Colorlib, there are approximately well over 20,000 WordPress themes available for download or purchase. Included in this count are themes that are known or likely to be up-to-date and child themes. Themes with both a free and premium version are counted just once.
12. The average price of a WordPress theme is $57.54 (CodeInWP, 2023)
- Meanwhile, subscribers should expect an average annual membership cost of $145.
13. Hello and Astra are two of the most popular active WordPress themes used by some of the top-performing sites in the world. (ThemeCo, 2023)
- Hello and Astra are the most popular active themes among the top 1 million WordPress sites. Astra has risen in popularity due to the fact that it comes with a free edition that already provides you with a basic range of options. But if you want to take it a step further, you can upgrade and have access to a large design library.
- While Hello is built to function in tandem with the Elementor page builder plugin, it lays the groundwork for creating unique websites with Elementor's drag-and-drop interface and complex design features.
14. Wordfence blocked 159 billion password attack requests on WordPress websites in 2022. (Wordfence, 2023)
- Wordfence blocked more than 159 billion credential-stuffing attacks in 2022, originating from over 78 million distinct IP addresses. On any given day in 2022, about 800,000 IP addresses were actively engaged in credential-stuffing attacks.
15. The Wordfence Web Application Firewall blocked 3 million attacks coming from nearly 14,000 IPs and attackers attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in the first half of 2023. (Wordfence, 2023)
- In the first six months of the year, the Wordfence Web Application Firewall blocked over 3 million attacks against more than 1.5 million sites, from nearly 14,000 IP addresses since May 23, 2023. And that number is still rising.
16. WPScan recorded 1779 new vulnerabilities across WordPress plugins, themes, and core in the first half of 2022. In 2022, WPScan recorded 1,425 new vulnerabilities across WordPress plugins, themes, and core. This surpassed the number of reported vulnerabilities in all of 2021. (Wordfence, 2023)
- However, the upward trend does not indicate that WordPress is becoming less secure over time. Instead, it indicates that people are spending more time finding and reporting vulnerabilities in WordPress software, which will ultimately result in fewer vulnerable plugins and themes in the WordPress repository and other marketplaces.
17. WPScan recorded over 694 plugin vulnerabilities in the first half of 2022. This is slightly higher than the previous number of core and theme vulnerabilities reported in 2021, which makes sense considering the vast number of plugins and complex functionality. With so much going on, there’s a higher attack surface. (Wordfence, 2023)
18. WPScan recorded 45 theme vulnerabilities in the first half of 2022. (Wordfence, 2023)
19. Approximately 90% of WordPress vulnerabilities are plugin vulnerabilities. 6% are theme vulnerabilities and 4% are core software vulnerabilities. (Wordfence, 2023)
20. Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities accounted for 50% of plugin vulnerabilities in the first half of 2022. The next most commonly discovered vulnerability — Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) — accounted for 15% of plugin vulnerabilities. (Wordfence, 2023)
Understanding the Current State of WordPress
WordPress has evolved rapidly in the last two decades, transforming from a blogging platform to a highly extensible CMS. WordPress has grown in terms of users, plugins, themes, and security risks. The statistics above can help keep you informed about the current state of WordPress — and suggest how it might change in the future.
