22 Astonishing Wikipedia Statistics and Facts

Whether you call it a community, a website, or an encyclopedia, one thing is certain — you must have visited Wikipedia at some point.

Wikipedia has had many accomplishments over the years. We’ve scoured the web to find the most relevant Wikipedia statistics and facts, which you’ll find below.

Top 10 Wikipedia Facts and Stats

  • By 2019, Wikipedia had more than 1 billion edits.
  • 59.47% of Wikipedia users are men.
  • Nearly 4.9 billion people visited Wikipedia in February 2022.
  • There were 236,585 new registered users on Wikipedia in April 2022.  
  • 87% of the website’s editors are men. 
  • The most visited Wikipedia page in 2021 had 42.7 million views. 
  • In 2021, Wikipedia was the most visited website in the US.
  • 1.5 billion unique devices access Wikipedia monthly. 
  • Wikipedia has 327 language editions.  
  • 39.9 million users access Wikipedia from their mobile phones per day.

General Wikipedia Stats and Facts in History

In this first section, you’ll learn how many articles there are, how much has been donated to the online encyclopedia, and just how popular Wikipedia is.

1. Wikipedia was launched in 2001.

(Source: Britannica)

On January 15, the website was launched as a feature of the site Nupedia. However, they relaunched it as an independent website a few days later.

They pulled the plug on Nupedia two years later, and all its articles were moved to Wikipedia.

2. Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization, operates Wikipedia.

(Source: Charity Navigator)

The foundation encourages the development of free content for the wiki projects in many different languages.

Wikipedia donation statistics show that in the 2020 fiscal year, the organization gained over $124.6 million in revenue, while its expenses were around $112.1 million.

Moreover, 74.6% of the expenses in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 fiscal years were for the program and services they offer.

3. Wikimedia Foundation partnered with WHO in 2020.

(Source: WHO)

The World Health Organization wanted the critical information about the coronavirus to be available to everyone. So, WHO has used Wikimedia’s portals to enable everyone to share and use all the data from WHO for free.

4. By 2019, Wikipedia had more than 1 billion edits.

(Source: Online Tech Tips)

According to data from 2019, around 27 million users have made edits to about 17.6 million articles. So, Wikipedia is pretty enormous, and according to these Wikipedia contributors statistics, it is unlikely to ever run out of users.

5. In 2019–2020, North America donated around $73 million to the Wikimedia Foundation.

(Source: Wikimedia)

During the 2019–2020 fiscal year,  Europe was in second place by donating around $35.3 million. Finally, there were $6.73 million donated offline and by anonymous donors.

6. People donated $130,000 worth of crypto to Wikipedia in 2021.

(Source: Mashable)

That is only 0.08% of its revenue. However, as of May 2022, Wikipedia won’t accept crypto donations anymore. They started accepting crypto in 2014 because the Wiki community made requests, but recently, the community has changed their mind.

7. In November 2021, Wikipedia was the 17th most popular website by time spent per visit.

(Source: Statista)

Wikipedia stats show that users spend approximately 10 minutes and 35 seconds per visit. Yandex.ru takes the first place in terms of user engagement with an average session length of 23 minutes and 20 seconds.

YouTube.com, the second most visited website worldwide, reported an average visit duration of 7 minutes and 43 seconds.

Wikipedia User Statistics

When it comes to users, it would be more difficult to find a person who doesn’t use Wikipedia than one who does. If you’re interested in the details regarding the number of users and editors, though, continue reading.

8. 59.47% of Wikipedia users are men.

(Source: Similar Web)

That leaves just a bit over 40% of women. Additionally, the biggest age group of users on desktop are 25–34-year-olds — 31.13% of users. Next follows the age group of 18–24-years-old, with 24.97%.

9. 87% of the website’s editors are men.

(Source: Twitter)

These Wikipedia statistics show that the website lacks diversity. For example, the survey done by Wikimedia didn’t ask about race, but one-fifth of the editors live in North America, and almost half of them live in Europe.

10. Nearly 4.9 billion people visited Wikipedia in February 2022.

(Source: Statista)

This is actually the lowest number on the list. The month before, the free encyclopedia Wikipedia.org was visited by around 5.5 billion people. In December 2021, the number was about 5.2 billion.

11. There were 236,585 new registered users on Wikipedia in April 2022.

(Source: Wikimedia)

The users made 25.5 million edits to the Wikipedia pages in the same month. However, when it comes to new pages, excluding redirect-based pages, the number was 2.3 million.

In general, the English version of Wikipedia has 41.4 million registered users.

Wikipedia Search Statistics

Below, we’ll share some stats and facts regarding the most viewed pages on Wikipedia, and what it is that makes users keep coming back for more.

12. The most visited Wikipedia page in 2021 had 42.7 million views.

(Source: India Times)

“Deaths in 2021” was the most visited page. As its name suggests, the page lists notable deaths based on age, name, citizenship, and other information.

After that, “Elizabeth II” was the second-ranked page with 25.3 million views.

13. The most visited page in the US in March 2020 had 2 million visits.

(Source: Statista)

The page “2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries” was the most visited by Americans. The second page on the list had around 1.8 million visits, and it was the “2019–20 coronavirus pandemic”.

Unsurprisingly, some of the most visited pages in 2020 were related to COVID-19.

Wikipedia Traffic Statistics

What is the most visited website in the US? How many devices access Wikipedia per day? Continue reading to find out!

14. 39.9 million users access Wikipedia from their mobile phones per day.

(Source: Pageviews)

Wikipedia is accessed from around 21.4 million desktops daily. However, 99% of users globally access their accounts from their mobile phones regarding social media, so it makes sense that most of them would access Wikipedia this way too.

15. In 2021, Wikipedia was the most visited website in the US.

(Source: Ahrefs)

There were just a bit over 1.1 billion estimated monthly visits from organic searches. YouTube was the second most visited website in the US, with around 935.5 million visits monthly.

16. Wikipedia web traffic statistics show that 1.5 billion unique devices access Wikipedia monthly.

(Source: KaiOS Tech)

Additionally, Wikipedia became available to millions of people in January 2021 when Wikimedia Foundation and KaiOS Technologies launched the official Wikipedia app for all  KaiOS-based devices.

17. The US is sending 24.36% of its traffic to Wikipedia.

(Source: Similar Web)

The second country is Japan, with almost 5.99% traffic. According to statistics, the third is the UK, with 5.61%. After that, Germany sends 5.23% of its traffic to Wikipedia.

We’d just like to note that these percentages include desktop users only.

Wikipedia Language Statistics

Continue reading to find out how many language editions Wikipedia has and which ones are the most popular. Some of these numbers might even surprise you.

18. There are around 55 million articles on Wikipedia.

(Source: Axios)

According to stats from 2021, Wikipedia articles are written in more than 300 languages. Аbout 280,000 volunteers help with keeping the website updated.

19. Wikipedia has 327 language editions.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The editions are also called Wikipedias — or simply language versions. As of May 2022, English, Cebuano, and German are the three languages that have the most articles.

20. Wikipedia article statistics show that Wikipedia has more than six million English articles.

(Source: Tech Crunch)

The English edition marked the milestone of 5 million articles in late 2015. At the beginning of 2020, Wikipedia marked another notable milestone when the longtime editor, Rosie, wrote the six millionth article.

With this number, English articles are the leaders in Wikipedia’s world. Next on the list is Cebuano, with over 5.38 million articles.

21. As of 2021, 176 active users and 6 admins are in charge of Cebuano articles.

(Source: Statista)

In comparison, English Wikipedia has 1,113 admins and nearly 126,000 active users. If you’re surprised by the number of articles Cebuano Wikipedia has, you should know that most of them are actually the work of translation bots.

22. The German-language edition has more than 2.69 million articles.

(Source: Wikipedia)

It was created in March 2001, making it the first non-English Wikipedia. By the number of articles, it’s the third-largest Wikipedia edition.

Wrapping Up

While we might discuss the reliability of the user-edited encyclopedia, there’s no denying its popularity, considering it has more than 55 million Wikipedia articles and versions in 327 languages.                                                                                                                          
Wikipedia is the most popular online reference source, with contributors from all over the globe. While it may not be the most reliable source of information out there, its size is already massive and will continue expanding.

FAQ

Does Wikipedia collect data?

(Source: Wikimedia Foundation)

Wikipedia does collect data, such as JavaScript, tracking pixels, text, pictures, articles, IP addresses, and other locally stored data. As a result, they improve the users’ experience by providing them with a personalized experience and relevant content.

Is Wikipedia still popular?

(Source: Wikipedia/ Broadband Search)

Yes, and it seems that it’ll continue to be. The website is the most extensive and most-used reference work ever. As of 2022, Wikipedia is ranked as the third most popular website globally.

Is Wikipedia a reliable source?

(Source: Wikipedia)

Wikipedia’s reliability has been criticized in the 2000s, but it has improved over time. It’s a user-generated source, meaning anyone can edit it, so Wikipedia discourages users from referencing it in research or academic settings.

However, it’s a good starting point for users to explore the mentioned sources, references, and citations.

How many hits does Wikipedia get a day?

(Source: Tech Crunch)

There are around 255 million views per day on the English language edition of the site. And Wikipedia overall was the fifth most visited website in January 2022. Considering these Wikipedia statistics, it’s safe to say that the number of hits per day is only going to increase.

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