Top 22 WordPress Statistics: Defining Trends and Insights for 2024

Initially created as a blogging platform, WordPress has become the most popular content management system suitable for any website type.

Whether it’s a simple blog, a feature-packed eCommerce store, or an online portfolio, WordPress offers a rich suite of plugins and themes for creating a website easily and establishing a strong online presence.

If you’re looking to make the most of this platform, keep reading. We’ll reveal some important WordPress statistics and trends you should know in 2024.

Top 10 WordPress Stats You Should Know

1. WordPress is used by 43.2% of all websites. Among those created with a known CMS, the market share is even higher – 62.8%.
2. More than 500 WordPress sites are created and published every day.
3. WordPress searches have a global monthly volume of 2.6 million, which can bring around 323,000 visits.
4. The WordPress Directory currently offers around 60,000 free plugins and 12,000 free themes.
5. WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce software platform with a 38.74% market share.
6. There are over 4.6 million stores built with WooCommerce today, which is equivalent to 9.1% of all eCommerce sites.
7. On average, a WordPress site is attacked every 22 minutes.
8. Outdated plugins are responsible for 92% of WordPress vulnerability reports.
9. Malware and unauthorized backdoor access are the two most common WordPress hacking methods.
10. There have been more than 1,200 WordCamps held across 395 cities in 65 countries to date.

Read on to learn more about the platform’s market share, eCommerce trends, growing community, and more.

WordPress Usage Statistics

Still looking for the right site-building platform? These WordPress usage statistics will give you a better idea of why using WordPress is in your best interest.

1. Around 43% of All Websites Use WordPress

WordPress is the most popular website-making platform, powering nearly half (43.2%) of all websites.

There are various reasons that contribute to the popularity of WordPress, including its user-friendly interface, extensive customization options, strong community support, and scalability for different website types.

2. WordPress Dominates the CMS Market With a 62.8% Share

Over the past decades, WordPress has consistently been the fastest-growing CMS.

Today, it has a global CMS market share of 62.8%, which is 10 times higher than Shopify, its closest competitor (6.2%). Other popular site-building tools include Wix (3.8%), Squarespace (3%), and Joomla (2.5%).

3. Most WordPress Sites Run on the Latest Version

Version 6 is used by the vast majority of WordPress sites (78.1%), while 16.4% and 4.8% are running on Version 5 and 4, respectively. Only 0.4% of WordPress websites use Version 3.

The final major update, WordPress 6.4 “Shirley”, introduces a versatile Twenty-Twenty Four theme and plenty of Gutenberg improvements, making content creation even more seamless.

4. Over 500 New WordPress Sites Emerge on a Daily Basis

As of 2024, there are 810 million WordPress sites, and the number is still growing rapidly. As a matter of fact, more than 500 websites are published daily through WordPress.org.

Although the platform itself is free, you still need to secure a WordPress hosting plan and a domain name to build a WordPress site. For your convenience, Hostinger includes a custom domain name for free for the first year, if you subscribe to our yearly plans.

5. WordPress.com Is Popular for Blogging

Not to be confused with the open-source WordPress.org, WordPress.com is a blogging platform that handles all the technical aspects of site creation. This enables beginners to focus solely on producing content.

Given its ease of use, it’s no surprise that WordPress.com users published over 52.3 million blog posts and more than 4.9 million web pages in January 2024.

The engagement for WordPress.com content is also high, averaging almost 50 million comments per month during 2023 alone.

6. WordPress Search Volume Reaches 3.2 Million Monthly

WordPress isn’t a one-hit wonder. Despite an influx of new site builders and content management systems, people still show a strong interest in WordPress.

Between January 14 and February 10, 2024, there were 3.2 million WordPress searches on Google, indicating the platform’s widespread popularity and relevance.

WordPress Plugins and Themes Statistics

One of the key selling points of WordPress is the amount of free add-ons it offers. There’s a plugin for almost any functionality you need, and it’s easy to customize your site’s look with a unique theme.

The following WordPress statistics will reveal the current state of WordPress plugins and themes, helping you decide which ones to install.

7. There Are 59 Thousand Free Plugins in the WordPress Directory

If you’re a blogger or a business owner on a tight budget, you don’t have to spend money on web developers.

The WordPress Plugin Directory currently features 59,639 free plugins, providing an easy and cost-effective way to enhance your site’s functionality.

That said, having too many active plugins can slow down your website or even make it unresponsive.

8. Yoast SEO Is the Most Installed and Reviewed WordPress Plugin

The SEO plugin has over 5 million installations and around 25,000 user reviews, averaging a rating of 4.8 out of 5.

Plugins like WooCommerce, Jetpack, Akismet Anti Spam, Contact Form 7, and Wordfence Security also have a similar number of active users.

9. Only 62 Plugins Have Over 1 Million Active Installations

While there are over 59 thousand plugins available, only 62 of them have successfully reached the 1 million mark.

Those include some of the best WordPress plugins you might be familiar with, such as All in One SEO (AIOSEO), MonsterInsights, LiteSpeed Cache, and Starter Templates for Astra.

10. Nearly 12 Thousand Free Themes Are Available on WordPress

WordPress makes website design easy, offering around 12,000 free themes you can customize to your liking.

You can also download premium themes from third-party marketplaces like ThemeForest. It has about 17,000 themes in various categories, costing $5-299/license.

11. Astra Is One of the Best Free WordPress Themes

With over 1 million active downloads and more than 5,000 reviews, Astra is one of the most popular free WordPress themes on the market.

Its lightweight nature and compatibility with popular page builders are among the many reasons why it has become such a favorite among WordPress users. Plus, Astra has over 100 site templates optimized for search engines, making it easier to attract visitors.

WordPress eCommerce Statistics

For small businesses, establishing a strong digital presence has become a necessity rather than an option. According to the latest eCommerce statistics, 56.6% of customers prefer shopping online instead of in-store.

In this section, we’ve compiled four WordPress eCommerce usage statistics to guide you in building a thriving eCommerce site.

12. WooCommerce Stores Make Up 9.1% of All eCommerce Sites

WooCommerce is by far the most popular eCommerce platform for WordPress. The plugin is used by 21% of WordPress sites and 9.1% of all eCommerce stores on the internet.

Agoda, Cisco, and Nvidia are among the top brands that use WooCommerce to build a high-functioning and feature-packed eCommerce website.

13. More Than 290 Million Users Have Downloaded WooCommerce

Ever since its inception, WooCommerce has been installed by 292,096,298 WordPress users, averaging roughly 30,000 downloads per day.

These staggering stats show WooCommerce’s ability to stay on top of its game, even with tons of up-and-coming eCommerce platforms bursting onto the scene.

14. WooCommerce Leads the eCommerce Platform Market Share

In 2023, WooCommerce was the leading eCommerce software platform, making up 38.74% of the total market share. Woo Themes, which is also owned by WooCommerce’s parent company Automattic, came second with 14.95%.

Other eCommerce platforms that made the list include Squarespace Online Stores (14.67%), Shopify (10.32%), and Wix Stores (8.09%).

15. Over 4.6 Million Stores Are Running on WooCommerce

There’s no doubt that WooCommerce plays a huge role in the online retail sector. In fact, there are 4,648,008 live eCommerce sites built with WooCommerce as of 2024 Q1.

Product-wise, home appliances and apparel lead the way with around 250,000 stores each, followed by business and industrial (166,000), as well as food and beverage (157,000).

WordPress Security Statistics

Despite being one of the safest content management systems, WordPress isn’t immune to cyber attacks and security vulnerabilities.

To protect your site from threats, let’s discuss some important WordPress security statistics.

16. A WordPress Site Is Attacked Every 22 Minutes

Keeping your site secure goes a long way in gaining customer trust and maintaining a positive reputation for your brand.

Unfortunately, issues like weak passwords and vulnerable plugins or themes consistently provide entry points for hackers to access your site.

While there’s no exact number, experts estimate that roughly 13,000 WordPress sites are hacked on a daily basis. To put it into perspective, that number equals 390,000 attacks per month and 4.7 million per year.

17. WordPress Plugins Are Responsible for 92% of Vulnerability Reports

According to WP Scan, around 38,000 WordPress vulnerabilities have been reported to date. The vast majority (92%) came from WordPress plugins, while WordPress core and themes account for only 3% and 5%, respectively.

18. Malware Is the Most Common Type of Hacking Method

Sucuri, one of the leading WordPress firewall plugins, found that 72.7% of site infections were caused by malware. Unauthorized backdoor access and SEO spam come next, accounting for 69.6% and 46.7% of all WordPress hacks.

The least common types of hacking methods include phishing (8.1%), defacements (6.7%), mailers (5.9%), and droppers (1%).

19. Wordfence Blocks 330 Million Hits Every Day

When it comes to website protection, there aren’t many plugins that do a better job than Wordfence.

At the time of writing this article, the plugin successfully blocked over 6.4 billion brute-force attacks, more than 4.2 billion exploit attempts, and around 142,000 malicious IP addresses over the last 30 days. It also detected over 4.7 million malicious files.

WordPress Community and Events

Every year, WordPress holds a series of conferences called WordCamps, bringing together WordPress contributors, users, and developers from all around the globe.

Read on to learn interesting facts about these events and their importance in shaping the WordPress community.

20. The First WordCamp Was Organized in 2006

18 years ago, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg held the first-ever WordCamp in San Fransisco. Since then, local WordPress communities have organized hundreds of their own events.

21. WordCamps Have Been Held Across 395 Cities in 65 Countries

To date, there here have been 1,210 WordCamps held across 395 cities, 65 countries, and 6 continents.

These numbers are set to grow even higher, with 18 upcoming WordPress-related events scheduled for 2024. Notable ones include WordCamp Asia in March, WordCamp Europe in June, and WordCamp US in September.

22. WordPress Supports a Wide Range of Local Languages

Given its large worldwide community and global appeal, WordPress takes content localization seriously.

The platform’s translation teams have successfully released 208 locales, including Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, French, German, and Spanish.

Sources

1. WordPress.org
2. WordPress.com
3. W3Techs
4. WordCamp Central
5. Statista
6. KeyCDN
7. Colorlib
8. Wordfence
9. Store Leads
10. Meetanshi
11. Envato Market
12. Themeisle
13. Google Trends
14. Techjury

Conclusion

WordPress is the most popular website-building platform, powering nearly half of all live websites. With more than 500 new WordPress websites being launched every day, the market share will only get bigger.

If you’re looking to create your first-ever website, now is the perfect time to try this open-source content management system.

The statistics we’ve curated in this article, combined with the support provided by the WordPress community, should give you enough knowledge and guidance to kickstart your online journey.

Should you have any questions, explore our WordPress tutorial or leave a comment below. Good luck!

WordPress Statistics FAQ

Find answers to commonly asked questions about WordPress usage statistics.