The Popularity of Wikipedia in Australia

Revision as of 02:00, 14 July 2023 by JamesGaunt (talk | contribs) (Drafting)
Australians are the fifth most Wikipedia active editors in the world!
, James Gaunt.
This post is a draft and is subject to change without notice.


Wikipedia is the 6th most visited website in Australia, so when you search for anything online it's often the top result.

But Australians don't just read Wikipedia, they're actively contributing to it too.

Number of Wikipedia editors in Australia

Anyone can edit Wikipedia, and we even have some training videos and resources to help get you started.

Some people edit occasionally, while others make hundreds of edits each month!

The Wikimedia Foundation collect statistics on the number of active editors on Wikipedia and split them into two groups.

  • Editors who made between 5-99 edits in a month
  • Editors who made 100 or more edits in a month

In both cases, the top five most active countries are USA, UK, India, Canada, and Australia.

Since January 2015, Australians have consistently been the fifth most active Wikipedia editors in the world, with a few exceptions. In August 2018, May 2019, and June 2019 Australians were the fourth most active.

[Graph]

Between January 2015 and June 2023, there was an average of ???? editors in Australia making between 5-99 edits in a month. The highest number was in May 2019 with 3,400 editors, and the lowest was in December 2022 with 1,790.

[Graph]

In the same period, there was an average of ???? editors in Australia making 100 or more edits in a month. The highest number was in ??? with ??? editors, and the lowest was in ??? with ???.

Comparing the number of editors worldwide

Overall, there is a downwards trend for the number of editors on English Wikipedia worldwide, as seen by comparing the top five most active Wikipedia editing countries.

[Graph]

Comparing the number of editors worldwide who made between 5-99 edits in a month to each countries populations shows generally 0.01% of each country is editing English Wikipedia.

In 2022 Australia recorded a population of 25,978,935 people according to The World Bank Group, and in December 2022 there were 1,790 people in Australia editing Wikipedia, representing 0.01% of the total population at the time.

Denmark had 160 editors in December 2022 and were the 38th most active. But they had the highest percentage of their population editing Wikipedia, with 0.22% of the country contributing.

Full list of Worldwide editors in December 2022

Rank Country Name Total Editors
1 United States of America 21100
2 United Kingdom 6430
3 India 4350
4 Canada 2990
5 Australia 1790
6 Germany 1250
7 Philippines 1110
8 Indonesia 880
9 Brazil 850
10 Italy 850
11 France 690
12 Malaysia 690
13 Netherlands 530
14 Ireland 530
15 Spain 520
16 Bangladesh 450
17 Japan 420
18 Poland 390
19 Sweden 390
20 Hong Kong, SAR China 380
21 New Zealand 380
22 Greece 350
23 Korea (South) 340
24 Nigeria 340
25 Israel 290
26 Mexico 270
27 Taiwan, Republic of China 260
28 Switzerland 240
29 Belgium 230
30 Portugal 230
31 South Africa 230
32 Argentina 210
33 Norway 210
34 Romania 210
35 Finland 200
36 Czech Republic 170
37 Serbia 170
38 Denmark 160
39 Hungary 160
40 Ukraine 160
41 Peru 160
42 Bulgaria 140
43 Nepal 140
44 Chile 140
45 Austria 130
46 Croatia 130
47 Colombia 120
48 Sri Lanka 110
49 Kenya 80
50 Lithuania 70
51 Morocco 70
52 Slovakia 70
53 Puerto Rico 70
54 Estonia 60
55 Macedonia, Republic of 60
56 Uganda 60
57 Bosnia and Herzegovina 60
58 Unknown 50
59 Albania 50
60 Armenia 50
61 Costa Rica 50
62 Cyprus 50
63 Dominican Republic 50
64 Georgia 50
65 Latvia 50
66 Qatar 50
67 Slovenia 50
68 Tunisia 50
69 Ecuador 40
70 Jordan 40
71 Cambodia 40
72 Kuwait 40
73 Lebanon 40
74 Malta 40
75 Kosovo 40
76 Algeria 30
77 Iceland 30
78 Kyrgyzstan 30
79 Montenegro 30
80 Maldives 30
81 Oman 30
82 Panama 30
83 Uruguay 30
84 Brunei Darussalam 20
85 Ghana 20
86 Guatemala 20
87 Honduras 20
88 Jamaica 20
89 Luxembourg 20
90 Mongolia 20
91 Paraguay 20
92 El Salvador 20
93 Trinidad and Tobago 20
94 Tanzania, United Republic of 20
95 Zambia 20
96 Isle of Man 10
97 Monaco 10
98 Namibia 10
99 Sierra Leone 10
100 Zimbabwe 10
101 Cameroon 10
102 Dominica 10
103 Faroe Islands 10
104 Guernsey 10
105 Gambia 10
106 Guam 10
107 Cayman Islands 10
108 Macao, SAR China 10
109 Mauritius 10
110 Nicaragua 10
111 Palestinian Territory 10
112 South Sudan 10
113 British Virgin Islands 10
114 Congo (Brazzaville) 10
115 Côte d'Ivoire 10
116 Cape Verde 10
117 Curacao 10
118 Fiji 10
119 Micronesia, Federated States of 10
120 Gabon 10
121 Grenada 10
122 Gibraltar 10
123 Greenland 10
124 Guinea 10
125 Guadeloupe 10
126 Andorra 10
127 Guyana 10
128 Haiti 10
129 Angola 10
130 Jersey 10
131 Saint Kitts and Nevis 10
132 Aruba 10
133 Saint Lucia 10
134 Liberia 10
135 ALA Aland Islands 10
136 Moldova 10
137 Mali 10
138 Barbados 10
139 Northern Mariana Islands 10
140 Martinique 10
141 Burkina Faso 10
142 Malawi 10
143 Mozambique 10
144 Saint-Barthélemy 10
145 New Caledonia 10
146 Niger 10
147 Bermuda 10
148 French Polynesia 10
149 Papua New Guinea 10
150 Bolivia 10
151 Réunion 10
152 Seychelles 10
153 Bahamas 10
154 Senegal 10
155 Suriname 10
156 Bhutan 10
157 Sint Maarten 10
158 Saint Vincent and Grenadines 10
159 Botswana 10
160 Virgin Islands, US 10
161 Vanuatu 10
162 Belize 10
163 Congo, (Kinshasa) 10

Is the number of Wikipedia editors dropping?

Since Wikipedia was launched in 2001, the number of editors making five or more edits in a given month grew each year until they peaked at 63,806 in March 2007.

The number tends to rise and fall across each year, and reached a low of 33,313 editors in September 2013, but most recently there were 41,329 active editors in March 2023.

[Graph]

Interestingly, there seems to be a peak of activity each March, and a low around June.

March has been the most active time of year for editors on English Wikipedia since 2014, except 2020 when the peak came in May.

In Australia, the lowest activity is always December, with the peak for editors making between 5-99 edits in a given month occurring in April or May since 2019.

Unfortunately, country specific data isn't available prior to 2018 so it's difficult to know if a similar drop in activity occurred in Australia after 2007 as it did with English Wikipedia in general.

Ways to contribute to Wikipedia

New people are joining Wikipedia all of the time, and just as new pages get added there are so many more needing improvement or updating.

If you're new to Wikipedia or want to learn how to contribute, you can attend one of our free events.

We also have training videos and resources to help get you started right now.

If you need help along the way, the Help page on Wikipedia has several useful tips and additional resources, such as a Teahouse for asking questions and a chatroom for live help.

External links

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