Australian WikiProjects and Popular Pages

Observations on popular Australian Wikipedia pages
, James Gaunt.

Last year, we wrote about 2022's Most Viewed Wikipedia Pages In Australia. That looked at what Wikipedia pages Australians were viewing, and featured a mix of topics from around the world. But what about just Australian content?

To get an idea of what Australian Wikipedia pages the entire Wikipedia community engage with, we can look at WikiProjects.

What's a WikiProject?

A WikiProject is a place used for groups of contributors working together to improve Wikipedia, focusing on a specific topic area. For example, WikiProject Australia looks at all Australian related content on Wikipedia, while WikiProject Australian Music is a sub-project that just focuses on Australia music.

English Wikipedia currently has over 2,000 WikiProjects open to everyone to join. You can find out more in our article How To Join a WikiProject on Wikipedia.

Popular pages stats

WikiProject Australia's Top 10 popular pages by global views. See the full list here.

Many WikiProjects list stats for Wikipedia pages within their project scope. These include the total number of page views and daily averages, and are global stats showing the page popularity from all visitors to Wikipedia. For example: WikiProject Australia Popular pages list.

WikiProject Australia includes Wikipedia pages on the British Royal Family and World Wars because they are related to Australia.

These topics are incredibly popular, and are also part of other international projects. If we exclude those, the most popular Australian pages include Australian entertainers, sports people, beer, and elections.

Wikipedia views for Australian Open page.

The popularity of Wikipedia pages often follow news trends.

In January 2022, pages related to the Australian Open tennis tournament were popular, and in May, when the Australian Federal Election was held, politicians like Anthony Albanese were popular too.

WikiProject Australia popular pages vs Australia’s most viewed pages

When we previously looked at the 500 Most Viewed Wikipedia Pages In Australia, the stats were gathered for between December 2021 and November 2022. To make a comparison, we've gathered stats from WikiProject Australia popular pages in the same period.

769 different pages appeared in the WikiProject Australia Popular pages between December 2021 and November 2022. See the full list here.

Across both the most viewed and popular pages, there are 100 pages that appear in both lists, and another 1,065 pages that don't appear on both lists.

During this period, globally the Wikipedia page for Elizabeth II received 45,184,374 views. In Australia alone it received 1,479,900, and it was one of the most viewed and most popular page on both lists.

Anthony Albanese was the 5th most viewed Wikipedia page in Australia, receiving 2,321,814 views globally, with 1,148,300 views from within Australia.

A comparison of Wikipedia page views for three popular sporting events

You can also use these stats to get a clearer idea of the popularity of topics like Australian sports.

The Ashes, State of Origin series, and Australian Open are all popular, but only the State of Origin series Wikipedia page had more views from within Australia.

See the complete list of pages compared from both lists here.

Pages that don't appear on both lists

Because the WikiProject Australia Popular pages list focuses only on content related to Australia, and the most viewed Wikipedia pages in Australia stats include any Wikipedia page viewed from within Australia, there are understandably lots of pages that don't appear on both lists.

The Wikipedia page for XXXX beer was the 4th most viewed on WikiProject Australia Popular pages, with 11,050,856 views globally. But it didn't even make the top 500 pages viewed pages in Australia.

There are also Australian people that were popular globally, but not so much within Australia, including actors Heath Ledger, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, and Hugh Jackman.

Likewise, Wikipedia pages for AC/DC, Bee Gees, Sydney, Melbourne, and the Emu War, all ranked within the Top 100 pages in WikiProject Australia Popular pages list, but didn't make the top 500 pages viewed in Australia.

See the complete list of pages that don't appear on both lists here.

What's missing?

While these stats are a fun way to compare what Australians look at on Wikipedia vs what Australian content interests the entire world, it doesn't take into account what is missing from Wikipedia.

Thankfully, WikiProject Australia have a Todo page with lists of Wikipedia pages that need to be created, represented by red links. A red link means the page doesn't exist yet, but you can create it.

If you need help you can attend one of our events or leave a message on the WikiProject Australia Notice Board.

If you're just getting started, there are also blue links on the Todo page for Wikipedia pages that need to be improved or expanded. These might be a good place to build your skills before starting a new page from scratch.

Lists of Stats

Discuss this page