Editing Encyclopedia:Size of Wikipedia (section)

== Number of words ==
As of April 2025, there are more than 4.8 billion words in all English Wikipedia articles, with a [[mean]] of about 696 words per article. There are about {{#expr: 4.8 * 6 round2}} billion characters, assuming that each word is six characters long (five letters for each word on average plus a space or punctuation mark). Please see the [[Special:Statistics]] page for the most recent word count.

The table below shows only the number of words in all content pages, meaning the {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles; it does not include words in [[Wikipedia:Namespace|other namespaces]] like Talk, User, or Wikipedia. Data for 2002 through 2010 is from the old [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm Wikistats-1] and thus only precise to the month rather than a specific day within a month. Data for 2018 to the present is from the Special:Statistics page, as saved on that date by the [[Internet Archive]]. There is no record of the number of words from January 2010 to December 2017; Wikistats-1 no longer includes the number of words after January 2010, and the Special:Statistics page only started showing the number of words in all content pages in December 2017. Some time within that almost eight-year span, the average number of words dropped. Note that the Internet Archive does not always have an archived version of the Special:Statistics page on the first day of each year.

===Yearly statistics===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; line-height:1.5em;"
|-
! Date || &nbsp;Word count&nbsp; || &nbsp;Increase during&nbsp;<br />preceding year || &nbsp;% increase during&nbsp;<br/>preceding year || Average increase<br>per day during<br>preceding year|| Average number<br>of words<br/>per article
|-
| 2002-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 4,800,000] || 4,800,000 || — || 13,151 || 267
|-
| 2003-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 32,100,000] || 27,300,000 || 569% || 74,795 || 309
|-
| 2004-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 61,400,000] || 29,300,000 || 91% || 80,279 || 315
|-
| 2005-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 127,000,000] || 65,600,000 || 107% || 179,726 || 288
|-
| 2006-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 353,000,000] || 226,000,000 || 177% || 619,178 || 403
|-
| 2007-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 709,000,000] || 356,000,000 || 101% || 967,123 || 473
|-
| 2008-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 1,082,000,000] || 373,000,000 || 53% || 1,021,918 || 515
|-
| 2009-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 1,437,000,000] || 355,000,000 || 33% || 972,603 || 553
|-
| 2010-01 || [https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm 1,798,000,000] || 361,000,000 || 25% || 989,041 || 599
|-
| 2011 to 2017 || — || — || — || — || —
|-
| 2018-01-03 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20180103212341/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,077,580,920] || 159,947,625<sup>A</sup> || 8.9%<sup>B</sup> || 438,213<sup>C</sup> || 555
|-
| 2019-01-17 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190117172539/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,302,922,240] || 225,341,320 || 7.3% || 617,373 || 570
|-
| 2020-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200101035302/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,497,842,238] || 194,919,998 || 5.9% || 534,027 || 584
|-
| 2021-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210101003417/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,755,065,625] || 257,223,387 || 7.3% || 702,796 || 604
|-
| 2022-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220101001038/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,029,071,074] || 274,005,449 || 7.3% || 750,700 || 626
|-
| 2023-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230101012801/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,267,944,148] || 238,873,074 || 5.7% || 654,447 || 647
|-
| 2024-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240101000924/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,516,979,187] || 249,035,039 || 5.8% || 682,288 || 668
|-
| 2025-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20241231142226/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,784,651,120] || 267,671,933 || 5.6% || 731,344 || 690
|-
| 2025-04-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20250401004340/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,853,244,372] || 68,593,252<sup>D</sup> || — || — || 696
|-
|}

:<sup>A</sup> Average increase per year from 2010 to 2018; total increase of 1,279,581,000 words over the same time period
:<sup>B</sup> Average percent increase per year from 2010 to 2018; overall increase of 71% over the same time period
:<sup>C</sup> Average increase per day from 2010 to 2018
:<sup>D</sup> So far this year

===Monthly statistics since January 2019===

The table below includes the total number of words in all articles and the number of words added at the start or near the start of each month since January 2019.

{{Collapse top|title=Monthly statistics}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Date || &nbsp;Word count&nbsp; || &nbsp;Increase during&nbsp;<br />preceding month
|- 
| 2019-01-17 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190117172539/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,302,922,240] || —
|- 
| 2019-01-30 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190130195720/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,312,628,012] || 9,705,772
|- 
| 2019-03-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190302090050/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,327,908,282] || 15,280,270
|- 
| 2019-04-02 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190402080055/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,346,005,474] || 18,097,912
|- 
| 2019-05-02 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190502080051/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,364,867,198] || 18,861,724
|- 
| 2019-06-02 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190602042545/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,382,682,291] || 17,815,093
|- 
| 2019-07-03 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190703222008/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,400,841,476] || 18,159,185
|- 
| 2019-08-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190801044254/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,415,713,393] || 14,871,917
|- 
| 2019-08-31 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20190831231921/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,431,923,050] || 16,209,657
|- 
| 2019-10-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20191001004732/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,448,916,490] || 16,993,440
|- 
| 2019-11-03 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20191103030932/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,465,850,615] || 16,934,125
|- 
| 2019-12-02 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20191202024024/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,482,116,852] || 16,266,237
|-
| 2020-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200101035302/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,497,842,238] || 15,275,386
|-
| 2020-02-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200201001707/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,515,781,525] || 17,939,287
|-
| 2020-03-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200301030255/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,533,853,569] || 18,072,044
|-
| 2020-04-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200401001836/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,556,915,740] || 23,062,171
|-
| 2020-05-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200501000335/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,584,029,618] || 27,113,878
|-
| 2020-06-04 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200603172549/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,611,432,972] || 27,403,354
|-
| 2020-07-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200701000034/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,631,265,076] || 19,832,104
|-
| 2020-08-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200801001319/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,653,369,248] || 22,104,172
|-
| 2020-09-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200901000156/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,673,339,409] || 19,970,161
|-
| 2020-10-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20200930205421/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,692,222,212] || 18,882,803
|-
| 2020-11-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20201101011824/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,713,395,900] || 21,173,688
|-
| 2020-12-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20201201000856/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,733,824,980] || 20,429,080
|-
| 2021-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210101003417/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,755,065,625] || 21,240,645
|-
| 2021-02-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210201011445/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,776,685,968] || 21,620,343
|-
| 2021-03-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210301000452/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,811,006,931] || 34,320,963
|-
| 2021-04-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210401114929/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,839,532,258] || 28,525,327
|-
| 2021-05-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210501000615/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,889,436,965] || 49,904,707<sup>A</sup>
|-
| 2021-06-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210601003117/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,901,873,166] || 12,436,201<sup>B</sup>
|-
| 2021-07-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210701015226/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,910,030,230] || 8,157,064<sup>C</sup>
|-
| 2021-08-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210801002114/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,928,967,545] || 18,937,315
|-
| 2021-09-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20210901010419/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,948,128,338] || 19,160,793
|-
| 2021-10-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20211001000253/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,967,621,552] || 19,493,214
|-
| 2021-11-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20211101001257/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,987,982,865] || 20,361,313
|-
| 2021-12-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20211201013917/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,007,118,847] || 19,135,982
|-
| 2022-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220101001038/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,029,071,074] || 21,952,227
|-
| 2022-02-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220201000346/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,051,725,197] || 22,654,123
|-
| 2022-03-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220301002145/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,071,396,757] || 19,671,560
|-
| 2022-04-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220331133015/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,090,472,851] || 19,076,094
|-
| 2022-05-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220501001109/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,109,204,408] || 18,731,557
|-
| 2022-06-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220601015926/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,129,871,712] || 20,667,304
|-
| 2022-07-02 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220702031502/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,150,008,206] || 20,136,494
|-
| 2022-08-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220801004139/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,175,523,086] || 25,514,880
|-
| 2022-09-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20220901000138/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,193,329,859] || 17,806,773
|-
| 2022-10-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20221001014606/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,210,577,185] || 17,247,326
|-
| 2022-11-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20221101072139/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,230,724,380] || 20,147,195
|-
| 2022-12-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20221201002024/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,248,826,033] || 18,101,653
|-
| 2023-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230101012801/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,267,944,148] || 19,118,115
|-
| 2023-02-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230201011703/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,288,893,266] || 20,949,118
|-
| 2023-03-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230301001645/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,308,319,794] || 19,426,528
|-
| 2023-04-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230401003210/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,328,626,906] || 20,307,112
|-
| 2023-05-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230501001529/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,349,234,241] || 20,607,335
|-
| 2023-06-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230601020848/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,369,929,624] || 20,695,383
|-
| 2023-07-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230701000409/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,390,143,361] || 20,213,737
|-
| 2023-08-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230801032850/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,410,109,903] || 19,966,542
|-
| 2023-09-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20230901011410/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,432,350,450] || 22,240,547
|-
| 2023-10-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20231001020428/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,450,087,648] || 17,737,198
|-
| 2023-11-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20231101014048/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,471,349,306] || 21,261,658
|-
| 2023-12-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20231201143826/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,495,407,730] || 24,058,424
|-
| 2024-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240101000924/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,516,979,187] || 21,571,457
|-
| 2024-02-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240201012000/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,538,556,246] || 21,577,059
|-
| 2024-03-02 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240302182127/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,561,800,583] || 23,244,337
|-
| 2024-04-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240403121423/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,578,602,377] || 16,801,794
|-
| 2024-05-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240501040804/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,601,749,228] || 23,146,851
|-
| 2024-06-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240601015839/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,625,033,481] || 23,284,253
|-
| 2024-07-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240701010341/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,647,681,621] || 22,648,140
|-
| 2024-08-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240801000843/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,671,791,985] || 24,110,364
|-
| 2024-09-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20240901004223/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,694,224,274] || 22,432,289
|-
| 2024-10-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20241001000402/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,716,568,100] || 22,343,826
|-
| | 2024-11-01 || [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_Wikipedia%27s_Special_Statistics_Page_(1_November_2024).png 4,739,190,467]<sup>D</sup> || 22,622,367
|-
| 2024-12-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20241201001454/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,761,085,140] || 21,894,673
|-
| 2025-01-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20241231142226/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,784,651,120] || 23,565,980
|-
| 2025-02-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20250201001258/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,807,293,239] || 22,642,119 
|-
| 2025-03-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20250301002000/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,829,118,716] || 21,825,477
|-
| 2025-04-01 || [https://web.archive.org/web/20250401004340/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 4,853,244,372] || 24,125,656
|}

:<sup>A</sup> There was an unusually large increase in the number of words in April 2021 (49,904,707), followed by an unusually small increase in the number of words in May 2021 (12,436,201). Averaging the two gives 31,170,454.
:<sup>B</sup> Of note, in May 2021, the number of words initially increased to about 3,915,000,000, then decreased to [https://web.archive.org/web/20210601003117/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics 3,901,873,166] by the end of the month. It is unclear whether this decrease was real or if the software was correcting for overcounting words the previous month.
:<sup>C</sup> Like May 2021, June 2021 was associated with an unusually small increase in the number of words (8,157,064).
:<sup>D</sup> No archive of the [[Special:Statistics]] page was available from the [[Internet Archive]] on this date due to disruption from the [[Internet Archive#Cyberattacks|9 October 2024 hacking incident]]. These numbers come from a screenshot of [[Special:Statistics]] at 00:14 UTC time on 1 November 2024. The screenshot is available on the Wikimedia Commons. 
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