This year, more than 70,000 volunteers added 5 million articles to Wikipedia, and more than 1 billion devices visited our sites—every month—to read them. Learn more about our impact

Consider the facts

Half of refugees are school-age

That means 10 million children are away from their homes, their communities, and their traditional education. Read more

2016 was the hottest year on record

Sixteen of the seventeen warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. Read more

Wikipedia is updated almost 350 times a minute

Wikipedia is updated constantly—from breaking news stories to ancient history. Read more

There are more than 1,650 languages spoken in India

Of the ten most-spoken languages in the world, three are Indic. Read more

Only 17% of Wikipedia’s biographies are about women

We think that number should be much, much higher. Read more

More than 1 trillion photos were taken in 2016

Since 2010, the amount of photographs captured around the world has tripled. Read more

Most Wikipedia articles are in languages other than English

Eighty-seven percent to be exact. From Abkhaz to Zulu, along with 281 more. Read more

One in six people visited another country in 2016

More than 1.2 billion people increased their knowledge and understanding of new cultures by visiting another country. Read more

‘OK’ is the most widely understood word, globally

According to Wikipedia, OK “denotes approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment.” Read more

239 million people used the internet for the first time in 2016

It is estimated that 61% of the world does not have access to the internet. Read more

large group of people
We received 5.4 million donations last year
See all facts

Providing context amid complexity

What we stand for

Wikipedia was born of an impossible idea: that every single human could share in the sum of all knowledge. Read more

Katherine Maher
Katherine Maher Executive Director of The Wikimedia Foundation

A Letter from Jimmy Wales

Wikipedia is now 16 years old. People entering university today have never known a world without Wikipedia. It has existed from the time they first started learning to read. Read more

Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales Founder of Wikipedia