Marketing

How many Websites are there in the World [2022]

April 19, 2022
8 min read

At the time of writing this article, there were 1.96 billion websites on the internet (1)

As the number fluctuates constantly, it’s difficult to agree on exactly how many websites there are at any given moment. 

Above is the total number of websites at the beginning of writing. (1) The number is constantly changing. Stick around to see how much it changes while writing this article.

Let’s delve deeper into the web and find some fascinating statistics!

In this post, we’ll look at:

  • Where did the Worldwide web start?
  • Which sites are the most popular?
  • What languages are the most common?

Origins of the WWW

In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist from London, United Kingdom, invented the World Wide Web. (2) Tim, along with his work colleagues, also created the first web server and browser.

While working at CERN, Berners-Lee noticed that scientists who came from across the world to use their accelerators had trouble sharing their information. (3) 

Tim saw a problem and developed the answer.

On August 6, 1991, the first website went live. He published the World Wide Web Project, describing what the Web is and how to use it.

And so, the World Wide Web was born.

Feeling nostalgic? Check out the first webpage here.

How many active websites are there?

Even though there are nearly two billion websites, not all are active. According to some of the latest statistics, less than 200 million sites are active. (4) 

An active domain is one that has an HTTP server responding on port 80/443 (including 404s) secondly any open ports, and thirdly, an MX record.

Inactive Websites

Currently, 1.6 Billion websites are deemed inactive. (5)

There are several reasons for this, such as Technical Issues, Server Problems, or unpaid Registrar bills.

Websites Added Daily

Approximately 252 000 new websites are created everyday. (5) 

That means that each minute of the day, there are about 175 new Websites created. (5)

It’s really difficult to pin this to an absolutely accurate number. That’s because as new websites are created, old ones are deleted. 

What are the most popular Domains in 2022? The most popular is still .com with 53.3%, followed by .org (4.4%), .ru (4.4%) and .net (3.1%).

Most Popular Websites

Source:Pexels.com

There are many different types of websites out there. Some provide information, some entertain and yet others offer a platform for trade.

Here’s a look at the most popular website categories (9)

  1. E-Commerce sites

These are websites that offer an online platform where buyers and sellers meet and money is exchanged for goods purchased. It’s understandable why these are amongst the most visited websites. Think Amazon.com

  1. Blogs and Vlogs

Millions of people today choose to share a part of their personal lives with the digital world. They choose to document their travels and personal thoughts in blogs and vlogs. This trend has become extremely popular in recent years. Think Casey Neistat Vlog

  1. Information

Looking for information or stats? People no longer visit libraries and manually look up info in a book or brochure. The World Wide Web contains many pages that offer information to users. Think Wikipedia

  1. Online Community Websites

These are websites that help people connect. They offer users the opportunity to keep in touch with existing friends and allow them to grow their community. Think Facebook.com

  1. Photo Sharing Websites

Some websites allow you to upload good quality, high resolution pictures. These pictures are then cataloged and sold to other users of the web. Think Pexels.com

  1. Resume

No better way of getting noticed than by putting yourself out there for the world to take note of. These websites allow job seekers to be seen by potential employers. Think LinkedIn

  1. Portfolio

Artists need a place where they can showcase their abilities, and many websites cater to just that. Portfolio-focused websites give up-and-coming artists a place to keep all their work in one place. Think Portfoliobox

  1. Catalog and Brochure

Companies that have awesome products that don’t need to be purchased online will make use of this type of website. An online catalog or brochure is often just what is needed to let the world know what you’re selling. 

But general information available to the public can also be stored in online catalogs. Think The British Library

  1. Business Directory

Businesses don’t advertise their services in printed books anymore. They all make use of an online business directory that lists their services. Think AboutUs

  1.  Bio

Many authors and writers will use a Bio website to display who they are and the work they have produced. This has become increasingly popular in recent years as the world is going more digital.

Undoubtedly, Google is by far the most popular Search Engine in the world. 

Google controls well over 70% of the market share and captures over 85% of mobile search traffic. (7)

2021 delivered a fascinating statistic. 

The top 3 most visited websites in the world were Google.com at 92.5 Billion visits per month, YouTube with 34.6 Billion visits per month, and Facebook with 25.5 Billion visits per month.

What makes this even more impressive is that their combined visits per month were 152 Billion, more than the combined total of the remaining 47 websites that were in the top 50 for the year. (8)

What is the world’s most popular Content Management System? (CMS) According to websitesetup.org, Wordpress is the market leader with more than 30 million live websites. Wix takes second place with 7+ million, followed by Squarespace with 2.7+ users. (13)

The Web is Mobile-Friendly

In 2021 it was estimated that 4.32 Billion people browse the internet on mobile devices. (12) That means that over 90% of all internet users are mobile traffic!

What language does the Internet speak?

Statistics show that English is the most widely used language on the Web. Approximately 1,186,451,052 people speak English, that’s 25% of internet users.

That’s followed by Chinese with 888,453,068 users and Spanish with 363,684,593 users respectively.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of Arabic, Portuguese, Indonesian, French, Japanese, Russian, and German speakers. (10)

Different sides of the Web

There are different sides to the Internet, but most users will only be familiar with one.

You sit down at your laptop and search for pet grooming companies near you, browse your social media platform, and visit a company's web page.

These everyday activities take place on the Surface Web. We all make use of this by typing keywords into our search engine, which then uses an algorithm to find the most relevant matches. The Surface Web represents only 4% of the Internet. (6)

Another layer to the World Wide Web is the Dark Web. These are encrypted pages and sites that aren’t accessible to the general public and don’t pop up using normal search engines like Google. It’s only a small percentage of the Deep Web.

The Dark Web is a scary place, often used by shady characters like drug lords, hackers, and terrorists to communicate and sell products. Because of this illegal trade, normal search engines protect the general population from accidentally stumbling across these sites.

The Internet doesn’t index the Dark or Deep web, so we can’t be entirely sure, but it’s estimated that less than 5% of the web is represented by the Dark Web. (6)

Finally, you have the Deep Web. Also known as the Hidden or Invisible web, it represents the part of the internet where hidden content is displayed, traded and sold. The Dark Web falls under this section of the Internet.

It’s estimated that about 96% of the Internet is made up of the Deep Web. (6)

Milestones

Since the inception of the World Wide web and the publishing of that very first website in 1991, there have been some important milestones. Have a look at these highlights (11)

1991 First Website published

1992 First Web Browsers were developed and released

1993 The birth of Dynamic sites which had Updatable Content

1995 The Web started incorporating CCS and JavaScript

2002 Social Media craze started with Myspace and LinkedIn

2004 Facebook hit the scene

2007 The web goes mobile with the launch of the iPhone

2015 The first time there were more than 1 Billion Websites

2022 Closing in on 2 Billion live websites

Websites vs. Webpages

Source: Pexels

A web page differs from a website in that it is one single page that makes use of a unique URL to display its information. A website is a combination of web pages displayed under the same domain address.

So, how many Web Pages are there?

As of 22 June 2022, there are estimated to be at least 4.64 Billion web pages. This number fluctuates each day, as you can imagine.

How quickly does the internet change?

Well, here’s a look at the difference in the total number of websites while writing this article.

Yep, during the time that this article was written, 292 356 new websites have gone live, and the amount of new Internet users in the world has increased by 1 239 914!  (1)

Sources

1 - Internet Live Stats on Websites

2 - Sir Tim Berners-Lee

3 - CERN

4 - WebsiteSetup.org on Active Websites

5 - Sitefy 

6 - TechJury report on the DarkWeb

7 - Google’s Popularity

8 - Visual Capitalist

9 - Most popular types of websites

10 - Internet World Stats on languages

11 - Kayo Digital

12 - Statista.com

13 - https://websitesetup.org

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