How Many Blogs Are There? - Keep Reading to Find Out

Blogging kicked off in 1994, with most early blog writers focusing on writing personal journals. Over the years, blogging has in many ways retained its original form - most blog posts remain personal, opinionated texts about a certain subject. However, blog topics have changed. They now encompass everything from travel and fitness to politics and weapons. While we won’t be able to tell you what food blog to follow, we can take a whack at the question: “How many blogs are there?”

As you’ll see below, answering this question isn’t the easiest task. Content creation is a bloody affair and blogs rise and fall each day. The internet is enormous, making it hard to get precise estimates on the current number of blogs online. However, we’ve gathered the most credible pieces of data on the biggest blog hosts and content management systems, which has allowed us to reach the most accurate number possible.

Besides providing info on the number of blogs online, we’ve also compiled statistics on blog usage, readership, and the world of blog content marketing.

So, without any further ado, let’s delve into our blog statistics.

General blogging stats

1. There are more than 1.7 billion websites on the internet right now.

(Internet Live Stats)

Before we take a look into the number of blogs in the wide ocean that is the internet, let’s try and get a grip on the total number of websites out there. This is especially important because it’s nearly impossible to know the exact number of blogs currently online, and estimates of blogging statistics are usually made in comparison to the total number of websites on the net.

Internet Live Stats is a website that tracks various internet-related statistics in real time. At the time of writing, the site’s data shows that there are currently more than 1.74 billion websites out there.

2. Around 77% of internet users read blogs.

(She Owns It)

One of the often-cited statistics on blogs is that 77% of all internet users read blogs. This bit of data seems to originate from 2014 and the page for the original research by Social Media Today is no longer online. Still, this statistic rings true. Most websites feature some form of blog writing and most of us consume this type of content in various places.

While this percentage has probably increased over the years, let’s compare it to the total number of internet users to get a clearer picture. According to data from Internet Live Stats, there are currently almost 4.5 billion internet users in the world. This translates into around 3.46 billion blog readers.

3.  Tumblr has 488 million blog accounts in 2020.

(Statista)

The most popular blog hosting website out there is Tumblr. This American blogging site has reached immense levels of popularity over the years. According to Tumblr blog statistics provided by Statista, this Yahoo-owned website had over 488 million blog accounts in January 2020. A year before, the number of blog accounts was at 456.1 million.

4. WordPress is used by 62.4% of all websites with known content management systems. This amounts to one-third of all websites.

(W3Techs)

Let’s take a look at how many sites use WordPress. While Tumblr might be the largest host of blogs in the world, WordPress is what makes most blogs run in the first place. This content management system (CMS) is based on PHP and MySQL. WordPress is basically a template that other sites and users rely on in order to post their blogs online.

According to W3Techs’s WordPress blog stats, WordPress is used by 62.4% of all websites for which the CMS is detectable. This amounts to 35.5% of all sites on the internet.

5. WordPress users create about 70 million new posts and 77 million new comments per month.

(WordPress)

We’ve seen that WordPress powers an enormous number of blogs around the world, so it’s no surprise that WordPress blogs produce a gigantic quantity of content monthly. Looking at blogging statistics provided by WordPress itself, it seems the platform’s users create 70 million posts and 77 million new comments each month.

6. Among the top million websites, WordPress has 49% of the CMS market.

(BuiltWith)

WordPress is without doubt the market leader in the CMS world. The representation of WordPress use among the most popular sites on the internet further proves this point. According to BuiltWith’s statistics about blogs, WordPress is present on 49% of the top million websites out there.

7. 661 new WordPress sites appear every day.

(WP Newsify)

New day - new WordPress blog site. Or rather, 661 of them. According to WP Newsify, a portal for WordPress-related news, 661 new WordPress sites sprout each day. With that much content out there, maybe it’s not surprising that most readers only skim through blogs.

8. Over 400,000 websites use Blogger.

(BuiltWith)

Blogspot (now known as Blogger) is also a widely-used blog hosting site. This Google-owned service allows blog hosting both on its own .blogspot domains and on the user’s own domains. According to stats on Blogger presented by BuiltWith, 1.026 million websites are Blogger customers and 400,523 live websites were using Blogger at the time of writing.

9. 60 million websites are hosted on WordPress.

(Expanded Ramblings)

How many WordPress blogs are there? Getting a grip on the exact number of WordPress-hosted websites isn’t easy. The most often-cited number is 60 million, but the original source of the information is unavailable. This information seems to be at least a year old, so it should be taken with a grain of salt, but it still serves as a reasonable estimate.

10. There are more than 550 million blogs on the internet.

(Hosting Tribunal)

Now let’s get to the point - how many blogs are there? We wish there were an easy answer to this question, but the numbers we found during our research were often extremely broad estimates or plainly unfounded by research. Still, in trying to make a decent assessment, we’ve found that the folks over at the Hosting Tribunal are on the right track.

The latest numbers we have on the cumulative number of Tumblr blogs say there are 488 million active blogs on that website. Estimates for the number of Wordpress-hosted blogs come in at around 60 million, while other CMS sites are believed to host around 2.5 million blogs. When we add up this data we reach 550.5 million blogs.

Furthermore, some blog stats show that a third of all websites on the internet are blogs. If we take that into account given that the total number of websites is 1.74 billion, we reach 580 million blogs. So, our most precise estimate would be that there are between 550 and 580 million blogs out there.

11. The number of bloggers in the US is expected to reach 31.7 million in 2020.

(Statista)

English is undoubtedly the global language and, as you’ll see in one of our upcoming stats, the majority of blogs are written in English. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the US is home to a large number of bloggers.

According to Statista’s statistics about blogging, there were 28.3 million internet users in the US who update their blog at least once per month in 2019. This number is expected to reach 31.7 million in 2020.

12. Among WordPress websites, more than 409 million people view over 20 billion pages each month.

(WordPress)

Not only do the content creators who use WordPress produce a huge amount of content, but they also have an enormous reader base. According to this statistic for blogs provided by WordPress, more than 409 million people view over 20 billion WordPress blog pages each month. Combined with the stat above, this goes far to show how prevalent WordPress blog pages are.

Blog usage statistics

13. Only 5% of bloggers can support themselves by blogging alone.

(Meera Kothand)

Can you get rich off blogging? Possibly, but don’t bet all your chips on it. There have been several surveys conducted on the topic of blogger income and answering the question: How much do bloggers make? But median estimate points out that only 5-8% of bloggers earn a full-time income through writing blogs.

Of course, this relates to US bloggers in particular, as what constitutes “full-time income” can vary geographically. However, it still stands that only a relatively small percentage of people behind the best blog websites can make a living off blogging alone. Furthermore, the highest-earning blogs out there, such as Huffington Post, started way back in 2005. It took these popular blogs took over a decade to build such a following, which you should keep in mind if you’re considering a career in this field.

14. 97% of bloggers use social media to promote their work.

(Statista)

In order to fight for their place under the blogging sun and to perhaps reach the ranks of those 5% who live from blogging alone, blog writers have to use various channels for self-promotion.

Drawing from blog statistics presented by Statista, we can see that an overwhelming 97% of bloggers use social media to promote their posts. Direct emails were used for promotion by 66% of those surveyed.

15. Websites that contain blogs get 434% more indexed pages.

(TechClient)

Having a blog on your website also goes a long way in terms of attracting traffic and SEO optimization. According to TechClient’s SEO blog statistics, websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages than those without. Page indexing refers to the process of adding your pages to Google Search. Indexing is done by Google’s crawlers, which index all WordPress pages by default.

16. Companies with blogs have 97% more inbound links.

(TechClient)

Drawing from the same body of research and blogging stats presented by TechClient, we can see that having a blog on your website also greatly increases your link-building potential. Available data indicates that companies with blogs have 97% more inbound links, which means other pages linking to your website.

17. B2B marketers using blogs generate 67% more leads.

(TechClient)

Here’s another bit of data that demonstrates the effectiveness of having a blog in B2B marketing. In any marketing, generating leads is key. Creating customer interest and newsletter and subscription lists is paramount to a successful marketing campaign. According to blog post marketing statistics by TechClient, B2B marketers with blogs generate 67% more leads than their blog-less brethren.

18. Businesses that post blogs daily generate five times more traffic than those that post less frequently.

(Social Media Examiner)

It’s not just about having a blog of appropriate length; how often you post also influences the traffic your site receives. According to Social Media Examiner’s blog traffic stats, businesses that post on a daily basis generate five times the traffic of those that post weekly or less.

19. Marketers who focus on blogging efforts are 13 times more likely to see a positive ROI.

(HubSpot)

Looking at the available data, it’s evident that blogging helps your company’s bottom line as well. This is to be expected since we’ve shown that using blogs in your marketing boosts a whole array of relevant metrics. According to HubSpot statistics, marketers who prioritize blogging are 13 times more likely to have a positive return on investment.

20. Top-earning bloggers are 4.3 times more likely to conduct keyword research than those who earn less.

(Growth Badger)

SEO is one of the most efficient ways to better rank your website and attract traffic, the lifeblood of any blog. As such, it’s no wonder many bloggers who earn over $50,000 a year focus on SEO. According to business blogging statistics presented by Growth Badger, these high-earning bloggers are 4.3 times more likely to conduct keyword research (one of the core strategies for SEO) than those earning less.

21. The average blog post length is 1,236 words, a 53% increase from 2013.

(Orbit Media)

As can be seen from several of our other statistics, longer blog posts are more effective in attracting readers. Content writers seem to recognize this trend, but the global average blog length is still below what experts say is the optimal number of words. According to Orbit Media, the average blog post is 1,236 words long in 2019. While this is below the optimal 1,600, it’s still a 54% increase in length compared to six years ago.

22. 67% of bloggers post more than once monthly.

(Orbit Media)

We’ve seen that bloggers are writing longer posts as time progresses, but do they post more frequently? Drawing from Orbit Media’s statistics on blogging, we can see that 67% of bloggers publish more than once per month. Of this 67%, 3% post daily and 1% post more than once per day.

Orbit Media also surveyed bloggers on the effects of posting more frequently. Those who post daily seem to get the best statistics for blogs, with 67% of them reporting “strong results.”

23. The optimal blog title length is between six and 13 words.

(HubSpot)

Titles are one of the most important aspects of any blog article. They attract (or discourage) potential readers and they set the tone for the whole text. Statistics provided by HubSpot show that blog posts with six to 13 words in their title perform best and get the most visits on average.

24. HuffPost is the most popular blog in the world.

(eBizMBA)

While it might not be easy, some blogs have managed to reach worldwide recognition and earn a more-than-decent amount of revenue. So let’s go through the top blogs in the world, according to eBizMBA’s rankings.

The most popular blog in the world is definitely the Huffington Post (now known as HuffPost). This news and opinion blog website launched back in 2005 and has steadily built its following over the years. According to data provided by eBizMBA, HuffPost has more than 110 million unique monthly visitors.

Following the HuffPost are the next top blogs websites: TMZ (30 million monthly visitors),  Business Insider (25.5 million), and Mashable (24 million).

25. The most popular blog genres are fashion, food, and travel.

(WPBeginner)

While there are no exact stats on which genres are the most popular, we can list some of the most prominent topics. It’s important to note, however, that the most popular individual blogs in (listed above) don’t actually fall into any of the following categories. They are mostly news and opinion blogs, some of which have taken more than a decade to build their following.

According to WPBeginner, the most popular blog topics in 2019 were fashion, food, and travel.

26. After it banned adult content, Tumblr’s traffic fell by almost 30%.

(The Verge)

Just over a year ago, a certain type of content was very prominent on the top blogging website Tumblr. We’re referring of course to NSFW (not-safe-for-work) adult content. The platform was famous for this, with many users frequenting these “risque” blogs. In December 2018, Tumblr announced it would be removing all pornographic content from the website, which caused a huge backlash among its user base, with many threatening to leave the site if these changes were made. And leave they did. Statistics show that between December 2018 and March 2019 period, Tumblr’s global traffic dropped from 521 million monthly visits to 370 million.

27. People are most likely to read blogs between 7 am and 10 am.

(First Site Guide)

We’ve covered how long blog posts should be, how often to post them, and how long the title should be. But at what time of the day should you post? Well, if First Site Guide’s statistics on blog reading are to be believed, the best time for engagement is between 7 am and 10 am. Armed with this knowledge, prospective bloggers might consider adjusting their posting times accordingly.

28. The average time it took to write a blog in 2018 was three hours and 28 minutes.

(Growth Badger)

With increases in the length of blog posts over the years has come, as you’d expect, an increase in the time needed to write one. According to Growth Badger’s statistics about blogging, the average time needed to write a blog post jumped from two hours and 24 minutes in 2014 to three hours and 28 minutes during 2018. Those bloggers who spend more than six hours writing a blog post are 56% more likely to report “strong results” than those who spend less time.

29. Once you pass the threshold of between 24 and 51 blog posts, the average number of monthly leads you generate increases by 40%.

(Traffic Generation)

Blogging statistics presented by Traffic Generation include estimates on how many posts it will take you, on average, before your blog traffic starts growing. According to this data, after you write anywhere between 24 and 51 posts, your number of monthly leads will jump by over 40%. This is also partly due to how long Google takes to index sites.

30. Blogs with images get 94% more views than those without.

(Quick Sprout)

With advances in technology, including internet connection, we’ve moved away from the text-only websites of yesteryear. No one wants to read a wall of text without some graphic relief or something to pique their interest. Business blogging statistics show that adding images to your blog is one of the keys to attracting more views. According to this data, using images in blog posts increases views by 94%

31. 75% of B2B marketers use blogs, compared to 61% of B2C ones.

(Social Media Examiner)

Blogging seems to get more traction in B2B than in B2C marketing. The blog marketing statistics presented in the 2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report shows that blogs are present in social media content among 75% of B2B marketers, compared to 61% of B2C ones.

32. The optimal blog length is 1,600 words.

(Medium)

When writing blogs, the actual content you produce isn’t the only important thing to watch out for. You could be writing about the most interesting topic in the world, but if your blog is 200 or 10,000 words long it will probably flop, considering how many blogs are there competing for your readers.

The researchers at Medium looked at what blog length attracts the most readers possible. According to their analysis, the ideal blog length is 1,600 words, which takes approximately seven minutes to read.

33. 81% of B2B websites use blogs.

(Content Marketing Institute)

Content Marketing Institute released a report in 2016 on current flows and trends in B2B marketing. According to these marketing blog statistics, 81% of B2B marketing websites use blogs as a marketing strategy. This proves that blogs are also an effective marketing tool in terms of engagement and promotion.

Blog readership statistics

34. 43% of readers only skim blog articles.

(HubSpot)

There are a bunch of statistics highlighting what lazy readers we all are. Most of us just look at the title, quickly skim through the article, and then maybe share it on our social profiles to look smart in front of our friends.

HubSpot stats on the developments of content marketing support the argument above. Around 43% of readers only skim blog posts, while 29% read them thoroughly. Indeed, blogs are one of the most skimmed types of content. Video seems to be category users pay the most attention to - 55% of users watch them in full, while 32% skim through them.

35. The average reader spends just 37 seconds reading a blog post.

(NewsCred)

NewsCred conducted research on how much time the average reader actually spends reading an article. And given what the results say about our habits, chances are the average reader won’t even see this statistic... NewsCred’s blog reading statistics show that readers spend only 37 seconds reading an article on average. If we consider the average reading speed, we can expect that the average reader will consume 148 words of your article.

36. Fewer than 60% of blog readers read more than half of a blog post.

(Slate)

So, you’ve written your 1,600-word article, got a great headline in, and posted it. People are sharing the article and you’re getting views. But is anyone actually reading the whole thing?

According to Slate’s statistics on blog reading, 38% of blog/site visitors bounce from the page upon entry - meaning they leave without engaging with the content at all. Of those who do engage with the blog, just under 60% of them actually end up reading more than half of the total post.

37. 62.96% of readers believe blogs with multiple authors are more credible.

(Social Market Writing)

In the world of blogging, piles of information, data, and statistics are thrown around - much of it unverified and unreliable. As you’d expect, people usually read the blogs they consider the most credible. Statistics on blogs show that 62.96% of users believe having multiple authors on a blog to be a sign of said credibility.

38. 47% of buyers read three to five pieces of content before making a purchase.

(Demand Gen Report)

Blogs are not only important for marketers trying to reach their target audiences; they also help users make informed shopping decisions. According to Demand Gen Report, 47% of buyers view three to five pieces of content - including blogs - before engaging with a sales representative.

39. 46.74% of US internet users read blogs on a computer.

(Statista)

While we’re witnessing an increase in the number of people reading blogs on mobile devices, ye olde PC still has some fight left in it. According to blogging statistics from 2018 presented by Statista, 46.74% of respondents aged 18-29 had read blog posts on their computer in the past four weeks.

40. In 2018, 38.79% of US respondents aged 18-29 years read blogs on a smartphone.

(Statista)

Most of us have read blogs and similarly lengthy content on desktop PCs or laptops. After all, it’s much easier to properly read long articles on computers than on mobile devices. However, readership statistics for blogs provided by Statista show that mobile seems to be gaining traction, especially among younger audiences.

In 2018, 38.79% of those aged 18 to 29 said they had read blogs on their smartphones in the previous four weeks. This might be connected to the fact that a large number of blog readers actually just skim through the articles, as we’ve already seen.

41. 71% of all WordPress blogs are in English.

(WordPress)

WordPress compiles blog language statistics for all the blogs out there that rely on its CMS. There are no real surprises here; English is, of course, the most often-used language, accounting for 71% of all blogs. Given how many people read blogs from all corners of the globe and how unifying English has become, this makes perfect sense. The next two most popular blog languages - Spanish (4.7%) and Indonesian (2.4%) - are way behind.

Conclusion

We can breathe easily - millenials have not killed blogs, yet. Indeed, blogging seems to be healthier than ever, with more than 550 million active blogs on the internet right now. The old guard of popular blog sites like the HuffPost and Mashable are still alive and kicking, with no signs of readership falling. The future of blogging seems bright, too - the availability and usability of templates like WordPress allow a broad spectrum of users to create content. Let’s just hope we’ll be spending more than 37 seconds reading each blog post in the future...