There is plenty to discuss regarding PHP one of the most popular and significant server-side scripting and programming languages, but let’s start at the beginning.
Over the past thirty years, PHP has had tremendous growth in popularity since its initial official release in 1995. Nevertheless, its inception dates back to 1993, when its creator, Canadian-Danish programmer Rasmus Ledorf, began developing it. In 1994, a year after its invention, Rasmus had PHP running in alpha on his website to monitor who saw his resume.
Since then, PHP has received steady updates; as of this writing, it is at version 8.2.7, and it has developed a cult following. Because programmers adore PHP’s backend and scripting features, it should be given even more credit than it does.
Fun PHP Statistics and Facts
- PHP is used by 77.5% of websites whose server-side programming languages we are aware of.
- PHP is used by millions of websites, of which 34 million are active at the moment and 54 million were previously.
- The most often used version of PHP is 7.4, which is used by 31.8% of all PHP websites.
- Because WordPress employs PHP, 45% of all websites on the internet are powered by this computer language.
- The market share of PHP is 21.5%.
- Nginx and Apache power 65% of all PHP websites—34.3% and 31.7%, respectively.
- It is the world’s most important general-purpose programming language.
- PHP developers typically earn $95,000 annually.
- Similar to this, PHP developer positions at Google pay close to $200,000 annually.
General Statistics for PHP
After reading about the most fascinating PHP statistics, you can continue reading to discover ten more fascinating facts. We’ve compiled a list of the top 20 PHP statistics that demonstrate the scope and impact of this programming language.
- PHP is used by 77.5% of websites that employ server-side languages that are known.
Approximately 4/5 of all websites with backend programming languages that are known to exist utilize PHP, making it one of the most popular programming languages in the world. - PHP is used by 33.7 million websites as of right now.That 77.5% translates to around 34 million active PHP-powered websites. Furthermore, the PHP programming language has been utilized on almost 54 million websites in the past.
That 77.5% translates to around 34 million active PHP-powered websites. Furthermore, the PHP programming language has been utilized on almost 54 million websites in the past.
- Well-known businesses with popular websites make use of PHP.
A few websites that make use of PHP’s capabilities are Facebook, Microsoft, Mozilla, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vimeo, Wikipedia, and WordPress.
- PHP version 7 is used by 50.7% of PHP websites.
Despite being launched in 2015, PHP 7.0 is still the most widely-used version of the language, powering more than half of all PHP websites.
- PHP 7 is used by around 5.3 million websites.
Nearly 5.3 million (5,269,256) PHP websites are still running PHP version 7, despite the language’s discontinuation in 2018.
- Of PHP websites, 31.8% are using version 7.4.
PHP version 7.4 powers nearly 32% of all PHP websites, including jquery.com, psychologytoday.com, and cambridge.org.
- Of PHP sites, just 5.4% use version 8.0.
PHP version 8.0, the most recent major version, is substantially less widely used than version 7.4—only about 5.5% of all PHP websites use it.
- About 45% of all websites on the internet are run by it.
PHP is used by WordPress, one of the most popular content management systems (CMS), accounting for 43% of all websites. Additionally, the numbers increased by 3% due to two more well-known CMS websites, 1.8% and 1.2% from Joomla and Drupal, respectively.
- 21.5% of PHP is used as a framework.
PHP’s framework is in second place, at roughly 21.5%, only to Organization Schema when looking at the top one million websites.
- Linux is used by 38.3% of PHP websites.
Linux is the operating system that powers PHP websites; around 25% of all PHP websites run on Linux, with Ubuntu being the most widely used version.
- More than 65% of all PHP servers are divided into two categories.
Nginx is the web server of choice for about 34% of all PHP websites; Apache is used by roughly 31.5% of PHP websites.
- PHP is #1 in terms of usage.
PHP is the programming language with the most users overall, accounting for over four-fifths of website usage; Java and ASAP.NET come in second and third.
- PHP is preferred by only about 26% of developers.
Even though PHP is a widely used programming language, just 25% of developers say they prefer to use it over other languages.
- According to GitHub, PHP is only involved in 5.3% of pulls.
PHP applications make up just 5.3% of pull requests on GitHub in the first quarter of 2023, despite being the most popular programming language.
- The average salary for PHP engineers is $95,000.
In the United States, the mean yearly income for a PHP developer is little less than $100,000, with young developers earning roughly $85k and seniors earning roughly $110k.
- The hourly rate for a PHP developer is approximately $45.
Depending on their level of experience, a PHP programmer can earn anywhere from $30 to $70.
- Google pays its PHP developers over $200k.
The highest-paying PHP developer jobs in the USA are at Google, where the highest-earning positions are at over $200,000 annually. QuinStreet and Chegg follow.
- Approximately 55% of PHP websites are in English.
English makes up the majority of PHP websites, with Spanish and Russian coming in second and third at approximately 5% each.
- PHP has a market share of 21.5%.
PHP has a huge advantage over other programming languages when it comes to the top one million websites.
- There are about 1.8 million PHP websites in the US.
The USA is home to the majority of PHP website servers, with Germany coming in second with 1.73 million, followed by Russia at 1.4 million, the UK at one million, the Netherlands at 930,000, and France at 865,000.
In summary
Being one of the most influential and extensively used server-side programming languages in the world, PHP has shattered numerous use records. For this reason, we’ve put together a list of the top 20 PHP statistics that demonstrate the scope and volume of applications and users it can support.
