More facts about Wikipedia
Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown immensely and continues to grow.
- English-language Wikipedia currently has over 5 million articles and the total increases by around 800 every day.
- Swedish-language Wikipedia has just topped 3 million articles.
- Wikipedia’s 292 different language versions together have c. 18 billion page views and 500 million unique visitors every month.
Comparisons have shown that the proportion of errors in Wikipedia is approximately the same as in, for example, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Surveys of public confidence show that Wikipedia usually has a high approval rating. Wikipedia can be updated continuously and is also a rapid channel for spreading information in low-income countries where mobile phone usage in increasing. In many low-income countries, surfing on Wikipedia is free since there are agreements between the internet providers and Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is run by the Wikimedia Foundation and supported by private donations. The Wikimedia Foundation is based in San Francisco, California. It is a non-profit organisation and its mission is to develop projects with open content accessible to the general public.