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EU DSA Userbase Statistics

From Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki


This page will be periodically updated with key userbase statistics required by the EU Digital Services Act ("EU DSA"). For data relating to content reports/takedowns, user data requests from authorities, etc., you should instead consult the Wikimedia Foundation's latest Transparency Report.

Average monthly active recipients of the service in the EU region

The following table provides a reasonable estimate of monthly "active", "unique" human users of our main project families, across the European Union ("EU"), averaged over a 6-month period. This is for EU DSA Article 24(2) purposes.

It is based on our existing data collected about visits to our sites: unique device counts (see also: WikiStats). No new data is collected from visitors in order to produce this table. It is based on reasonable estimations that the "average" EU visitor to our projects will use more than one machine that we detect as a Unique Device. This conversion factor may evolve according to changing internet usage patterns and survey methodologies. The table includes the conversion factor used in a given period, together with notes and/or citations.

For important information about our Unique Device counting methodology - including how we attempt to discount bots - see here, here and here. Significant, observed anomalies are logged here.

The table does not include minisites that serve a primarily technical or organizational role (with limited audiences), rather than general audiences. Examples of these include chapter and usergroup pages, API Portal, Meta-Wiki, Wikiversity Beta, sites dedicated to Wikimania events, Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki, Wikimedia Incubator, Wikitech, MediaWiki, and Phabricator. For the full range of sites for which data like this could be obtained upon request, see the "Wiki" dropdown on desktop-site|monthly this page.

Average monthly active recipients of the service, in the EU region over prior 6 months (est.)
Aug. 2022 - Jan. 2023 Feb. 2023 - July 2023 Aug. 2023 - Jan. 2024
Wikibooks 6,919,000 1,611,000 1,615,000
Wikidata 1,056,000 1,051,000 1,428,000
Wikimedia Commons 2,845,000 3,272,000 2,996,000
Wikinews 6,283,000 1,035,000 1,084,000
Wikipedia 151,556,000 151,088,000 154,461,000
Wikiquote 6,811,000 1,548,000 1,617,000
Wikisource 7,106,000 1,845,000 1,920,000
Wikispecies 29,000 37,000 29,000
Wikiversity 6,360,000 1,082,000 1,134,000
Wikivoyage 616,000 632,000 728,000
Wiktionary 8,955,000 8,425,000 8,744,000
Est. devices per person 2.4[1] 2.4[1] 2.4[1]

Further general remarks:

  1. These estimates have been rounded to the nearest '000 (e.g. '1499' rounds to '1000'. '1500' rounds up to '2000').
  2. Device geolocation is generally inaccurate. For example, some users living in non-EU countries may be using VPNs to the EU, in order to avoid local surveillance and/or censorship. The converse may also be true.
  3. The "Est. devices per person" factor for the 2022-2024 period is conservative. It uses the Global "devices per person" value provided by its source[1] for 2018; it does not use the (larger) devices-per-person estimates provided for 2023 (global: 3.6), nor estimates given for Europe specifically (2018: range 2.5 - 5.6; 2023 (est.): range 4.0 - 9.5). This is due to uncertainty regarding the impact of Internet-connected devices that cannot be used with our projects (e.g. some IoT devices), or device sharing (e.g. within households or libraries). The Wikimedia Foundation reserves the right to update its methodology at any time, including to adopt less conservative approaches to conversion factor selection.
  4. For convenience, data on this page is not currently broken out by language. However, exactly what qualifies as a "service" or "platform" for EU DSA purposes is unclear. The current presentation of this data - grouping languages together for immediate convenience - is strictly without prejudice regarding such questions.
  5. We have observed a trend with the data where we see increases during certain months of the year, in Unique Devices for smaller project families such as Wikisource, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikiversity and Wikinews. We are investigating whether these traffic spikes may have been due to a historic software bug.

Average monthly active recipients of Wikipedia, per EU Member State

The following table provides a reasonable estimate of monthly "active", "unique" human users of Wikipedia, per EU Member State, averaged over a 6-month period. This is for EU DSA Article 42(3) purposes. The methodology is substantially the same as described in the preceding section, and this data is subject to the same notes (where applicable).

Average monthly active recipients of the Wikipedia service, in each EU Member State, over prior 6 months (est.)
July 2023 - Dec 2023 Jan 2024 - Jun 2024
Austria 3,362,000 3,548,000
Belgium 4,526,000 5,676,000
Bulgaria 1,787,000 3,224,000
Croatia 1,230,000 1,226,000
Cyprus 345,000 344,000
Czech Republic 3,403,000 3,588,000
Denmark 1,941,000 1,912,000
Estonia 562,000 571,000
Finland 2,876,000 2,863,000
France 26,602,000 26,518,000
Germany 34,798,000 36,723,000
Greece 2,995,000 3,100,000
Hungary 2,873,000 3,064,000
Ireland 2,274,000 1,905,000
Italy 18,286,000 19,793,000
Latvia 528,000 587,000
Lithuania 851,000 1,101,000
Luxembourg 322,000 315,000
Malta 144,000 155,000
Netherlands 8,252,000 8,993,000
Poland 9,128,000 9,480,000
Portugal 2,458,000 2,627,000
Romania 2,813,000 3,007,000
Slovakia 1,158,000 1,258,000
Slovenia 673,000 718,000
Spain 11,917,000 12,864,000
Sweden 4,279,000 4,358,000
Est. devices per person 2.4[1] 2.4[1]


References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018–2023) White Paper. 9 March 2020