March 31, 2016

Total number of Websites

1,008,673,003

http://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/

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Total number of Websites

1,008,673,317

Websites online right now

After reaching 1 billion websites in September of 2014, a milestone confirmed by NetCraft in its October 2014 Web Server Survey and thatInternet Live Stats was the first to announce (see the tweet from the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee) the number of websites in the world has subsequently declined, reverting back to a level below 1 billion. This is due to the monthly fluctuations in the count of inactive websites. We do expect, however, to exceed 1 billion websites again sometime in 2016/2017, and to stabilize the count above this historic milestone in 2017/2018. From 1 website in 1991 to 1 billion in 2014, the chart and table below show the total number of websites by year throughout history:

Year	Websites
2000	17087182
2001	29254370
2002	38760373
2003	40912332
2004	51611646
2005	64780617
2006	85507314
2007	121892559
2008	172338726
2009	238027855
2010	206956723
2011	346004403
2012	697089489
2013	672985183
2014	968882453
2015	863105652

By "Website" we mean unique hostname (a name which can be resolved, using a name server, into an IP Address).
It must be noted that around 75% of websites today are not active, but parked domains or similar. [1]

Year (June)	Websites	Change	Internet Users	Users per Website	Websites launched
2015	863,105,652	-11%	3,185,996,155*	3.7
2014	968,882,453	44%	2,925,249,355	3.0
2013	672,985,183	-3%	2,756,198,420	4.1
2012	697,089,489	101%	2,518,453,530	3.6
2011	346,004,403	67%	2,282,955,130	6.6
2010	206,956,723	-13%	2,045,865,660	9.9	Pinterest
2009	238,027,855	38%	1,766,206,240	7.4
2008	172,338,726	41%	1,571,601,630	9.1	Dropbox
2007	121,892,559	43%	1,373,327,790	11.3	Tumblr
2006	85,507,314	32%	1,160,335,280	13.6	Twttr
2005	64,780,617	26%	1,027,580,990	16	YouTube, Reddit
2004	51,611,646	26%	910,060,180	18	Thefacebook, Flickr
2003	40,912,332	6%	778,555,680	19	WordPress,LinkedIn
2002	38,760,373	32%	662,663,600	17
2001	29,254,370	71%	500,609,240	17	Wikipedia
2000	17,087,182	438%	413,425,190	24	Baidu
1999	3,177,453	32%	280,866,670	88	PayPal
1998	2,410,067	116%	188,023,930	78	Google
1997	1,117,255	334%	120,758,310	108	Yandex
1996	257,601	996%	77,433,860	301
1995	23,500	758%	44,838,900	1,908	Altavista, Amazon,AuctionWeb
1994	2,738	2006%	25,454,590	9,297	Yahoo
1993	130	1200%	14,161,570	108,935
1992	10	900%
Aug. 1991	1				World Wide Web Project
Source: NetCraft and Internet Live Stats (elaboration of data by Matthew Gray of MIT and Hobbes' Internet Timeline and Pingdom)

Periodic drops in the total count can depend on various factors, including an improvement in NetCraft's handling of wildcard hostnames. For example, in August 2012, over 40 million hostnames on only 242 IP addresses were removed from the Survey.

Curious facts

The first-ever website (info.cern.ch) was published on August 6, 1991 by British physicist Tim Berners-Lee while at CERN, in Switzerland. [2] On April 30, 1993 CERN made World Wide Web ("W3" for short) technology available on a royalty-free basis to the public domain, allowing the Web to flourish.[3]
The World Wide Web was invented in March of 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee (see the original proposal). He also introduced the first web server, the first browser and editor (the “WorldWideWeb.app”), the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and, in October 1990, the first version of the "HyperText Markup Language" (HTML).[4]
In 2013 alone, the web has grown by more than one third: from about 630 million websites at the start of the year to over 850 million by December 2013 (of which 180 million were active).
Over 50% of websites today are hosted on either Apache or nginx, both open source web servers.[5] As of June 2014, Microsoft has got very close to Apache in terms of market share (only a 0.15% difference separates the two). If the trend continues, Microsoft could soon become the leading web server developer for the first time in history.

Popular Websites (launch year & how they looked)

Pinterest (2010)

Dropbox (2008)

Tumblr (2007)

Twttr (2006)

YouTube (2005)

Reddit (2005)

Thefacebook (2004)

Flickr (2004)

Linkedin (2003)

PayPal (1999)

Google (1998)

Yandex (1997)

AuctionWeb (Ebay, 1995)

Amazon (1995)

Altavista (1995)

Yahoo (1994)

WWW Project (1991)

Sources

The current estimated total number of Websites is delivered byWorldometers' algorithm, which processes data elaborated through statistical analysis after being collected from the following sources:

NetCraft Web Server Survey - [and its data compiled by Pingdom]. Netcraft Ltd.
"Measuring the Growth of the Web." Matthew Gray, MIT.
Robert H Zakon. "Hobbes' Internet Timeline - the definitive ARPAnet & Internet history." Zakon.org.
"How we got from 1 to 162 million websites on the internet." Pingdom Tech blog. April 4, 2008.

References

"How many active sites are there?" Netcraft Ltd
Noyes, Dan "First URL active once more." CERN. April 29, 2013.
CERN. "Twenty years of a free, open web." CERN. April 30, 2013.
Berners-Lee, Tim, with Fischetti, Mark. "Weaving the Web" Harper. San Francisco, 1999.
Web Server Survey. Netcraft Ltd

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