During the 2015 State of the Word address, Matt Mullenweg shared a few stats that demonstrate the growth of the global WordPress community. A total of 89 WordCamps with 21,000 attendees were held across 34 countries in 2015.
This week WordPress community organizer Andrea Middleton published a more thorough breakdown of 2015 stats. She noted that while WordCamps have been steadily growing over the past five years, the increase is due to more numerous, smaller events. This kind of growth seems more in line with the intended purpose of WordCamps. Although a few camps stand out as large international events, most are meant to be low-key gatherings that bring together local communities.
“We saw a huge jump in WordCamps held in Europe this year — from 17 in 2014 to 29 in 2015,” Middleton said. “And a whopping 18 WordPress communities organized their very first WordCamp last year.”
In 9 months, the Italian #WordPress community grew from 0 to 10 meetups and a WordCamp. Standing ovations. #WCTRN pic.twitter.com/mgXpFV22GS
— Petya Raykovska (@petyeah) April 2, 2016
With a 70% increase in European WordCamp events, it no surprise that WordCamp Europe 2016 had to expand its attendee capacity to 2200. The event will be the largest WordCamp to date.
In 2015, many of the largest WordCamps were held in the US but Europe and Japan also have events ranking in the top five. The ten largest WordCamps (based on number of tickets sold) in 2015 were as follows:
- WordCamp US
- WordCamp Tokyo
- WordCamp Europe
- WordCamp Kansai
- WordCamp NYC
- WordCamp London
- WordCamp Miami
- WordCamp Atlanta
- WordCamp Orlando
The overall number of tickets sold for WordCamps worldwide is also steadily rising, from 13,000 in 2011 to 21,000 in 2015.
As the global WordPress community continues to expand, the burden on WordCamp Central grows. Overseeing WordCamps and meetups is a full time job. In 2014, the WordPress Community Team established a deputies program to share the load and expanded the number of volunteers to 30 during 2015.
In the first quarter report for 2016, Middleton reported that the community team helped facilitate nine WordCamps with a total of nearly 4,500 tickets sold. WordCamp Central also signed Pantheon and GoDaddy as global sponsors.
There are already 24 WordCamps on the calendar for the April-June period and 14 more scheduled for the remaining quarters. Middleton also reported that 31 additional WordCamps have been approved are now in the pipeline at the pre-planning stage.
“With WordCamp applications coming in at an average rate of 13 per month, it’s very likely that we’ll see more than 100 WordCamps in 2016,” she said.