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What we know about Wikipedia usage in France

Published on 10 July 2017
Update on 26 September 2022
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Summary

The Wikipedia encyclopedia was created in 2001. The French Wikipedia was founded on March 23, 2001. With a very active French community, but also Swiss, Belgian, Canadian or African, Wikipedia.fr has nearly 10 000 new articles per month. The million articles in French was reached on September 23, 2010. In June 2017, the French edition has a total of 1.8 million articles. It is the 6th largest language edition in terms of number of articles.

The French edition records 700 million views per month, or 23.3 million per day, of which 16 million are from France (68.5%).

Wikipedia in French: the 4th most visited site in France

According to Médiamétrie, in March 2017, Wikipedia was among the most visited sites (via mobile and via desktop) with nearly 26 million unique visitors.

In two separate publications, Médiamétrie counted 16.7 million unique visitors (1.7 million per day) for access via a computer and 15.6 million unique visitors for access via a mobile.

The French consult and contribute to other editions than just the French edition

78% of the visits to Wikipedia from France are to the French language edition, 15% to the English language edition and 6.8% to the other language editions.

The French are at the origin of 68.5% of the pages visited on the French edition, they also consult the other editions: 1.2% of the pages consulted on the English edition 0.5% for the German edition, 0.6% on the Portuguese edition and 0.8% for the Arabic edition come from Wikipedians based in France.

Beyond the number of new articles (around 300 per month), the 681,927 writing operations ("edits") carried out in a month is another indicator of the dynamism of the French-speaking Wikipedian community.

The French are at the origin of 82% of the writing operations ("edits") on the French edition while contributing to the other editions. Symmetrically, the French version of the encyclopedia benefits from contributions from Wikipedians based in other countries.

According to Weeklypedia, in a single week at the end of May/beginning of June, 15,815 contributors made 122,827 changes to 54,686 different articles on the French edition. Only 34% of them had an account.

1.9 million registered users for the French edition

The Wikipedia community distinguishes two statuses for users depending on whether they have opened an account and are registered or not. All have the same possibilities to contribute to articles. Unregistered users (anonymous or user under IP) can edit and create pages, participate in discussions. Registered users have their own tools (watch list, user page, discussion page) and can take part in votes (sometimes with additional conditions such as, for example, a minimum number of contributions on articles).

As of June 2017, the French-language encyclopedia Wikipedia had, more than 2.8 million registered users, including about 1.9 million based in France.

The number of contributors is around 16,000 each month, including nearly 5,000 active contributors: a contributor is classified as " active " if he or she makes at least five changes per month.

Since its creation, nearly 700,000 people have contributed at least once to the French edition.

51% of French Internet users used the Internet to consult Wikipedia during the last 3 months in 2013

These data come from the survey carried out every year by INSEE among 39,000 households.

The wording of the question was as follows in the questionnaire developed by INSEE: " During the last three months, have you used the Internet, for private purposes, to consult wikipedia or any other online collaborative encyclopedia to increase your knowledge on a subject (regardless of the place of use)?

Références :

From 2011 to 2013, the proportion of French people using the internet to consult Wikipedia(or any other online collaborative encyclopedia) increased from 39% to 51%.

The propensity to turn to Wikipedia is higher the younger and more educated the Internet users are. It is 82% among 16-24 year olds, 54% among 25-54 year olds and drops to 31% among 55-74 year olds.

It is clearly indexed to the level of education and goes from 31% for people with a low level of education to 77% for the most educated.

This propensity is slightly higher among men (53%) than among women (49%).

The proportion of Internet users who turn to Wikipedia in France (51%) is higher than the average in the European Union (44%).

A trusted source of health information

More than four out of five Internet users consulted websites dedicated to health in 2013, according to the sixth edition of the " Barometer of the digital economy " conducted by Dauphine University. According to Médiamétrie, a partner of this Barometer, 53% of Internet users surveyed considered Wikipedia pages "fairly reliable". 32% of them said they had consulted the pages of the "Medicine" portal of Wikipedia.

According to a survey conducted in 2016 among 548 middle school students in priority education networks (REP), Wikipedia is the second most consulted site (excluding social networks). 42% use Wikipedia. This is less than video sharing sites (92%), but more than music sites like Deezer Spotify (31%) or Google Earth (30%).

Contributors: more educated and younger

The last large-scale survey on French Wikipedia users dates back to 2015. We owe it to the M@rsouin observatory. The researchers of M@rsouin had, with the agreement of Wikimedia France, submitted a questionnaire to Wikipedia users (announced on en.wikipedia.org via a banner). 16,800 people answered the questionnaire. 52% of the respondents had a monthly use of the site: two-thirds were simple readers and a little more than 10% were regular contributors.

The profile of the contributors, on the other hand, showed two distinctive features. 87% of regular contributors and 83% of large contributors were men. Furthermore, 52% of regular contributors and 64% of large contributors had a four-year university degree (whereas they accounted for only 32% of the respondents). The results of this survey overlap with those of a survey conducted in the United States in 2010 by the Pew Research Center.

Sources

What we know about Wikipedia usage in France

The Wikipedia encyclopedia was created in 2001. The French Wikipedia was founded on March 23, 2001. With a very active French community, but also Swiss, Belgian, Canadian or African, Wikipedia.fr has nearly 10 000 new articles per month. The million articles in French was reached on September 23, 2010. In June 2017, the French edition has a total of 1.8 million articles. It is the 6th largest language edition in terms of number of articles.

The French edition records 700 million views per month, or 23.3 million per day, of which 16 million are from France (68.5%).

Wikipedia in French: the 4th most visited site in France

According to Médiamétrie, in March 2017, Wikipedia was among the most visited sites (via mobile and via desktop) with nearly 26 million unique visitors.

In two separate publications, Médiamétrie counted 16.7 million unique visitors (1.7 million per day) for access via a computer and 15.6 million unique visitors for access via a mobile.

The French consult and contribute to other editions than just the French edition

78% of the visits to Wikipedia from France are to the French language edition, 15% to the English language edition and 6.8% to the other language editions.

The French are at the origin of 68.5% of the pages visited on the French edition, they also consult the other editions: 1.2% of the pages consulted on the English edition 0.5% for the German edition, 0.6% on the Portuguese edition and 0.8% for the Arabic edition come from Wikipedians based in France.

Beyond the number of new articles (around 300 per month), the 681,927 writing operations ("edits") carried out in a month is another indicator of the dynamism of the French-speaking Wikipedian community.

The French are at the origin of 82% of the writing operations ("edits") on the French edition while contributing to the other editions. Symmetrically, the French version of the encyclopedia benefits from contributions from Wikipedians based in other countries.

According to Weeklypedia, in a single week at the end of May/beginning of June, 15,815 contributors made 122,827 changes to 54,686 different articles on the French edition. Only 34% of them had an account.

1.9 million registered users for the French edition

The Wikipedia community distinguishes two statuses for users depending on whether they have opened an account and are registered or not. All have the same possibilities to contribute to articles. Unregistered users (anonymous or user under IP) can edit and create pages, participate in discussions. Registered users have their own tools (watch list, user page, discussion page) and can take part in votes (sometimes with additional conditions such as, for example, a minimum number of contributions on articles).

As of June 2017, the French-language encyclopedia Wikipedia had, more than 2.8 million registered users, including about 1.9 million based in France.

The number of contributors is around 16,000 each month, including nearly 5,000 active contributors: a contributor is classified as " active " if he or she makes at least five changes per month.

Since its creation, nearly 700,000 people have contributed at least once to the French edition.

51% of French Internet users used the Internet to consult Wikipedia during the last 3 months in 2013

These data come from the survey carried out every year by INSEE among 39,000 households.

The wording of the question was as follows in the questionnaire developed by INSEE: " During the last three months, have you used the Internet, for private purposes, to consult wikipedia or any other online collaborative encyclopedia to increase your knowledge on a subject (regardless of the place of use)?

Références :

From 2011 to 2013, the proportion of French people using the internet to consult Wikipedia(or any other online collaborative encyclopedia) increased from 39% to 51%.

The propensity to turn to Wikipedia is higher the younger and more educated the Internet users are. It is 82% among 16-24 year olds, 54% among 25-54 year olds and drops to 31% among 55-74 year olds.

It is clearly indexed to the level of education and goes from 31% for people with a low level of education to 77% for the most educated.

This propensity is slightly higher among men (53%) than among women (49%).

The proportion of Internet users who turn to Wikipedia in France (51%) is higher than the average in the European Union (44%).

A trusted source of health information

More than four out of five Internet users consulted websites dedicated to health in 2013, according to the sixth edition of the " Barometer of the digital economy " conducted by Dauphine University. According to Médiamétrie, a partner of this Barometer, 53% of Internet users surveyed considered Wikipedia pages "fairly reliable". 32% of them said they had consulted the pages of the "Medicine" portal of Wikipedia.

According to a survey conducted in 2016 among 548 middle school students in priority education networks (REP), Wikipedia is the second most consulted site (excluding social networks). 42% use Wikipedia. This is less than video sharing sites (92%), but more than music sites like Deezer Spotify (31%) or Google Earth (30%).

Contributors: more educated and younger

The last large-scale survey on French Wikipedia users dates back to 2015. We owe it to the M@rsouin observatory. The researchers of M@rsouin had, with the agreement of Wikimedia France, submitted a questionnaire to Wikipedia users (announced on en.wikipedia.org via a banner). 16,800 people answered the questionnaire. 52% of the respondents had a monthly use of the site: two-thirds were simple readers and a little more than 10% were regular contributors.

The profile of the contributors, on the other hand, showed two distinctive features. 87% of regular contributors and 83% of large contributors were men. Furthermore, 52% of regular contributors and 64% of large contributors had a four-year university degree (whereas they accounted for only 32% of the respondents). The results of this survey overlap with those of a survey conducted in the United States in 2010 by the Pew Research Center.

Sources

Labo Société Numérique

Labo République Française Agence nationale de cohésion des territoires
What we know about Wikipedia usage in France