Research:Knowledge Gaps Index/Measurement/Readers Survey 2025
This project aims to understand the demographics and motivations of Wikipedia Readers across language editions. It is part of the Knowledge Gaps Index focus on Readers of Wikipedias, and continues the work of the 2019, 2023, and 2024 Readers surveys.
Progress on this project can be followed at T410695.
Key Takeaways
[edit]This section offers a high-level summary of 2025 Global Reader Survey findings. For the full results please check the Results section.
Survey Administration
[edit]The survey reached a simple random sample of desktop and mobile web readers of 11 Wikipedia projects (arwiki, dewiki, enwiki, eswiki, frwiki, idwiki, jawiki, kowiki, ptwiki, ruwiki, zhwiki). Surveys were translated to all 11 languages (with both simplified and traditional Chinese editions) and were fielded from November 24—December 11, 2025. A total of 12,993 complete survey responses were collected.
Demographics
[edit]Age
[edit]- Consistent with previous findings from 2023 and 2024, Wikipedia readers skew young overall, although this can vary substantially by project. German Wikipedia readers in particular tend to skew older. Declines in young readership measured in 2024 across several projects (dewiki, frwiki, eswiki) have not continued in 2025, but have not reversed.
Gender
[edit]- Wikipedia readers across all projects identify disproportionately as solely men. By project, readership of enwiki, frwiki, and kowiki are closest to gender parity, but readership on all surveyed projects is over 60% composed of those identifying exclusively as men.
Education
[edit]- Wikipedia readers are highly-educated. Readership skews heavily towards the university-educated (or those currently enrolled in Bachelor's or postgraduate degree programs).
Language
[edit]- Wikipedia readers are highly multilingual: about 37% of readers claim fluency in two or more languages. However, readers of any given Wikipedia are overwhelmingly reading in a primary language. Readers of enwiki are most likely to be non-native language speakers. At the same time, English-language fluency is common among readers of projects other than enwiki, ranging from 21% on arwiki to 56% on frwiki.
Reader Motivations and Information Needs
[edit]- When readers are asked why they are reading the Wikipedia article they were sampled from, they are most likely to say its topic is personally important to them, followed by reading out of boredom or exploration for fun. Readers were also likely to say the article topic was referenced in a piece of media they consumed. Readers were comparatively less likely to say they were reading Wikipedia for a work or school-related assignment or to inform a personal decision.
- Wikipedia readers are more likely to say they are are reading to "get an overview of the topic" rather than to "look up a specific fact or to get a quick answer" or to "get an in-depth understanding of the topic". However, each use case is relatively common.
- Wikipedia readers are more likely to say they are already familiar with the topic of the article they are reading than that they're learning about it for the first time.
- Over 80% of Wikipedia readers said they were able to find the information they were looking for on Wikipedia. However, readers of kowiki and especially arwiki, were less likely to say they were successful in finding the information they sought.
Accessing Knowledge Online
[edit]Other platforms for learning and accessing knowledge online
[edit]When Wikipedia readers are asked where else they go online to learn or access knowledge:
- Readers are overwhelmingly most likely to visit YouTube and Google (or another search engine)
- Reddit and ChatGPT are the next most-cited online destinations for learning and knowledge, particularly for readers aged 18-24.
- Even youth readers are substantially less likely to cite social media, whether text- (X/Twitter), image- (Instagram), or video-based (TikTok) as destinations for learning and knowledge.
- While "local" apps and platforms have varying levels of popularity for learning and knowledge across the surveyed Wikipedias, YouTube and Google are always much more likely to be named by readers, regardless of Wikipedia language edition.
Platform favorability ratings
[edit]When Wikipedia readers are asked to give favorability ratings (on a scale of 0 to 10) for platforms they say they use to learn and access knowledge:
- Overall, Wikipedia is rated more favorably than any other platform.
- Wikipedia is the most-favorably rated platform for every age group of readers.
- There is substantial variation in favorability ratings by project, however.
Wikipedia Use Frequency
[edit]When asked about their use of Wikipedia:
- Almost two-thirds of readers say how much they use Wikipedia hasn't changed much in the past year.
- But readers are much more likely to say they've increased rather than decreased their use of Wikipedia over the past year.
- More than three-in-four respondents say they visit Wikipedia at least "a few times a week", while more than one-third say they visit at least daily.
Wikipedia Experience and Knowledge
[edit]When we asked readers about their experience with editing and donating to Wikipedia:
- A supermajority (about 70%) of readers say they have never made a Wikipedia edit.
- Just 8% say they have edited more than "one or two times".
- About two-in-five of dewiki, enwiki, eswiki, frwiki, jawiki, kowiki, and ptwiki readers say they have donated at least once to Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation.
We measured readers' factual knowledge about Wikipedia with a ten-item true/false battery.
- A substantial minority (29%) of readers were highly knowledgeable, answering correctly on nine or more of the questions.
- Conversely, a similar proportion (32%) of readers did no better than chance (5 or fewer correct).
Data Collection
[edit]Like the 2023 and 2024 Global Readers Surveys, this project employed simple random sampling of Wikipedia readers using the QuickSurveys extension. The QuickSurveys opt-in was displayed to non-logged-in readers and asked whether they would consent to "Take a short survey and help us improve Wikipedia".
Readers who consented to the survey were then linked out to a survey hosted on LimeSurvey, an open-source survey platform.
Timeline
[edit]- 25 November 2025 - December 2025: Data collection
- January & February 2026: Data cleaning and analysis
- January 2026: Internal shareout of initial results
- May 2026: Report Published
Policy, Ethics and Human Subjects Research
[edit]This survey is governed by the Global Readers Survey privacy statement.
Survey Administration
[edit]Surveys were fielded across 11 projects from November 24, 2024—December 12, 2025. A total of 12,993 (weighted) complete survey responses were collected.
| Project | Fielding Dates (Month/Day) | QuickSurvey Sampling Ratio | Total LimeSurvey Initiations | Total Completes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| arwiki (Arabic) | 12/3—12/11 | 12% | 6288 | 790 |
| dewiki (German) | 12/3—12/8 | 3% | 3610 | 1699 |
| enwiki (English) | 11/24—11/27 | 2% | 6995 | 2089 |
| eswiki (Spanish) | 12/3—12/8 | 6% | 5568 | 1450 |
| frwiki (French) | 12/3—12/8 | 10% | 7570 | 2209 |
| idwiki (Indonesian) | 12/3—12/11 | 30% | 6001 | 464 |
| jawiki (Japanese | 12/3—12/8 | 5% | 3057 | 856 |
| kowiki (Korean) | 12/3—12/11 | 33% | 2221 | 266 |
| ptwiki (Portuguese) | 12/3—12/11 | 15% | 8453 | 1107 |
| ruwiki (Russian) | 12/3—12/11 | 2% | 4700 | 1154 |
| zhwiki (Simplified and Traditional Chinese) | 12/3—12/11 | 8% | 4270 | 909 |
Survey Attrition
[edit]Out of a total 58,733 unique (deduplicated) users with unique QuickSurvey tokens who initiated the survey on Limesurvey (navigated to the survey landing page), 12,993 (22%) viewed every substantive question (completed the survey), a 5 percentage point decline from the 2024 survey. The vast majority of survey attrition occurred early in the survey, as an outright majority of unique Limesurvey initiations ended without anyone opening the survey (57%). In contrast, of 16,687 respondents who saw any substantive question, 78% went on to complete the survey.
Survey Results
[edit]Screeners and Preliminaries
[edit]Age Screener
[edit]Only readers aged 18 years and older were considered eligible for the survey. As a result, all readers who opted into the survey were first shown an age-based screener question. Those who indicated they were under 18 had their survey sessions terminated. Overall, 10.4±1.0% of respondents indicated they were under 18, an identical proportion to that measured in 2024 (10.4±0.4%).
G0Q01. Are you at least 18 years of age? ○ Yes ○ No Unfortunately, legal protections for people under 18 mean we cannot survey you. Thank you for your interest!
zhwiki Language Type
[edit]Readers sampled from zhwiki were asked to choose their preferred form of written Chinese for the survey. While we cannot directly estimate the proportion of zhwiki readers within China, due to the well-known ban on Wikipedia in the People's Republic of China, the proportion of respondents choosing to take the survey in simplified Chinese (predominantly used in the People's Republic of China) can provide a very rough estimate (although simplified Chinese is also used in Malaysia and Singapore). The proportion of zhwiki readers choosing to take the survey in Simplified Chinese (45.9±2.8%) in 2025 is statistically indistinguishable from that measured in 2024 (42.6±1.8%).
G0QLANG. Please choose whether you would like to take this survey in Simplified or Traditional Chinese. 请选择您想用简体中文还是繁体中文参加此调查。 請選擇您想用簡體中文還是繁體中文參加此調查。
Demographics
[edit]We measure demographics in each wave of the Readers Survey to provide regular measurements as part of the Knowledge Gap Index. Note that (as described in the Survey Attrition section, above) while the demographics survey items were administered in the final module of the survey (meaning that these items were seen by respondents after the other survey modules), results from these items are presented first here as demographic data will frequently be used in the analysis of other survey items.
Geography
[edit]Geography was coded based on IP address recorded by Limesurvey (the survey host) and coded using the ip2location R package and the IP2LOCATION LITE country database. Because geography is coded "administratively" rather than through survey response, it is recorded for 96% of the 61,192 unique users arriving at the survey, including those who never open the survey / proceed past the landing page.
When location is coded based on current Wikimedia Foundation regions, Wikipedia readers are most likely to be located in North America (25.9%) and Northern & Western Europe (25.0%) and least likely to be located in the Middle East & North Africa (2.8%) or Sub-Saharan Africa (1.6%).
Overall at the country level, readers from 200 separate countries are represented in the sample. However, these readers are highly concentrated in a relatively small number of countries. Only thirteen individual countries each have 1% or more of total readers in the sample, but they collectively account for 71.5% of readers in the sample. In particular, readers are much more likely to be located in the United States (23.0%) than in any other single country.
Age
[edit]We employ the following item (also employed in the 2023 Global Readers Survey, 2024 Global Readers Survey, and the Community Insights surveys) to measure age (only readers 18 and older qualify for the survey).
G3Q01. What is your age? ○ 18-24 ○ 25-29 ○ 30-39 ○ 40-49 ○ 50-59 ○ 60-69 ○ 70+ ○ I prefer not to say
Consistent with findings from the 2019, 2023, and 2024 Global Readers Surveys, we find that readers skew young overall, with readers aged 18-24 constituting the single largest age group in our sample (23.9%). Overall, readers age 18-29 once again make up over one third of respondents (33.8%).
However, the age distribution of readers varies considerably across the 11 studied projects: readers 18-29 make up about half of respondents on ruwiki (47.8%), idwiki (48%), arwiki (49.8%)), and zhwiki (51.3%). Conversely, readers aged 18-29 make up fewer than 30% of respondents on eswiki (28.4%), jawiki (24.4%), frwiki (24.0%), and dewiki (14.5%).
What's more, when we compare the proportion of readers age 18-29 in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 Global Readers Surveys, we observe two prominent facts. First, the studied projects seem to cluster into 3 groups: a group where readers under 30 comprise about half of all respondents (idwiki, zhwiki, arwiki, ruwiki), a group where they comprise somewhat more than a third (kowiki, enwiki, ptwiki), and a group where they comprise around a fourth (eswiki, frwiki, jawiki), with dewiki as a particularly low outlier, especially since 2024. Second, the statistically significant decline in readers under 30 observed from 2023-2024 does not continue from 2024-2025. We do not observe statistically significant changes in readers 18-29 for any of the studied projects.
Similarly, when we examine the share of readers 18-24 from 2023-2025, declines from 2023-2024 appear generally to have stabilized (no statistically significant declines at the project level 2024-2025), although we measure a -6.5 percentage point change (non-significant) in the share of zhwiki editors 18-24.
Finally, the 2024 Global Readers Survey showed statistically significant declines in readers who say they are under the age of 18 from 2023-2024 in four projects (ruwiki, eswiki, frwiki, and dewiki). Comparing the share of readers who are disqualified from continuing in the survey by saying they are under 18 in 2024 and 2025, we do not see statistically significant changes in 10 of 11 projects. However, we observe a significant increase in the share of under-18 respondents on eswiki. German Wikipedia (dewiki) remains a clear outlier in 2025 as the project with the lowest proportion of readers under age 18.
Gender
[edit]In order to facilitate comparisons between surveys of Wikipedia readers and contributors to Wikimedia projects, the 2023-2025 Global Readers Surveys employ a gender identity survey item aligned with that used in the 2024 Community Insights survey. Note that respondents to the arwiki, and idwiki surveys were not presented with the "transgender", "non-binary", and "genderfluid" response options.
G3Q02. Which of these categories describe your gender identity? Select all that apply. □ Man □ Woman □ Transgender □ Non-binary □ Genderfluid □ Other: _________________ ○ I prefer not to say
Readers were given the opportunity to select as many gender identities as applied. Nearly seven-in-ten (67.7%) identified as men (alone or in combination), 21.7% identified as women (alone or in combination), 3.4% identify as non-binary (alone or in combination), 3.1% identify as another gender identity (alone or in combination), 1.7% identify as genderfluid (alone or in combination), and 1.7% identify with another identity (alone or in combination).
When gender identity is recoded into mutually-exclusive and mutually comprehensive categories, 65.4% of respondents identify solely as men, 20.5% identify solely as women, 8.4% identify as genderdiverse (identifying as transgender, non-binary, genderfluid, another identity, or any of two or more identities).
At the project level, readers are most likely to identify solely as men on jawiki (75.4%), idwiki (74.0%), arwiki (73.1%), and dewiki (71.3%). However, readers identifying solely as men make up more than six-in-ten respondents on every surveyed project, even on relatively more-gender-balanced projects such as enwiki (62.3%), kowiki (64.7%) and frwiki (64.9%).
In the 2024 Global Readers Survey, we observed a significant increase in the share of readers identifying solely as men in 7 of 11 projects surveyed (with the exceptions of dewiki, idwiki, kowiki, and ptwiki). In 2025, the share of readers identifying solely as men appear to have stabilized with 10 of 11 studied projects statistically unchanged since 2024. The sole exception is English Wikipedia, where the share of readers identifying solely as men in 2025 (62.3%) returned to 2023 levels (62.2%), a significant decrease from 2024 (66.4%).
Urbanity (Community Density)
[edit]In order to measure the type of communities in which Wikipedia readers live, we asked respondents to describe their community using one of five density categories.
G3Q05. How would you describe the community where you currently live? ○ Rural (a farm or home in the country outside of any town or village) ○ Rural (a small country village) ○ Suburban (a small city or town located near a larger city) ○ Suburban (the outskirts or suburbs of a city) ○ Urban (in or near the center of a city) ○ Something else not listed above (please describe here):_____________
Readers were most likely to describe their local community as "Urban (in or near the center of a city)" (44.2%), followed by suburban—"a small city or town located near a larger city" or "the outskirts or suburbs of a city"—(37.4%). Only 11.8% of readers described their community as rural ("a farm or home in the country outside of any town or village" or "a small country village").
Education
[edit]Measuring educational attainment cross-nationally is a longstanding methodological challenge in survey research[1]. This is further complicated in our case by the fact that Global Readers surveys are designed and sampled by language project rather than by geography (e.g., enwiki respondents alone are educated under a wide variety of very different educational systems). We also sought to balance survey item simplicity with cross-system comparability. Together, these constraints made it difficult for us to substantially localize our measures of educational attainment.
The 2025 Global Readers Survey reproduces the survey items used to measure education in the 2024 Global Readers Survey.
G3Q03. Are you currently enrolled as a student in school (for example, high school, vocational or trade school, a college or university)? ○ Yes ○ No ○ I'm not sure ○ I prefer not to say
Only shown to respondents who selected "Yes" in G3Q03
G3Q04A. Are you currently… ○ An upper secondary (high) school student ○ A vocational or trade school student ○ A college or university student (Bachelor’s degree program) ○ A graduate college or university student (post-graduate degree program) ○ I am not currently a student ○ I prefer not to say
Only shown to respondents who selected "No" in G3Q03
G3Q04B. What is the highest level of formal education you have completed? ○ I have no formal schooling ○ Some primary or elementary school ○ Primary or elementary school ○ Lower secondary or middle school ○ Upper secondary or high school ○ A post-secondary technical or vocational degree or certificate ○ Some university education, but less than a Bachelor’s degree ○ A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent ○ A post-graduate degree (e.g., master's, doctorate, or professional degree) ○ I'm not sure ○ I prefer not to say
Student Status
[edit]
Overall, about one-in-four readers (25.4%) say they are currently enrolled in formal education (upper secondary or higher). The share of current student readers by project ranges from almost two-in-five (37.7% on arwiki) to just 14.8% on dewiki.
Educational Attainment / Student Level
[edit]
Among current students (age 18 and older), a clear plurality (45.0%) are currently enrolled as undergraduates (in a bachelor's degree program) with a further 17.4% currently enrolled in a post-graduate degree program. However, the 21.7% of current student respondents who say they are currently high school or upper secondary students almost certainly understates the true proportion as only those over age 18 qualified for the survey.
Among those who are no longer enrolled in formal education, the overwhelming majority of respondents (77.9%) have completed at least upper secondary or high school (83.4% of those providing an answer). In addition, nearly three-in-five respondents (58.5%) have a Bachelor's degree or more, with almost three-in-ten (29.9%) having attained a postgraduate degree. These findings are substantively consistent with those from the 2023 and 2024 Global Readers Surveys.
When the education items are combined, readers appear to skew even more towards the university-educated, with a total of 63.3% of respondents reporting being enrolled in or having completed a university degree program (37.7% Bachelor's degree/student; 25.6% postgraduate degree/student).
Language
[edit]Results from the 2023 and 2024 Global Readers Surveys show that Wikipedia readers are highly multilingual, overall. For the 2025 Global Readers Survey, we employed the same survey items used in the 2023 and 2024 editions. Readers were first asked whether the project language is their primary language. Those who indicate it is their primary language are then shown a question (G3Q07A) listing 20—21 languages (depending on the project surveyed) and asked which, if any, they are also fluent in. Respondents can select as many as apply and can also add other languages they are fluent in as open text entries. Those whose primary languages are not the project language are instead first shown the same list of languages as in G3Q07A and asked to indicate their primary language(s) in question G3Q07B. Afterwards, these respondents are shown a question (G3Q08) with the same structure as G3Q07A and asked which, if any, they are also fluent in (selecting as many as relevant)
G3Q06. Is [sampled language] your first or native language or the language you are most fluent in? ○ Yes ○ No ○ I prefer not to say
Only shown to respondents who selected "Yes" in G3Q06. Languages shown are those shown to enwiki respondents. Language options alphabetized in project language.
G3Q07A. What other languages are you fluent in? ○ I’m not fluent in any other language □ عربى(Arabic) □ 汉语 (Chinese) □ Čeština (Czech) □ Nederlands (Dutch) □ فارسی (Farsi / Persian) □ Français (French) □ Deutsch (German) □ עברית (Hebrew) □ हिन्दी (Hindi) □ Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) □ Italiano (Italian) □ 日本語 (Japanese) □ 한국어 (Korean) □ Polski (Polish) □ Português (Portuguese) □ Pусский (Russian) □ Español (Spanish) □ Svenska (Swedish) □ Українська (Ukrainian) □ Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese) □ Other language(s) not listed above (please enter here): _________________ ○ I prefer not to say
Respondents who selected "No" in G3Q06 are shown the same language list as in G3Q07A with the addition of the project language and are asked (question shown as administered to enwiki respondents):
G3Q07B. What is your first, or native language, or what language are you most fluent in? □ English ... □ Other language(s) not listed above (please enter here): _________________ ○ I prefer not to say
Respondents who selected "No" in G3Q06 are next shown the same language list as in G3Q07B and asked (question shown as administered to enwiki respondents):
G3Q08. What other languages are you fluent in? ○ I’m not fluent in any other language □ English ... □ Other language(s) not listed above (please enter here): _________________ ○ I prefer not to say
In each surveyed project, a clear majority of respondents indicate that they are reading in their primary language. In all but one project (enwiki), about nine-in-ten or more readers say they are reading in their primary language. Consistent with findings from the 2023 and 2024 Global Readers Survey, English Wikipedia remains the clear outlier, with comparatively fewer (67.6%±2.7%) respondents saying that English is a primary language for them.
When we recoded responses to G3Q06, G3Q07A, G3Q07B, and G3Q08 to count the number of languages readers say they are fluent in, 37.3% total say they are fluent in two or more languages, similar to the level reported in 2024 (35.9%).
Examining claimed English language fluency specifically, we find that English fluency appears widespread among Wikipedia readers in all surveyed projects. Even on the project with the lowest claimed levels of English fluency (arwiki, 20.6%) about one-in-five readers say they are fluent in English. At the same time, about half of readers on jawiki (50.4%), eswiki (52.1%), and frwiki (55.5%) say they are fluent in English. This likely reflects not only the fact that English can claim more speakers than any other language, but also the high overall levels of formal education we observe among Wikipedia readers.
Reader Motivations and Information Needs
[edit]Reader Motivation
[edit]Consistent with previous survey research conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation [1] [2], the Global Readers Survey has asked readers about their motivations for reading Wikipedia in 2023, 2024, and now 2025. In this survey as in 2024, we allowed respondents to select multiple motivations and to write-in other motivations that were not listed as answer options.
G1Q01. I am reading this article because ... Please select all answers that apply □ I have a work or school-related assignment □ I need to make a personal decision based on this topic (e.g., buy a book, choose a travel destination) □ I want to know more about a current event (e.g., a soccer game, a recent earthquake, somebody’s death) □ the topic was referenced in a piece of media (e.g., TV, radio, article, film, book) □ the topic came up in a conversation □ I am bored or randomly exploring Wikipedia for fun □ this topic is important to me and I want to learn more about it (e.g., to learn about a culture) □ Other:__________________________
As in the 2023 and 2024 Global Readers Surveys, 2025 respondents were overall most likely to say the article topic was "personally important" to them. (Respondents were able to select multiple motivations).
Reader Information Needs
[edit]Again, following previous survey research, we asked readers about the specific information needs that motivated them to read the article from which they were sampled.
G1Q02. I am reading this article to … ○ look up a specific fact or to get a quick answer ○ get an overview of the topic ○ get an in-depth understanding of the topic
Overall, we observe similar results to 2023 and 2024. Wikipedia readers are most likely to say they are are reading to "get an overview of the topic" (42.7%). However, readers also frequently say they visited an article to "look up a specific fact or to get a quick answer" (30.4%) or to "get an in-depth understanding of the topic" (26.2%).
Reader Topic Prior Knowledge
[edit]We presented readers with the same survey question measuring their prior knowledge of the topic of the article they were reading that was used in previous readers surveys.
G1Q03. Prior to visiting this article … ○ I was already familiar with the topic ○ I was not familiar with the topic, and I am learning about it for the first time
Overall, Wikipedia readers are more likely to say that they are already familiar with the topic they are reading about (55.9%) than not (43.3%). This is generally consistent with results from 2023 and 2024.
Success in Finding Information
[edit]In the 2024 survey, we introduced an item measuring readers' self-reported success in finding the information they were seeking on Wikipedia. The 2025 survey reproduces this item.
G1Q04. Were you able to find the information you were looking for on Wikipedia? ○ Yes ○ No ○ I'm not sure
Consistent with findings from 2024, respondents overwhelmingly said that they were successful in locating the information they were looking for on Wikipedia (82.0%), while very few (3.9%) said they were unsuccessful. A further 13.8% indicated that they were not sure.
Consistent with results in 2024 we observed no variation in self-reported success by either the type of information sought or by readers' prior familiarity with the topic.
However, we do observe some substantial variation in successful information retrieval at the project level. Notably, readers of arwiki (65.5%) and kowiki (69.6%) are less likely to say they were able to find the information they were looking for on Wikipedia. This replicates findings from 2024, suggesting this may be a stable feature of readers' experiences on arwiki and kowiki.
Accessing Knowledge Online
[edit]The 2025 Global Readers Survey once again surveyed Wikipedia readers across all 11 studied projects on how they learn and access knowledge on the internet—both on and off Wikipedia. This includes for example, asking respondents where else they access knowledge online, as well as their affective feelings towards those other apps, platforms, or websites, their experiences of engagement with Wikipedia as readers, editors, and donors, as well as a battery testing their factual knowledge about Wikipedia.
Other Online Platforms
[edit]G2Q01. What other online apps, platforms or websites have you visited in the past 30 days in order to learn or access knowledge? Please select all answers that apply □ YouTube □ Quora □ Reddit □ TikTok □ Instagram □ ChatGPT □ Facebook □ X (formerly known as Twitter) □ WhatsApp □ Coursera □ Linkedin □ Google / another search engine □ Another app, platform or website:__________________________ □ None of the above □ I prefer not to say
Survey respondents were asked "What other online apps, platforms or websites have you \nvisited in the past 30 days in order to learn or access knowledge?" and given a list from which they could select as many options as applied. Respondents were also able to select "another app, platform or website" and provide additional responses as free text. The sample question displayed above shows the choices shown to English Wikipedia readers, but respondents sampled from other projects were also shown other, localized choices based on market share in relevant markets. Respondents who selected "none of the above" or "I prefer not to say" were not able to select any other options.
Overall, readers were most likely to name YouTube (78.4%) and Google / Other Search Engines (76.9%) as online platforms they have used recently to learn or access knowledge. Reddit (35.9%) and ChatGPT (33.9%) were next most-likely to be named. Popular messaging and social media platforms such as Instagram (20.8%), Facebook (19.1%), X (Twitter) (18.4%), or Tiktok (11.4%) were comparatively less likely to be cited as places to learn or access knowledge.
Because these questions were first asked on English Wikipedia only in 2023, we are able to compare English Wikipedia readers' usage of these platforms over time from 2023-2025. Immediately, it becomes clear that usage patterns have been generally stable, with Google and YouTube consistently the most-cited platforms (although YouTube use grew from 73.4% to 83.0% from 2023-2024), named by at least around three-in-four English Wikipedia readers in every wave of the survey. Conversely, TikTok has consistently been named by only around 10% of English Wikipedia readers as a platform used to learn or access knowledge. However, Reddit and ChatGPT show clear growth in usage from 2023-2024. In 2025, Reddit is named by almost half (46.6%) of English Wikipedia readers and ChatGPT is named by almost one third (31.0%).
Looking at usage trends across all 11 surveyed Wikipedias from 2024-2025, it's clear that Google and YouTube are again consistently the most-frequently named platforms across survey waves and Wikipedia language editions. However, it is also clear that ChatGPT use for learning and accessing knowledge has grown considerably among Wikipedia readers from 2024-2025, particularly on arwiki, jawiki, kowiki, ptwiki, and ruwiki.
Consistent with findings from 2024, the youngest respondents (age 18-24) generally did not differ dramatically in their responses from respondents overall. Young readers were again more likely to name YouTube as a platform they visited to learn or access knowledge (86.5% vs. 78.4%) and also more likely to say they visited TikTok for that purpose (17.3% vs. 11.4%). However, young readers are once again substantially more likely to say they use Reddit (50.7% vs. 35.9%) and ChatGPT (48.7% vs. 33.9%) and substantially less likely to say they use Facebook (8.4% vs. 19.1%) to learn or access knowledge compared to readers as a whole.
Affective Ratings of Online Platforms
[edit]In order to provide a single measure of readers' subjective feelings towards both Wikipedia and other online platforms they use to learn or access knowledge, the 2024 Global Readers Survey introduced an adapted feeling thermometer item. Respondents were asked to rate their feelings towards Wikipedia as well as any platform they had previously indicated having visited in the past 30 days to learn or access knowledge on a scale of 0 to 10, with higher numbers meaning more positive or favorable feelings. A sample question for a reader who had previously selected YouTube, TikTok, and ChatGPT is shown below.
G2Q03. Please rate how you feel about each of the following apps, platforms or websites that you have used to learn or access knowledge on a scale between 0 and 10.
* The higher the number, the more positive or favorable you feel about that app, platform or website.
10 would indicate an extremely positive or favorable rating, 5 would indicate a neutral rating and 0 would indicate an extremely negative or unfavorable rating.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I'm not sure
Wikipedia ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
YouTube ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
TikTok ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
ChatGPT ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
Overall, consistent with results from 2024, Wikipedia (shown in purple) is rated more favorably than any other platform, receiving a mean rating of 8.6 out of 10. The next-highest rated platforms (of the "global" list presented to all respondents) are Coursera (mean rating of 8.1--although rated by many fewer respondents), Google (mean rating of 7.4), ChatGPT (mean rating of 7.2), and YouTube (mean rating of 7.3). Again consistent with previous research, "social networking" platforms generally receive lower favorability ratings overall: Facebook is the lowest-rated overall (5.7 mean rating), followed by X (Twitter) and Instagram (5.8 mean rating), and TikTok (6.0 mean rating).
When platform favorability ratings are compared across age groups, Wikipedia ratings are stable and statistically indistinguishable across age groups. In contrast, ratings of Reddit seems to show clear variation in favorability by users' age, with the oldest cohorts rating Reddit notably less favorably.
At the project level, we observe much greater variation in favorability ratings, overall (consistent with 2024). On dewiki, enwiki, eswiki, frwiki, and ptwiki, Wikipedia is simultaneously rated at > 8.6 mean rating and significantly higher-rated than any other platform. Conversely, Wikipedia is receives a > 8.0 mean rating from readers of arwiki (7.7), kowiki (7.8), and jawiki (8.0). What's more, Google is higher-rated on average than Wikipedia among readers of arwiki (8.1 vs. 7.7) and idwiki (8.6 vs. 8.2).
Use of Wikipedia Compared to Last Year
[edit]To measure readers' perceptions of trends in their use of Wikipedia, the 2024 Global Readers Survey includes an item measuring how respondents' frequency of use of Wikipedia has changed in the past year.
G2Q04. Thinking about your use of Wikipedia now compared to one year ago... Do you use Wikipedia: ○ Less now than a year ago ○ About the same now as a year ago ○ More now than a year ago ○ I'm not sure ○ I prefer not to say
Most respondents (63.5%) report that they use Wikipedia about the same now as a year ago. However, respondents are much more likely to say they have increased their use of Wikipedia over the past year (19.0%) as to say they have decreased their use of Wikipedia (11.2%).
Wikipedia Visit Frequency
[edit]The Global Readers Survey also includes an item measuring how frequently respondents say they visit Wikipedia.
G2Q05. How often do you visit Wikipedia? ○ Never ○ A few times per year ○ A few times per month ○ A few times per week ○ Every day ○ I'm not sure
Responses to this question are statistically indistinguishable from those collected in 2024. The plurality response is "a few times per week" (42.6%). Overall, more than three-in-four respondents say they visit a few times per week or more often (77.4%).
Wikipedia Experience and Knowledge
[edit]Wikipedia Editing Experience
[edit]Readers were asked about their experience with editing Wikipedia for the first time in the 2024 Global Readers Survey.
G2Q06. Have you ever added, changed, or edited anything in a Wikipedia article? ○ No, I didn't know you could edit Wikipedia ○ No, but I know you can edit Wikipedia ○ Yes, once or twice ○ Yes, many times ○ I'm not sure
About seven-in-ten (69.0%) of surveyed readers indicated that they have never made any Wikipedia edits, while 21.9% say they've made one or two edits, with just 7.5% saying they have edited "many times". While this likely overstates to some extent the proportion of readers who may become active editors (due for example, to acquiescence and social desirability bias), it represents a plausible upper bound of how many frequent readers may be open to becoming editors and this distribution is virtually identical to that reported in 2024.
Donating to Wikipedia
[edit]Another new item since the 2024 Global Readers Survey asks readers whether they have previously donated to Wikipedia. Because on-platform fundraising is limited to certain markets, this question was not included in the arwiki, idwiki, ruwiki, or zhwiki surveys.
G2Q07. Have you ever donated money to Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation? ○ No ○ No, but I've considered it ○ Yes, once or twice ○ Yes, multiple times ○ I'm not sure ○ I prefer not to say
Overall, more than two-in-five (42.5%) respondents to the dewiki, enwiki, eswiki, frwiki, jawiki, kowiki, and ptwiki surveys say they have donated once or twice (16.8%) or multiple times (25.7%) to Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. However, a majority of respondents (53.5%) indicated that they have never considered donating (30.1%) or have considered donating, but ultimately decided not to (23.4%).
At the project level, dewiki, enwiki, and frwiki readers are most likely to say they have donated, while kowiki readers are (by far), the least likely to have donated. Results at the aggregated and project level are consistent with those measured in 2024.
Wikipedia Knowledge Battery
[edit]The 2025 Global Readers Survey measured respondents' knowledge about Wikipedia through a knowledge battery first developed for the Volunteer Archetypes research project and fielded in the 2024 Global Readers Survey. Readers were presented with a series of ten statements (reproduced below) and asked to indicate whether each one is True or False. Readers could also respond "I'm not sure" or skip the statement--these responses were coded as "incorrect" answers.
| G2Q08 | True | False | I'm not sure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia articles are written by paid experts. | 
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| Wikipedia articles must have pictures. |
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| Wikipedia articles can have many authors. |
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| Wikipedia articles have advertisements. |
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| Wikipedia articles can be changed by anyone. |
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| Wikipedia articles change over time. |
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| Wikipedia articles are only changed when mistakes are found. |
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| Changes to Wikipedia articles must be approved by content experts. |
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| Wikipedia relies on donations to support its operations. |
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| The people who write Wikipedia articles are unpaid volunteers. |
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Overall, we observe considerable variation in readers' factual knowledge about Wikipedia. While about three-in-ten (29.1%) were able to answer at nine or ten correctly, a similar proportion (32.1%) performed no better than chance (five or fewer correct answers out of ten). These results are near-identical to those observed in 2024.
Replicating findings from 2024, at the individual statement level, readers were most likely to answer correctly that Wikipedia articles can have many authors (90.4%), that Wikipedia articles can change over time (85.9%), that Wikipedia articles do not have ads (80.1%) and least likely to answer correctly that anybody can edit a Wikipedia article (55.1%) and that changes to articles do not need to be approved by content experts (27.9%).
Methodology
[edit]Sampling
[edit]This project employed simple random sampling of Wikipedia readers using the QuickSurveys extension. Sampling rates vary by project and are described in the Survey Administration section above. The QuickSurveys opt-in was displayed to non-logged-in readers only and asked whether they would consent to "Take a short survey and help us improve Wikipedia". We chose to employ the QuickSurvey tool to sample readers (rather than e.g., a Central Notice Banner) both for consistency with previous research conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation and to avoid sampling readers from non-article pages (e.g., talk pages, community pages, Wikipedia home pages).
Readers who consented to the survey were then linked out to a survey hosted on LimeSurvey, an open-source survey platform.
Weighting
[edit]In order to account for sampling design and to better match the global population of Wikipedia readers, we apply weights based on global population parameters following the method described in DeBell and Krosnick (2009)[2] implemented using the 'anesrake' software package written for R.
Survey responses were weighted at the project level by OS family, session length, referrer class, and geography (geographic weighting categories vary by project). For analyses at the global level, responses were also weighted by project shares of overall traffic during the time when the surveys were in the field.
As described above, IP address data recorded by Limesurvey was coded at the country level using the ip2location R package and the IP2LOCATION LITE country database.
Resources
[edit]
Past reports:
References
[edit]- ↑ Connelly, Roxanne; Gayle, Vernon; Lambert, Paul S. (2016). "A review of educational attainment measures for social survey research". Methodological Innovations 9: 1–11. ISSN 2059-7991. doi:10.1177/2059799116638001.
- ↑ DeBell, Matthew; Krosnick, Jon A. (2009). "Computing Weights for American National Election Study Survey Data" (PDF). ANES Technical Report series (nes012427): 1–14.