This is a long overdue post to summarize the WordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. program for 2016. The “WordCamps in 2017” post will follow in the coming days!
In 2016, over 36,000 WordPress enthusiasts came together at 115 different WordCamps to spend a day or three talking about WordPress, the free and open source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. software that powers 27% of the internet.
WordCamps were held in 41 different countries in 2016, with events in 6 continents: Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.
As you can see in the chart below, the number of WordCamps has been steadily increasing over the past five years.
|
2016 |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
2012 |
Total number of WordCamps
Year-over-year growth
|
115
29%
|
89
11%
|
80
13%
|
71
6%
|
67
29%
|
WordCamps in the US
Year-over-year growth
|
48
14%
|
42
-2%
|
43
39%
|
31
-9%
|
34
36%
|
WordCamps outside the US
Year-over-year growth
|
67
43%
|
47
27%
|
37
-8%
|
40
21%
|
33
22%
|
Total number of unique speakers
Year-over-year growth
|
2,056
23%
|
1,677
0%
|
1,676
43%
|
1,176
34%
|
877
95%
|
Total number of unique sessions
Year-over-year growth
|
2,635
23%
|
2,135
-9%
|
2,355
50%
|
1,565
62%
|
967
125%
|
Total number of unique sponsors
Year-over-year growth
|
1,036
16%
|
891
-1%
|
896
72%
|
522
5%
|
498
59%
|
Total number of WordCamp tickets sold
(rounded to the nearest 500)
Year-over-year growth
|
over 32,500
16%
|
over 21,000
5%
|
over 20,000
8%
|
over 19,000
8%
|
over 17,000
29%
|
Detailed data and information for 2016 is below if you choose to read more!
WordCamp Organizers in 2016
- Number of unique organizers: 750
- Number of first time organizers: 506
WordCamp Speakers in 2016
- Total number of unique speakers: 2,056
- Most speakers at a single WordCamp: 80 (at WordCamp Miami)
- Fewest speakers at a single WordCamp: 6 (at WordCamp Peoria)
- Number of first time speakers: 1,254
- 28% Women speakers (up from 27% in 2015)
WordCamp Sessions in 2016
- Total number of unique sessions: 2,635
- Most sessions at a single WordCamp: 91 (at WordCamp Miami)
- Fewest sessions at a single WordCamp: 6 (at WordCamp Peoria)
- Average number of sessions per WordCamp: 24.83
WordCamp Sponsors in 2016
- Total number of unique sponsors: 1,036
- Most sponsors at a single WordCamp: 63 (at WordCamp London)
- Average number of sponsors per WordCamp: 9.68
WordCamp Attendees in 2016
- Total number of WordCamp tickets sold: 32,573
- Most tickets sold for a single WordCamp was: 2,177 (at WordCamp Europe; 3,584 with live stream tickets)
- Fewest tickets sold for a single camp WordCamp: 46 (at WordCamp Peoria)
- Average number of attendees per WordCamp: 242.14
Trends and analysis
First time organizers = 506. In 2015 we thought it my have been too soon to trust the conclusion that more than half of all WordCamp organizers were new to the program, but 2016’s statistics once again prove this.
First time speakers =1,254: We wanted to see the percentage of first-time WordCamp speakers to go even higher than in 2015 (56%), which we achieved at 61%!
Average number of attendees = 242.14: This is down slightly from 2015, which our average was about 245, continuing the the downward trend of past years. This continues to support the observation that the program is seeing more events with a smaller attendee count.
What else did the Community team do in 2016?
Questions?
If there’s a figure above that you’d like to learn more about, or an observation you’d like to share based on the data here, please respond with a comment!
