Which linguistic group is most active on Wikipedia ?

[Maciamo]

Wikipedia, the world's largest encyclopedia where everybody can write or amend articles, is an excellent indicator of the intellectual activity level of a particular linguistic group.

Have a look at the complete list of Wikipedia versions with the number of articles, edits, and members for each language.

English is obviously the most popular language of information and e-communication, which explains the big gap with other languages. It is also the only language in the top 30 with Spanish and Chinese to have more users than articles.

What interests me here is the ratio of articles per user, and articles per native speaker of the language.


English

Native speakers : 425 million
Wiki members : 2.8 million
Wikipedia articles : 1.5 million

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 3.5
Articles per member ratio : 0.53


(Standard) German

Native speakers : 95 million
Wiki members : 310,000
Wikipedia articles : 500,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 5.3
Articles per member ratio : 1.61


French

Native speakers : 120 million
Wiki members : 180,000
Wikipedia articles : 400,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 3.3
Articles per member ratio : 2.22


Polish

Native speakers : 46 million
Wiki members : 80,000
Wikipedia articles : 320,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 7.0
Articles per member ratio : 4.0


Japanese

Native speakers : 130 million
Wiki members : 95,000
Wikipedia articles : 290,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 2.2
Articles per member ratio : 3.05


Dutch

Native speakers : 22 million
Wiki members : 75,000
Wikipedia articles : 240,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 10.9
Articles per member ratio : 3.2


(Standard) Italian

Native speakers : 45 million
Wiki members : 110,000
Wikipedia articles : 215,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 4.7
Articles per member ratio : 1.95


Portuguese

Native speakers : 210 million
Wiki members : 150,000
Wikipedia articles : 200,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 0.95
Articles per member ratio : 1.33


Swedish

Native speakers : 8.5 million
Wiki members : 25,000
Wikipedia articles : 195,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 22.9
Articles per member ratio : 7.8


Spanish

Native speakers : 390 million
Wiki members : 260,000
Wikipedia articles : 170,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 0.44
Articles per member ratio : 0.65


Russian

Native speakers : 145 million
Wiki members : 35,000
Wikipedia articles : 120,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 0.82
Articles per member ratio : 3.43


Chinese

Native speakers : 850 million
Wiki members : 145,000
Wikipedia articles : 100,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 0.12
Articles per member ratio : 0.69


Finnish

Native speakers : 5.5 million
Wiki members : 40,000
Wikipedia articles : 90,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 16.4
Articles per member ratio : 2.25


Norwegian

Native speakers : 4.5 million
Wiki members : 27,000
Wikipedia articles : 87,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 19.3
Articles per member ratio : 3.22


Slovak

Native speakers : 5 million
Wiki members : 4,500
Wikipedia articles : 57,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 11.4
Articles per member ratio : 12.67


Danish

Native speakers : 5.5 million
Wiki members : 10,000
Wikipedia articles : 53,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 9.63
Articles per member ratio : 5.3


Czech

Native speakers : 12 million
Wiki members : 12,000
Wikipedia articles : 50,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 4.17
Articles per member ratio : 4.17


Hebrew

Native speakers : 7 million
Wiki members : 28,000
Wikipedia articles : 48,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 6.8
Articles per member ratio : 1.7


Catalan

Native speakers : 6.7 million
Wiki members : 4,500
Wikipedia articles : 47,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 7.0
Articles per member ratio : 10.45


Indonesian

Native speakers : 222 million
Wiki members : 45,000
Wikipedia articles : 30,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 0.14
Articles per member ratio : 1.5


Hungarian

Native speakers : 14 million
Wiki members : 11,000
Wikipedia articles : 44,000

Articles per 1,000 native speaker : 3.14
Articles per member ratio : 4.0


Top 20 : most articles per native speakers of the language

- Swedish : 22.9 articles per 1000 native speakers
- Norwegian : 19.3
- Finnish : 16.4
- Slovak : 11.4
- Dutch : 10.9
- Danish : 9.6
- Polish : 7.0
- Catalan : 7.0
- Hebrew : 6.8
- German : 5.3
- Italian : 4.7
- Czech : 4.1
- English : 3.5
- French : 3.3
- Hungarian : 3.1
- Japanese : 2.2
- Portuguese : 0.95
- Russian : 0.82
- Spanish : 0.44
- Indonesian : 0.14

This shows the average level of intellectual fulfillment/development of the speakers of one given language. Of course, languages like English, French, Spanish or Portuguese have a lower ratio because half or more of their native speakers live in developping countries (which usually correlates with a lower education and intellectual activity), and may not have access to the Internet.


Top 15 : most active Wiki members by native language

- Slovak : 12.6 articles per member in average
- Catalan : 10.4
- Swedish : 7.8
- Danish : 5.3
- Czech : 4.1
- Polish : 4.0
- Hungarian : 4.0
- Russian : 3.4
- Norwegian : 3.2
- Dutch : 3.2
- Japanese : 3.1
- Finnish : 2.3
- French : 2.2
- Italian : 2.0
- Hebrew : 1.7
- German : 1.6
- Indonesian : 1.5
- Portuguese : 1.3
- Chinese : 0.69
- Spanish : 0.65



These numbers show the actual activity of members of each language regardless of the level of development of the country (e.g. ease to acess the Internet), if we suppose that all/most Wiki members have regular access to the Internet. So Russian speakers, who have less easy access to the Internet than Scandinavians, manage to get to Nordic levels once they are online.

[A. Papadimitriou]

Most Swedish Articles were translated by a Bot. I dont know if that is still the case.

A bot with a high level of intellectual development/fullfillment. A real intellectual.

Because that is the job of an intellectual: Editing Wikipedia articles.