Wikipedia article depth

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

The editing depth, or simply depth, of Wikipedia is one of several possible rough indicators of the encyclopedia's collaborative quality. It does not refer to academic quality, which cannot be computed, but to Wikipedian quality, i.e. the depth of collaborativeness—a descriptor that is highly relevant for a Wikipedia.

The formula assumes that a relatively high number of page edits and the presence of support pages means articles have been updated. And the latter support pages are assumed to be a more important factor.

In the list of Wikipedias, depth is currently defined as:

$\text{Depth}=\frac{\text{Edits}}{\text{Articles}}\cdot \frac{\text{Non-Articles}}{\text{Articles}}\cdot (1-\frac{\text{Articles}}{\text{Total}})$

The depth can be simplified to the equivalent formula below:

$\text{Depth}=\frac{\text{Edits}}{\text{Total}}\cdot {\left(\frac{\text{Non-Articles}}{\text{Articles}}\right)}^2$

• Non-Articles are user pages, redirects, images, "project" pages, categories, templates, and all talk pages.
• Total is simply Non-Articles + Articles.

Among editions with at least 10,000 articles the English Wikipedia has the most depth, at 1369.4 ( = 20.65 ×ばつ 66.33).

Among editions with at least 10,000 articles, the Ladin Wikipedia has the least depth, at 0.002 ( = 1.32 ×ばつ 0.002).

The measurement of depth was introduced after some limitations of the classic measurement of article count were realized. This insight is similar to the various suggestions to redefine the ordering of Wikipedias that appear on the international front page www.wikipedia.org. See Top Ten Wikipedias and Talk:Www.wikipedia.org portal.

In early February 2006, the list of Wikipedias only listed the article count. But on February 10, 2006, this changed into a table format that also listed the total edit count, number of users and admins.

The depth column first appeared on November 29, 2006. The initial definition was Edits/Articles, giving the English Wikipedia a value of 62. This definition changed already the next day to (Edits/Articles) ×ばつ (Non-Articles/Articles), giving the English Wikipedia a value of 209. The next definition change occurred on October 9, 2007, when the stub-ratio factor was appended. The stub ratio is (1-(Articles/Total)).^[1]

The formula changed again on October 17, October 28, and finally on April 11, 2008.

The discussion of the introduction of the depth parameter is found in Talk:List of Wikipedias/Archive 4. Early on, there were discussions of whether depth implies quality. The changes in October 2007 were discussed in Talk:List of Wikipedias/Archive 5#Depth 2.0.

The table shows the list of Wikipedias with over 10,000 articles. It can be sorted by Depth. Data on this page is automatically updated every day (Purge ).

N.B.: Default sorting is by language code, but it is possible to sort the table by any column.

Language	Language (local)	Wiki	Depth	Articles	Edits	Total Pages
Acehnese	Acehnese	ace	7.59	13,074	158,169	28,317
Afrikaans	Afrikaans	af	37.9	130,040	2,916,800	441,492
Alemannic	Alemannisch	als	27.13	31,772	1,084,192	75,414
Amharic	አማርኛ	am	32.93	15,708	393,820	46,772
Aragonese	Aragonés	an	33.34	86,411	2,463,817	243,160
Arabic	العربية	ar	290.26	1,326,429	75,957,115	9,184,747
Moroccan Arabic	داريجة	ary	100.52	20,260	577,186	108,211
Egyptian Arabic	مصرى	arz	0.85	1,633,043	13,157,753	2,257,619
Assamese	অসমীয়া	as	81.95	24,874	622,854	126,252
Asturian	Asturianu	ast	11.36	139,204	4,503,414	249,700
Kotava	Kotava	avk	0.19	29,905	147,722	36,373
Azerbaijani	Azərbaycanca	az	61.4	216,459	9,005,304	683,781
South Azerbaijani	تۆرکجه	azb	5.2	244,772	1,591,423	580,598
Bashkir	Башҡорт	ba	24.84	64,291	1,301,048	185,169
Balinese	Bali	ban	3.72	38,506	266,462	78,932
Bavarian	Boarisch	bar	72.58	27,232	853,005	110,871
Samogitian	Žemaitėška	bat-smg	6.63	17,277	362,851	30,089
Central Bicolano	Bikol	bcl	10.2	22,370	307,534	51,655
Belarusian	Беларуская	be	22.11	265,245	5,166,334	735,918
Belarusian (Taraškievica)	Беларуская (тарашкевіца)	be-tarask	37.23	91,095	2,674,838	266,577
Bulgarian	Български	bg	29.46	311,463	12,957,961	706,124
Bengali	বাংলা	bn	268.37	189,935	9,080,275	1,420,694
Bishnupriya Manipuri	বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী	bpy	32.94	25,097	895,693	63,428
Breton	Brezhoneg	br	7.98	91,508	2,192,156	161,733
Bosnian	Bosanski	bs	86.53	98,570	3,903,597	387,444
Buginese	Basa Ugi	bug	0.84	15,960	210,612	20,528
Catalan	Català	ca	43.37	800,059	38,008,891	2,012,429
Chechen	Нохчийн	ce	16.81	866,607	22,648,197	1,893,991
Min Dong	Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄	cdo	3.19	16,743	105,285	33,650
Cebuano	Sinugboanong Binisaya	ceb	2.31	6,115,371	37,002,320	11,235,049
Sorani	کوردی	ckb	27.45	83,731	1,613,906	259,699
Crimean Tatar	Qırımtatarca	crh	3.91	29,718	244,244	58,450
Czech	Čeština	cs	49.9	596,333	26,069,224	1,658,940
Chuvash	Чăваш	cv	8.38	59,134	874,410	123,457
Welsh	Cymraeg	cy	24.37	284,428	15,286,222	551,015
Danish	Dansk	da	56.64	315,272	12,297,341	987,742
German	Deutsch	de	93.71	3,140,670	266,962,473	8,596,412
Zazaki	Zazaki	diq	2.21	42,733	554,887	64,378
Greek	Ελληνικά	el	49.47	271,561	11,735,223	756,551
Emilian-Romagnol	Emiliàn e rumagnòl	eml	12.49	14,247	173,225	37,757
English	English	en	1369.38	7,218,552	1,362,779,468	66,007,455
Esperanto	Esperanto	eo	16.72	388,365	9,422,512	871,313
Spanish	Español	es	190.5	2,129,169	174,215,438	8,693,983
Estonian	Eesti	et	21.67	261,169	7,198,721	617,155
Basque	Euskara	eu	14.48	493,187	10,937,368	1,084,034
Persian	فارسی	fa	154.17	1,082,175	44,031,754	6,071,940
Finnish	Suomi	fi	36.64	622,386	24,095,053	1,590,168
Faroese	Føroyskt	fo	33.73	14,223	388,237	41,099
French	Français	fr	280.73	2,772,705	237,865,456	14,072,242
North Frisian	Nordfriisk	frr	11.84	21,281	281,967	53,044
West Frisian	Frysk	fy	27.13	60,440	1,235,586	180,896
Irish	Gaeilge	ga	7.64	64,276	1,320,016	117,217
Scottish Gaelic	Gàidhlig	gd	19.46	16,060	582,373	32,900
Galician	Galego	gl	41.3	232,728	7,569,551	681,456
Gorontalo	Hulontalo	gor	1.17	15,111	67,801	25,054
Gujarati	ગુજરાતી	gu	77.13	30,898	901,588	136,468
Hausa	Hausa / هَوُسَ	ha	1.06	106,852	890,913	152,238
Fiji Hindi	Fiji Hindi	hif	76.92	12,408	336,461	57,330
Hebrew	עברית	he	261.39	402,162	43,622,971	1,677,009
Hindi	हिन्दी	hi	241.8	170,701	6,578,436	1,391,490
Croatian	Hrvatski	hr	20.41	234,625	7,553,617	510,095
Upper Sorbian	Hornjoserbsce	hsb	25.99	14,273	390,522	36,527
Haitian	Krèyol ayisyen	ht	0.85	72,083	886,064	93,656
Hungarian	Magyar	hu	60.9	572,054	29,195,563	1,625,423
Armenian	Հայերեն	hy	63.32	330,394	10,843,533	1,207,824
Interlingua	Interlingua	ia	4.19	30,497	694,260	46,685
Indonesian	Bahasa Indonesia	id	132.54	787,511	29,491,299	4,215,163
Ilokano	Ilokano	ilo	72.62	15,526	406,220	70,740
Ido	Ido	io	5.25	63,516	1,126,210	108,753
Icelandic	Íslenska	is	32.64	61,184	1,969,421	161,179
Italian	Italiano	it	207.53	1,980,534	151,587,356	8,889,908
Japanese	日本語	ja	93.14	1,512,099	110,311,594	4,439,795
Javanese	Basa Jawa	jv	20.45	75,369	1,749,876	186,710
Georgian	ქართული	ka	64.64	197,768	5,459,481	810,362
Kazakh	Қазақша	kk	16.41	244,466	3,635,218	669,436
Kannada	ಕನ್ನಡ	kn	107.84	35,284	1,373,155	160,587
Korean	한국어	ko	163.32	757,277	42,164,353	3,575,455
Kashmiri	کٲشُر	ks	10.04	11,352	147,292	26,648
Kurdish	Kurdî	ku	35.95	91,932	2,081,811	301,819
Kirghiz	Кыргызча	ky	2.12	76,509	650,431	125,374
Latin	Latina	la	15.69	142,076	3,967,381	295,728
Luxembourgish	Lëtzebuergesch	lb	23.4	67,682	2,684,793	143,334
Limburgish	Limburgs	li	87.59	15,215	485,502	68,829
Ligurian	Lìgure	lij	20.55	11,579	272,304	28,585
Ladin	Ladin	lld	0.002	183,211	252,602	191,057
Lombard	Lumbaart	lmo	7.26	80,187	1,331,776	153,523
Lithuanian	Lietuvių	lt	31.36	226,416	7,880,541	566,341
Latvian	Latviešu	lv	69.5	144,635	4,494,363	576,497
Maithili	मैथिली	mai	29.26	14,357	275,773	46,118
Banyumasan	Basa Banyumasan	map-bms	10.12	13,975	222,266	30,427
Malagasy	Malagasy	mg	10.32	103,553	1,147,488	262,698
Meadow Mari	Олык Марий (Olyk Marij)	mhr	20.87	11,326	203,213	31,792
Minangkabau	Bahaso Minangkabau	min	8.034	229,900	3,351,013	475,329
Macedonian	Македонски	mk	68.02	163,323	5,591,437	607,208
Malayalam	മലയാളം	ml	220.86	88,333	4,391,874	554,995
Mongolian	Монгол	mn	73.46	27,961	863,012	115,719
Meitei	ꯃꯤꯇꯩꯂꯣꯟ	mni	1.68	10,548	62,117	17,894
Marathi	मराठी	mr	41.09	102,492	2,694,141	333,720
Hill Mari	Кырык Мары (Kyryk Mary)	mrj	5.79	10,431	108,204	21,656
Malay	Bahasa Melayu	ms	16.74	440,518	6,903,883	1,188,095
Burmese language	မြန်မာဘာသာ	my	7.96	111,574	1,045,939	272,147
Mazandarani	مَزِروني	mzn	5.7	64,867	391,284	165,618
Neapolitan	Nnapulitano	nap	10.65	14,968	672,008	24,246
Low Saxon	Plattdüütsch	nds	7.99	85,928	1,072,259	187,483
Nepali	नेपाली	ne	94.79	30,001	1,361,212	114,843
Newari	नेवारी	new	28.77	74,276	1,121,152	269,677
Dutch	Nederlands	nl	19.92	2,224,345	71,539,100	4,794,678
Norwegian (Nynorsk)	Nynorsk	nn	14.29	178,215	3,655,209	401,545
Norwegian (Bokmål)	Norsk (Bokmål)	no	42.02	687,323	25,833,955	1,893,615
Navajo	Diné bizaad	nv	3.18	22,667	308,945	36,575
Occitan	Occitan	oc	10.57	90,836	2,492,949	167,331
Oriya	ଓଡ଼ିଆ	or	68.18	20,988	590,087	87,858
Ossetian	Иронау	os	50.6	21,756	593,883	77,751
Punjabi	ਪੰਜਾਬੀ	pa	21.84	59,641	842,026	193,138
Polish	Polski	pl	37.74	1,703,558	80,115,931	4,059,441
Piedmontese	Piemontèis	pms	1.76	71,543	884,727	104,146
Western Panjabi	شاہ مکھی پنجابی	pnb	4.22	75,684	706,305	146,516
Pashto	پښتو	ps	32.42	21,331	364,966	77,182
Portuguese	Português	pt	209.81	1,179,412	72,569,180	6,154,520
Quechua	Runa Simi	qu	22.77	24,546	688,596	58,765
Romanian	Română	ro	123.27	546,432	17,842,423	3,058,191
Russian	Русский	ru	166.96	2,112,727	153,931,097	8,544,534
Sanskrit	संस्कृतम्	sa	189.42	12,523	499,401	82,631
Sakha	Саха тыла	sah	32.15	18,223	428,839	55,339
Sicilian	Sicilianu	scn	17.57	26,318	779,653	55,842
Scots	Scots	sco	61.12	34,256	912,982	138,599
Sindhi	سنڌي، سندھی ، सिन्ध	sd	38.08	22,081	400,571	84,765
Serbo-Croatian	Srpskohrvatski / Српскохрватски	sh	750.71	461,762	42,646,708	4,630,882
Shan	လိၵ်ႈတႆး	shn	2.14	25,193	139,926	46,437
Sinhalese	සිංහල	si	156.02	25,616	795,641	176,179
Simple English	Simple English	simple	62.74	283,920	10,925,725	945,482
Slovak	Slovenčina	sk	23.92	260,769	8,232,616	607,076
Slovenian	Slovenščina	sl	32.46	198,522	6,718,162	510,189
Albanian	Shqip	sq	40.38	106,129	3,016,109	328,801
Serbian	Српски	sr	178.1	707,190	31,076,077	4,160,470
Sundanese	Basa Sunda	su	2.51	62,953	699,652	100,778
Swedish	Svenska	sv	18.98	2,626,870	59,434,643	6,374,881
Swahili	Kiswahili	sw	5.57	121,694	1,580,038	231,704
Silesian	Ślůnsko	szl	0.37	61,018	387,047	77,745
Tamil	தமிழ்	ta	40.04	189,128	4,606,944	632,555
Telugu	తెలుగు	te	62.31	126,963	4,784,044	426,045
Tajik	Тоҷикӣ	tg	10.49	118,819	1,481,813	288,681
Thai	ไทย	th	323.67	185,820	13,144,321	1,192,948
Tagalog	Tagalog	tl	147.58	49,169	2,212,601	249,917
Turkish	Türkçe	tr	169.98	693,408	37,616,600	3,418,926
Tatar	Татарча	tt	4.61	708,969	5,991,762	1,460,788
Ukrainian	Українська	uk	68.14	1,429,943	48,410,575	5,356,289
Urdu	اردو	ur	47.56	668,630	11,722,806	3,002,076
Uzbek	O‘zbek	uz	33.45	353,369	6,220,784	1,280,643
Venetian	Vèneto	vec	9.66	69,620	1,228,961	143,567
Vietnamese	Tiếng Việt	vi	104.62	1,304,097	75,340,007	4,599,999
Volapük	Volapük	vo	92.95	54,080	3,335,463	172,732
Walloon	Walon	wa	26.47	13,005	425,555	31,092
Waray-Waray	Winaray	war	4.32	1,266,929	7,736,213	2,870,555
Wu	吴语	wuu	1.67	48,291	397,418	75,478
Mingrelian	მარგალური (Margaluri)	xmf	4.79	22,417	251,576	42,619
Yiddish	ייִדיש	yi	45.1	15,762	600,080	44,628
Yoruba	Yorùbá	yo	4.11	38,835	625,171	64,041
Standard Moroccan Tamazight	ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ ⵜⴰⵏⴰⵡⴰⵢⵜ	zgh	36.32	12,247	177,564	52,304
Chinese	中文	zh	220.12	1,547,122	93,448,008	8,449,064
Classical Chinese	古文 / 文言文	zh-classical	213.16	14,140	443,666	122,714
Min Nan	Bân-lâm-gú	zh-min-nan	6.7	434,485	3,283,214	1,079,567
Cantonese	粵語	zh-yue	11.32	151,341	2,438,380	342,078
Zulu	isiZulu	zu	6.76	12,490	126,744	27,656
Language	Language (local)	Wiki	Depth	Articles	Edits	Total Pages

The following graph and table show how the depth of the largest 30 languages of Wikipedia (on November 2008) have developed over time.

Date	en	de	fr	pl	ja	it	nl	pt	es	ru	sv	zh	no	fi	ca	uk	tr	ro	vo	cs	hu	eo	sk	da	id	he	ar	ko	lt	sr
Today	1369	94	281	38	93	208	20	210	190	167	19	220	42	37	43	68	170	123	93	50	61	17	24	57	133	261	290	163	31	178
1 Jul 2026	1366	94	280	37	93	206	20	209	191	167	19	220	42	37	43	68	171	123	99	50	61	17	24	57	134	262	290	164	31	179
1 Jan 2026	1344	94	276	37	93	198	20	207	193	168	19	217	45	37	42	66	186	119	126	50	61	17	24	57	140	267	289	166	31	175
1 Jul 2025	1318	94	271	36	92	193	20	204	195	163	18	213	47	38	41	61	189	126	154	50	60	17	24	57	136	268	285	171	30	174
1 Jan 2025	1288	94	268	35	91	191	19	200	197	161	18	211	48	38	41	60	188	129	188	51	60	17	23	57	138	271	279	166	30	171
1 Jul 2024	1258	94	264	34	91	189	19	197	198	158	18	210	48	38	40	58	175	153	211	51	61	17	23	58	139	270	271	168	29	167
1 Jan 2024	1218	93	261	33	90	187	19	195	199	157	17	207	48	39	40	57	164	154	233	51	61	17	23	58	139	268	264	167	29	163
1 Jul 2023	1193	93	258	33	89	184	18	192	200	154	17	206	47	39	39	55	165	152	257	50	60	16	22	58	131	268	254	167	28	161
1 Jan 2023	1159	93	255	33	88	182	18	186	202	153	17	206	46	39	39	55	154	149	277	50	60	16	22	59	125	264	242	150	28	159
1 July 2022	1130	93	253	33	87	179	18	182	204	154	16	206	46	39	39	55	166	146	15	47	59	16	22	60	116	260	237	154	28	157
1 Jan 2022	1094	92	246	32	86	176	17	179	207	138	14	205	46	39	37	54	175	145	14	47	59	16	21	64	103	257	231	152	27	156
1 July 2021	1072	93	242	32	85	172	17	176	210	137	12	202	46	40	36	53	199	122	14	46	59	16	21	64	103	258	227	153	26	155
1 Jan 2021	1041	94	239	31	84	168	16	175	210	136	9	201	42	40	34	49	203	120	14	45	59	16	21	63	108	259	219	151	24	157
1 July 2020	1009	94	236	30	84	169	16	172	208	136	7	198	42	40	32	44	222	118	14	47	59	17	20	64	109	259	214	152	23	157
1 Jan 2020	985	94	234	30	83	164	16	171	204	137	7	195	41	41	31	39	205	117	14	47	59	17	20	64	109	261	175	149	23	155
1 July 2019	964	94	229	30	82	160	15	166	199	135	7	188	42	42	30	38	200	114	14	46	58	17	19	64	110	260	182	150	23	151
1 Jan 2019	937	95	225	29	81	157	15	154	196	132	6	181	40	42	30	37	199	112	14	45	58	17	19	67	118	254	238	146	22	144
1 July 2018	907	94	224	28	80	155	14	150	205	134	6	175	39	42	30	38	205	110	14	42	58	17	19	67	117	247	225	110	23	141
1 Jan 2018	1011	97	222	27	80	132	14	148	204	149	6	175	38	45	31	39	221	103	15	42	59	17	19	66	125	254	219	115	23	133
1 July 2017	980	98	217	25	78	125	13	142	196	144	5	169	36	45	31	40	222	86	15	41	58	17	19	68	123	261	188	115	23	90
1 Jan 2017	953	100	213	24	77	122	13	138	191	140	5	161	36	45	31	39	229	85	15	40	58	17	19	66	107	256	218	112	22	71
1 July 2016	933	102	208	22	75	120	12	136	187	136	6	165	37	45	31	38	226	82	15	40	58	17	18	66	104	253	233	105	21	66
1 Jan 2016	910	98	205	21	72	115	11	133	198	131	9	163	35	46	31	37	240	82	15	41	59	17	18	68	84	251	223	90	21	69
1 July 2015	888	97	205	21	71	109	11	130	190	125	12	147	34	46	31	36	229	77	15	42	76	17	18	70	76	253	214	87	31	66
1 Jan 2015	887	89	193	20	69	105	9	123	176	115	11	131	32	44	31	37	210	97	15	39	97	18	19	70	65	257	214	87	31	66
1 July 2014	868	90	181	18	68	101	9	121	174	113	11	114	26	45	30	27	211	94	16	39	99	18	18	69	60	256	237	80	31	63
1 Jan 2014	824	90	172	18	66	98	10	117	172	109	11	108	28	45	27	38	214	90	15	39	100	18	18	67	56	253	248	82	31	57
1 July 2013	769	89	164	19	64	95	9	112	170	106	15	100	28	45	26	38	212	88	15	39	100	18	18	66	112	249	235	82	18	64
1 Jan 2013	731	89	165	17	61	91	18	103	175	104	38	108	28	44	24	38	214	81	15	38	99	18	15	62	88	242	243	77	17	57
1 July 2012	688	88	157	16	58	89	19	96	166	99	44	148	28	44	22	36	207	101	13	38	98	17	15	58	89	236	241	76	16	52
1 Jan 2012	648	89	151	14	56	85	18	88	158	92	50	90	29	44	20	35	207	97	12	37	92	16	24	39	72	231	230	74	17	51
1 July 2011	613	89	145	13	54	81	30	82	163	91	48	83	27	43	18	34	192	93	12	37	90	16	22	36	63	227	225	71	17	47
1 Jan 2011	572	87	140	10	51	77	29	71	179	90	46	80	25	41	17	33	185	86	11	34	86	16	20	35	61	220	208	62	17	40
1 July 2010	522	88	139	11	49	75	30	77	189	91	35	68	24	39	18	31	177	73	10	32	81	15	19	34	61	208	197	51	19	47
1 Jan 2010	478	86	128	10	46	71	27	74	141	87	31	63	23	37	17	25	159	54	9	33	71	14	16	31	42	205	167	43	19	46
1 July 2009	440	84	121	10	43	66	25	71	116	81	28	63	22	35	17	26	132	36	8	32	70	13	14	28	35	184	142	39	17	56
1 Jan 2009	413	81	115	9	41	57	23	66	94	74	24	71	20	32	17	15	95	30	8	28	64	13	10	26	30	177	117	36	15	52
1 July 2008	368	77	101	8	38	47	21	58	69	63	19	56	20	30	15	10	66	25	8	26	51	12	8	24	24	159	108	34	14	46
1 Jan 2008	302	70	79	9	33	43	20	49	51	56	15	59	18	27	14	12	43	17	3	24	39	11	7	21	20	132	107	27	12	35
1 July 2007	320	100	59	15	36	59	23	31	39	32
1 Jan 2007	224	87	45	12	32	37	19	25	34	24

• Efficiency

More lists of Wikipedias by various criteria : [ edit ]

• List of Wikipedias by article count, users, file count and depth and its source (updated every 3 hours)
  (see also: wikistats.wmcloud.org for another list with all 364 active and closed Wikipedias)
• List of Wikipedias by edits per article and depth (both updated every 6 hours)
• List of Wikipedias by language group and family (both updated every 6 hours) and language families as a tree (not just Wikipedias)
• List of Wikipedias by country (updated manually)
• List of Wikipedias by speakers per article (updated every 6 hours)
• List of Wikipedias by sample of articles and expanded sample of articles (both updated monthly)
• List of Wikipedias by featured and good articles (both updated manually)
• List of Wikipedias by creation date (updated manually)
• List of Wikipedias in multiple writing systems
• List of Wikipedias having local media files and zero local media files (both updated manually)
• List of Wikipedia milestones or en:Wikipedia:Milestone statistics (tracking of major article-count milestones)
• List of largest wikis (not just Wikimedia wikis)
• Wikimedia News (announcements and tracking of milestones for all Wikimedia projects)
• Tell us about your Wikipedia

• Wikipedia Article Depth Calculator

Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_article_depth&oldid=30765731"

Categories:

• Wikipedia statistics
• Lists of Wikipedias