How many websites are on the Internet (as of January 2025)?
Choose your answer and the correct choice will be revealed.
As of January 2025, the Internet comprises approximately 1.1 billion websites, with only about 17% (roughly 193 million) being actively maintained and updated. These figures come from Siteefy.com, which compiles data from sources such as Internet Live Stats, Netcraft, and BuiltWith. The methodology involves tracking domain registrations, active versus inactive sites, and analyzing web hosting data trends.
The number of web pages indexed by search engines has also seen significant growth. According to the World Wide Web Size Project, as of October 2024, the indexed web contained at least 4.57 billion pages. This estimate is based on search engine queries involving words with known distribution rates, allowing researchers to extrapolate the total number of indexed pages.
Interestingly, the size of the “indexed” web peaked in early 2020 but has since fluctuated, potentially due to search engines purging low-quality or spam pages from their indexes.
In terms of Internet traffic, Cisco’s Annual Internet Report projected that global Internet traffic would surpass 4 zettabytes per year by 2022. While specific figures for 2025 are not yet available, the trend indicates continued substantial growth in data consumption, driven by increasing numbers of connected devices and higher demand for online services.
Additionally, the number of connected devices per person continues to rise. By 2023, the global average was estimated at 3.6 devices per person, with even higher averages in regions like North America and Western Europe. This proliferation of devices significantly impacts web traffic and infrastructure demands.
