Global website statistics

• It is estimated there were 1.1 billion websites worldwide as of July 2024^[1]
• Of those 1.1 billion websites, almost 194 million are currently active^[1]
• This means around 82% of the websites on the internet are not currently active^[1]
• In 2008, 87 million out of 155 million websites were considered inactive, meaning around 57% of the internet was inactive at that time^[1]
• It is estimated that across the world 175 websites are created every minute (252,000 every day)^[1]

UK website statistics

• There are approximately 11.1 million websites registered under the .co.uk top level domain code ^[1]
• However, only an estimated 2.7 million are registered from a UK-based registrar (a business entity that handles the reservation of domain names)
• In May 2024, these were the most visited websites in the UK:^[2]
  • Google – 3.8 billion visits
  • YouTube – 2.2 billion visits
  • BBC – 550 million visits
  • Facebook – 410 million visits
  • Amazon – 347 million visits

Devices used to access the web in the UK

These are the devices used by people in the UK to access the internet:

• Smart phones – 48%
• Laptops and computers – 47%
• Tablets and related devices – 5%
• Other devices – 0.09%

Online business statistics

• Around 82% of the UK population uses online shopping, which amounts to nearly 54 million people ^[4]
• The following are the percentages of transactions completed online by major industry in the UK as of May 2024:^[5]

• Textiles, clothing and footwear stores: 28.8%
• All retail: 27.2%
• Household goods stores: 23.5%
• All non food: 23.8%
• Department stores: 23.6%
• Other stores: 19.8%
• All food: 9.1%

In 2023, these were the top online shops in the UK, and their revenues^[6]

• Amazon – £13.3 billion
• Sainsbury’s – £5.3 billion
• Tesco – £5.1 billion
• Asda – £4.1 billion
• Argos – £3.3 billion

Small business website statistics (Forbes Advisor survey)

• According to a survey by Forbes Advisor, 78% of small business owners in the UK currently have a website for their business
• 83.5% of those said that their website plays a big part in their business
• 14.6% said it does not play a big part
• 1.5% said it is virtually never used
• 69% of UK business owners whose business does not have a website think that they should have one
• 22% neither agree nor disagree
• 9% disagree

Business website builder statistics (Forbes Advisor survey)

• 52% of UK business owners with a website either maintain it themselves or have a dedicated web team to update and maintain it
• 29% use an outsourced team or consultant to update and maintain their business’ website
• 18% use a website builder service like Squarespace or Wix
• Of those that use a dedicated website builder service, Squarespace and Wix are the most popular:
  • Squarespace – 27%
  • Wix – 21%
  • GoDaddy – 18%
  • Shopify – 14%
  • WordPress – 10%
  • Weebly – 4%
  • IONOS – 3%
  • Hubspot – 1%
  • Zyro – 1%

• Of those businesses without a website, Shopify and GoDaddy are the providers that most business owners had heard of:
  • Shopify – 67%
  • GoDaddy – 65%
  • Squarespace – 48%
  • WordPress – 43%
  • Wix – 42%
  • Weebly 22%
  • Hubspot – 21%
  • IONOS – 21%
  • Zyro – 9%
  • HostGator – 8%
  • None of the above – 2%
  • Not sure – 1%

Sources

1. https://siteefy.com/how-many-websites-are-there/
2. https://www.semrush.com/website/top/united-kingdom/all/
3. https://www.statista.com/statistics/507402/share-of-web-page-views-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-device/
4. https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/united-kingdom-ecommerce
5. https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/may2024#online-retail
6. https://ecommercedb.com/ranking/stores/gb/all?page=1&pagesize=50&specialist=all&currency=GBP