Which language edition of Wikipedia has the most articles?

The English-language edition of Wikipedia has the most articles. It remains the largest of Wikipedia’s language editions, although the exact rankings and article totals change as editors and automated tools create new pages.

Wikipedia began as a single English project in January 2001. Other language editions soon followed, allowing contributors to write about subjects that mattered to their own linguistic and cultural communities. Each edition is largely developed independently, so an article’s existence or wording in one language does not guarantee an equivalent page in another.

English’s lead reflects its early start, its large international contributor base, and the extensive amount of source material available in English. It is also the most-read edition, though readers worldwide use many other Wikipedias.

A common misconception is that the largest edition contains every topic or is automatically the most comprehensive in every field. Other editions can have stronger coverage of local people, places, history, and culture. Article counts also need context: some editions have received very large numbers of bot-created short articles.