Introduction
The web is constantly growing. Every minute, websites are being launched, domains registered, and digital footprints expanding. But exactly how many websites go live monthly? And how many of those are actually active, maintained, and visited? Understanding the scale helps in many areas: web development demand, market opportunity, hosting capacity, SEO competition, and more.
What the Data Says
Here are some of the most recent statistics around total websites, new site creation rates, and monthly estimates:
- Total websites globally are estimated at around 1.1 to 1.2 billion across all active and inactive sites.
- Active websites, those regularly maintained, visited, or updated, are much fewer — around 160 to 200 million.
- Approximately 252,000 new websites are created daily.
- That translates to roughly 7.5 million new sites per month depending on how “website” is defined.
- Some sources give slightly lower figures, around 177,000 new websites daily, meaning monthly growth of about 5.4 million.
Why the Figures Vary A Lot
These estimates differ substantially depending on a few key factors:
- What counts as a “website” – registered domain versus live, content-rich site versus parked or placeholder domain; subdomains, microsites, test or development sites.
- What “active” means – some define active as having recent content changes, others as receiving traffic or not being abandoned.
- Data source and methodology – surveys, domain registration data, web crawlers, or traffic reports all yield different results.
- Geographical or regional variation – growth in developing markets tends to be faster; in developed markets, many domains may be speculative or parked rather than fully built out.
Estimated Monthly New Website Development
Here’s a reasonable consolidated estimate for how many websites are being developed monthly in 2025:
- Higher estimate: 252,000 daily, approximately 7.5 million per month
- Mid estimate: 200,000 daily, approximately 6 million per month
- Lower estimate: 177,000 daily, approximately 5.3 million per month
So, using these estimates, about 5 to 8 million new websites are probably being launched globally each month, when including all types of sites: new domains, test or development sites, blogs, and more.
What Proportion of Those Are Meaningfully Active
Not all launched websites survive or remain active. From the data:
- Only about 16 to 18 percent of all existing websites are actively maintained.
- Many sites are created and remain idle: parked domains, placeholder pages, hobby sites.
So of the 5 to 8 million monthly new sites, perhaps only 1 to 2 million or fewer will become fully active with regular updates, traffic, and SEO relevance.
Implications of This Growth
- Competition is high. With millions of websites launched monthly, getting found via search, referrals, or social media becomes harder.
- Quality matters more. Many new sites are low-content or abandoned; the ones that survive invest in content, maintenance, and user experience.
- Hosting and infrastructure demand increases. More domains require more hosting, security, CDNs, and SSL certificates.
- SEO saturation is growing. More content and more sites competing for keywords make it harder to stand out without strong SEO, backlinks, and performance optimization.
- Domain name value shifts. As registrations increase, popular domain names become scarcer, pushing up costs.
Caveats & Things to Keep in Mind
- Estimates are approximate because of different definitions of “website” and delayed or incomplete data.
- Many websites disappear over time due to abandonment, shutdowns, or domain expiration.
- Activity, traffic, and relevance differ. A site may be live but receive little or no traffic.
- Growth may fluctuate depending on internet access expansion, cost of domains and hosting, availability of site builders and CMS tools, and regulatory or security pressures.
Conclusion
Based on current data:
- Roughly 5 to 8 million websites are being developed globally each month, including low-usage, parked, or minimal-content sites.
- A much smaller fraction, around 1 to 2 million, will remain active, updated, and relevant over time.
- The gap between total sites and active sites is large; only about 16 to 18 percent of all websites are properly maintained and functional.
Understanding these numbers provides perspective on the digital landscape, competition, and opportunities for businesses, developers, and marketers looking to build or promote websites.
