From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)

Browser Statistics

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What is the trend in browser usage?


Web Statistics and Trends

Statistics are important information. From the statistics below, you can see that Internet Explorer and Firefox are the most common browsers.


Browser Statistics Month by Month

2009 IE7 IE6 IE8 Fx Chrome S O
January 25.7% 18.5% 0.6% 45.5% 3.9% 3.0% 2.3%
               
2008 IE7 IE6 IE5 Fx Chrome S O
December 26.1% 19.6%   44.4% 3.6% 2.7% 2.4%
November 26.6% 20.0%   44.2% 3.1% 2.7% 2.3%
October 26.9% 20.2%   44.0% 3.0% 2.8% 2.2%
September 26.3% 22.3%   42.6% 3.1% 2.7% 2.0%
August 26.0% 24.5%   43.7%   2.6% 2.1%
July 26.4% 25.3%   42.6%   2.5% 1.9%
June 27.0% 26.5% 0.5% 41.0%   2.6% 1.7%
May 26.5% 27.3% 0.7% 39.8%   2.4% 1.5%
April 24.9% 28.9% 1.0% 39.1%   2.2% 1.4%
March 23.3% 29.5% 1.1% 37.0%   2.1% 1.4%
February 22.7% 30.7% 1.3% 36.5%   2.0% 1.4%
January 21.2% 32.0% 1.5% 36.4%   1.9% 1.4%
               
2007 IE7 IE6 IE5 Fx Moz S O
November 20.8% 33.6% 1.6% 36.3% 1.2% 1.8% 1.6%
September 20.8% 34.9% 1.5% 35.4% 1.2% 1.6% 1.5%
July 20.1% 36.9% 1.5% 34.5% 1.4% 1.5% 1.9%
May 19.2% 38.1% 1.6% 33.7% 1.3% 1.5% 1.7%
March 18.0% 38.7% 2.0% 31.8% 1.3% 1.6% 1.6%
January 13.3% 42.3% 3.0% 31.0% 1.5% 1.7% 1.5%
               
2006 IE7 IE6 IE5 Fx Moz N7/8 O
November 7.1% 49.9% 3.6% 29.9% 2.5% 0.2% 1.5%
September 2.5% 55.6% 4.0% 27.3% 2.3% 0.4% 1.6%
July 1.9% 56.3% 4.2% 25.5% 2.3% 0.4% 1.4%
May 1.1% 57.4% 4.5% 25.7% 2.3% 0.3% 1.5%
March 0.6% 58.8% 5.3% 24.5% 2.4% 0.5% 1.5%
January 0.2% 60.3% 5.5% 25.0% 3.1% 0.5% 1.6%
               
2005 IE6 IE5 Fx Moz N7 O8 O7
November 62.7% 6.2% 23.6% 2.8% 0.4% 1.3% 0.2%
September 69.8% 5.7% 18.0% 2.5% 0.4% 1.0% 0.2%
July 67.9% 5.9% 19.8% 2.6% 0.5% 0.8% 0.4%
May 64.8% 6.8% 21.0% 3.1% 0.7% 0.7% 0.6%
March 63.6% 8.9% 18.9% 3.3% 1.0% 0.3% 1.6%
January 64.8% 9.7% 16.6% 3.4% 1.1%   1.9%
               
2004 IE6 IE5 Moz N3 N7 N4 O7
November 66.0% 10.2% 16.5% 0.2% 1.2% 0.3% 1.6%
September 67.8% 11.2% 13.7% 0.3% 1.4% 0.3% 1.7%
July 67.2% 13.2% 12.6% 0.4% 1.4% 0.4% 1.6%
May 68.1% 13.8% 9.5% 0.6% 1.4% 0.4% 1.6%
March 68.2% 14.6% 7.9% 0.8% 1.4% 0.6% 1.4%
January 68.9% 15.8% 5.5% 0.4% 1.5% 0.5% 1.5%
               
2003 IE6 IE5 Moz N3 N7 N4 O7
November 71.2% 13.7% 7.2% 0.5% 1.6% 0.5% 1.9%
September 69.7% 16.9% 6.2% 0.6% 1.5% 0.6% 1.8%
July 66.9% 20.3% 5.7% 0.6% 1.5% 0.6% 1.7%
May 65.0% 22.7% 4.6% 1.0% 1.4% 0.9% 1.4%
March 63.4% 24.6% 4.2% 0.9% 1.4% 1.1% 1.2%
January 55.3% 29.3% 4.0% 1.2% 1.1% 1.7%  
               
2002 IE6 IE5 AOL N3 N5 N4 IE4
November 53.5% 29.9% 5.2% 1.1% 4.9% 2.0%  
September 49.1% 34.4% 4.5% 1.3% 4.5% 2.2%  
July 44.4% 40.1% 3.5% 1.2% 3.5% 2.6% 0.5%
May 40.7% 46.0% 2.8% 1.2% 2.7% 3.4% 0.7%
March 36.7% 49.4% 3.0% 1.2% 2.4% 4.1% 0.7%
January 30.1% 55.7% 2.8% 1.3% 2.2% 4.4% 1.0%


IE Internet Explorer
Fx Firefox (identified as Mozilla before 2005)
Chrome Google Chrome
Moz The Mozilla Suite (Gecko, Netscape)
S Safari (and Konqueror. Both identified as Mozilla before 2007)
O Opera
N Netscape (identified as Mozilla after 2006)
AOL America Online (based on both Internet Explorer and Mozilla)

Browsers that count for less than 0.5% are not listed.

W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to use Internet Explorer, since it comes preinstalled with Windows. Most do not seek out other browsers.

These facts indicate that the browser figures above are not 100% realistic. Other web sites have statistics showing that Internet Explorer is used by at least 80% of the users.

Anyway, our data, collected from W3Schools' log-files, over a five year period, clearly shows the long and medium-term trends.


JavaScript Statistics

There are no absolute trends about the use of JavaScript. Some users have scripting turned off. Some browsers don't support scripting:

Date JavaScript On JavaScript Off
January 2008 95% 5%
January 2007 94% 6%
January 2006 90% 10%
January 2005 89% 11%
January 2004 92% 8%
January 2003 89%  11%
January 2002 88% 12%
January 2001 81% 19%
January 2000 80% 20%


Other Statistics

Operating system statistics

Browser display statistics


Statistics Are Often Misleading

You cannot - as a web developer - rely only on statistics. Statistics can often be misleading.

Global averages may not always be relevant to your web site. Different sites attract different audiences. Some web sites attract professional developers using professional hardware, while other sites attract hobbyists using old low spec computers.

Also be aware that  many statistics may have an incomplete or faulty browser detection. It is quite common by many web-stats report programs, not to detect the newest browsers.

(The statistics above are extracted from W3Schools' log-files, but we are also monitoring other sources around the Internet to assure the quality of these figures).


Quotes

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
Oscar Wilde

"First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure."
Mark Twain


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From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)