Australian WikiProjects and Popular Pages

Observations on popular Wikipedia pages within Australia vs Globally

24 April 2023, James Gaunt.

This post is a draft and is subject to change without notice.

Last year, we wrote about 2022's Most Viewed Wikipedia Pages In Australia. That looked at what Wikipedia pages Australians were viewing, and featured a mix of topics from around the world.

To get a better idea of the Australian topics the Wikipedia community engage with, we can look at WikiProject's who focus on improving Australian content.

What's a WikiProject?

A WikiProject is the name used for a group of contributors who want to work together to improve Wikipedia. These projects often focus on a specific topic area (for example, WikiProject Australia or WikiProject Australian Music), and English Wikipedia currently has over 2,000 WikiProjects.

Each WikiProject has its own project page for sharing information, resources, and discussion. In Australia we have over 40 projects on various topics:

WikiProject Australian places: New South Wales (Riverina), Northern Territory, Queensland

New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Australian Antarctic Territory

Australian WikiProject Cities: Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Geelong, Sydney

Other Australia-related WikiProjects: Biota, Cinema, Crime, Demographics, Education, History (Exploration, Maritime, Military), Indigenous peoples, Law, Literature, Music (Crowded House, Kylie Minogue, Powderfinger), Politics, Sports (Australian rules football, Baseball, Basketball, Football (soccer), Motorsport,) Television, Roads.

Some are more active than others, but the main WikiProject used is WikiProject Australia. This is where a lot of discussion on Australian Wikipedia content is had, and it can be a useful place to ask for help.

Anyone can join a WikiProject, and it's not just Australians contributing, as WikiProjects are open to everyone.

WikiProject Australia popular pages stats vs Australia’s most viewed pages stats

Many of WikiProject pages list pages popularity stats for Wikipedia pages within their project scope. These include the total number of page views, and daily average of views, and are global stats showing the page popularity from all visitors to English Wikipedia. See for example, WikiProject Australia Popular pages list.

Between December 2021 and November 2022, the pages with the most views were often similar month to month, with pages relating to the British Royal Family and World Wars ranking high.

Articles like World Wars will be included in WikiProjects from many countries, but if we exclude articles that are part of other international projects, the most popular pages include:

• Australia
• Cate Blanchett
• Nicole Kidman
• Julian Assange
• Michael Masi
• Chris Hemsworth
• Kelly Preston
• Sarah Snook
• Jacob Elordi
• Heath Ledger
• 2022 Australian Open – Women's singles
• XXXX (beer)

The popularity of these articles often follows news trends. So, in January 2022, articles around the Australian Open tennis tournament were popular. In May, when the Australian Federal Election was held, Anthony Albanese was popular, and in August when Olivia Newton-John died their Wikipedia page views also increased.

Comparing these stats to the 2022 most viewed pages can be done by combining their totals.

There were 769 different pages listed in the WikiProject Australia Popular pages between December 2021 and November 2022. See the full list here.

Across both the most viewed and popular pages lists, there are 100 pages that appear on both and another 1065 pages not appearing on both lists.

During this period, globally the Wikipedia article for Elizabeth II received 45,184,374 views. In Australia alone it received 1,479,900. It was the most viewed and most popular page on both lists.

Anthony Albanese was the second most viewed page in Australia, but not the most popular in the world, receiving 2,321,814 views globally and 1,148,300 views within Australia.

The Wikipedia article for Australia was the third most viewed in Australia, receiving 7,379,697 views globally and 1,005,000 views within Australia.

To see the complete list of articles compared from both lists click here.

Of those that are popular globally, but not so much within Australia, most of the top entries are entertainers. The Top 20 are:

1. XXXX (beer)
2. World War II
3. Heath Ledger
4. Vietnam War
5. Nicole Kidman
6. Margot Robbie
7. Cate Blanchett
8. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
9. Naomi Watts
10. Gulf War
11. Kyrie Irving
12. Kelly Preston
13. Rupert Murdoch
14. Football
15. House of Windsor
16. Liam Hemsworth
17. Hugh Jackman
18. Canva
19. G20
20. AC/DC