# Worldometer > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Worldometer > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Worldometer.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldometer > Source revision: 1337790301 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Reference website for real-time statistics Worldometer Type of site Real-time statistics Founded 2004; 22 years ago (2004) Country of origin United States of America Founder Andrey Alimetov Services Statistics counters Parent Dadax Limited URL www.worldometers.info **Worldometer**,[1] formerly **Worldometers**, is a reference website that provides counters and [real-time](/source/Real-time_data) statistics for diverse topics. It is owned and operated by a data company named Dadax, which generates revenue through [online advertising](/source/Online_advertising).[2][3][4] It is available in 31 languages and covers subjects such as government, world population, economics, society, media, environment, food and water, energy, and health.[5] In early 2020, the website attained greater popularity due to hosting statistics relating to the [COVID-19 pandemic](/source/COVID-19_pandemic). ## History The website was founded by Andrey Alimetov, a Russian immigrant to the United States, in 2004.[2][6] In 2011, it was voted as one of the best free reference websites by the [American Library Association](/source/American_Library_Association).[5] This site changed its name from "Worldometers" to "Worldometer" in January 2020 and announced that it would migrate to the singular domain name.[1][2] ### COVID-19 pandemic In early 2020, the website gained popularity during the [COVID-19 pandemic](/source/COVID-19_pandemic). It came under [cyber attack](/source/Cyber_attack) in March 2020. The site was hit with a [DDoS attack](/source/DDoS_attack), and was then hacked a few days later, resulting in incorrect information being shown on its [COVID-19](/source/COVID-19) statistics page for approximately 20 minutes. The hacked site showed a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases in [Vatican City](/source/Vatican_City), which caused panic among some users of social media.[7] The Spanish government used its figures to claim that it had carried out more tests than all but four other countries.[2] Worldometers' COVID-19 figures have also been cited by *[Financial Times](/source/Financial_Times)*, *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*, *[The Washington Post](/source/The_Washington_Post)*, *[CNN](/source/CNN)*, and *[Rede Globo](/source/Rede_Globo)*. Worldometer has faced some criticism over transparency of ownership, lack of citations to data sources, and unreliability of its COVID-19 statistics and live rankings.[2] In April 2020, editors of the [English Wikipedia](/source/English_Wikipedia) decided that Worldometer's COVID-19 figures are often unreliable and should not be cited in any pages related to the pandemic.[2][6] ## Reception Edouard Mathieu, the data manager of [Our World in Data](/source/Our_World_in_Data), stated that "Their main focus seems to be having the latest number [of COVID-19 cases] wherever it comes from, whether it's reliable or not, whether it's well-sourced or not."[2] Virginia Pitzer, a [Yale University](/source/Yale_University) epidemiologist, said that the site is "legitimate", but flawed, inconsistent, and containing errors.[2] According to *[Axios](/source/Axios_(website))*, at the peak of user interest,[8] the website was the #28 most visited website in the world in April 2020. A plurality (25.8%) of visitors came from the United States, followed by Japan (17.9%), India (8.67%), the United Kingdom (6.6%), South Korea (5.8%), Canada (5.18%), Germany (3.13%), Australia (2.49%), Poland (2.18%), France (1.73%), Turkey (1.66%), Brazil (1.65%) and Argentina (1.52%).[9] By March 2023, according to traffic data from [Similarweb](/source/Similarweb), Worldometer had dropped to the 5,963rd global place.[10] ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Name_FAQ_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Name_FAQ_1-1) ["FAQ: Is it 'Worldometer' or 'Worldometers' (with a final 's')?"](https://www.worldometers.info/faq/#content-icon-v2-left-4c). *Worldometer*. Retrieved March 25, 2020. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-cnn_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-cnn_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-cnn_2-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-cnn_2-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-cnn_2-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-cnn_2-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-cnn_2-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-cnn_2-7) Scott McLean; Laura Perez Maestro; Sergio Hernandez; Gianluca Mezzofiore; Katie Polglase (May 19, 2020). ["The Covid-19 pandemic has catapulted one mysterious data website to prominence, sowing confusion in international rankings"](https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/05/world/worldometer-coronavirus-mystery/index.html). *CNN*. Retrieved January 31, 2022. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Site of the week: Worldometers"](https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20140712/283729837399064). *[Toronto Star](/source/Toronto_Star)*. July 12, 2014 – via www.pressreader.com. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["About Worldometer"](https://www.worldometers.info/about/). *Worldometer*. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-NatLib_NZ_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-NatLib_NZ_5-1) ["Worldometers – real time statistics | Blog | National Library of New Zealand"](https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/worldometers-real-time-statistics). *natlib.govt.nz*. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-ns_6-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-ns_6-1) Dyer, Henry (May 7, 2020). ["The story of Worldometer, the quick project that became one of the most popular sites on the internet"](https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/coronavirus/2020/05/story-worldometer-quick-project-became-one-most-popular-sites). *[New Statesman](/source/New_Statesman)*. Retrieved June 21, 2020. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["Updates tracking website Worldometers hit by cyber attack"](https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/03/16/false-report-of-900k-dead-in-vatican-city-last-night-i-nearly-fell-off-my-chair-reading-it/). *Euro Weekly News*. March 16, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2020. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Google Trends"](https://web.archive.org/web/20230417145342/https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=Worldometer&hl=fr). *Google Trends* (in French). Archived from [the original](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=Worldometer&hl=fr) on April 17, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Fischer, Sara (May 12, 2020). ["Statistics website Worldometer sees unprecedented online traffic amid coronavirus"](https://www.axios.com/worldometer-coronavirus-78664b26-5cfd-4887-a8e6-2eda0db7daa7.html). *Axios*. Retrieved June 21, 2020. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** ["worldometers.info Traffic Analysis & Market Share | Similarweb"](https://www.similarweb.com/website/worldometers.info/#overview). *Similarweb*. April 17, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023. ## External links - [Official website](https://www.worldometers.info) (in Indonesian, Czech, Danish, German, English, Spanish, French, Croatian, Italian, Hungarian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish, Turkish, Greek, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese) - [Worldometer COVID-19 statistics page](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Worldometer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldometer) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldometer?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.