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English Wikipedia
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<p>The English Wikipedia is the primary <a href="/facts/English_language/tpkxGt7b">English-language</a> edition of <a href="/facts/Wikipedia/KDRNKWnc">Wikipedia</a>, an online encyclopedia. It was created by <a href="/facts/Jimmy_Wales/cW8d7ncd">Jimmy Wales</a> and <a href="/facts/Larry_Sanger/weF16wSV">Larry Sanger</a> on 15 January 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition. </p><p>English Wikipedia is hosted alongside <a href="/facts/List_of_Wikipedias/KDRNKWnc">other language editions</a> by the <a href="/facts/Wikimedia_Foundation/W1XHdpK2">Wikimedia Foundation</a>, an <a href="/facts/501(c)(3)_organization/4KIsNFYp">American nonprofit organization</a>. Its content, written independently of other editions by volunteer editors known as <a href="/facts/Wikipedians/og34SNfy">Wikipedians</a>, is in various <a href="/facts/List_of_dialects_of_English/FTceHImh">varieties of English</a> while aiming to stay consistent within articles. Its internal newspaper is <i><a href="/facts/The_Signpost/LNBF4NKo">The Signpost</a></i>. </p><p>English Wikipedia is the <a href="/facts/Wikipedia_page_views_by_language/YVfKb7CU">most-read version of Wikipedia</a>, accounting for 48% of Wikipedia's cumulative traffic, with the remaining percentage split among the other languages. The English Wikipedia has the most articles of any edition, at 6,992,924 as of May 2025. It contains 10.8% of articles in all Wikipedias, although it lacks millions of articles found in other editions. The edition's one-billionth edit was made on 13 January 2021. </p><p>English Wikipedia, often as a stand-in for Wikipedia overall, has been praised for its enablement of the <a href="/facts/Democratization_of_knowledge/XWGBX9Kn">democratization of knowledge</a>, extent of coverage, unique structure, culture, and reduced degree of commercial bias. <a href="/facts/Criticism_of_Wikipedia/8am4351j">It has been criticized</a> for exhibiting <a href="/facts/Criticism_of_Wikipedia/8am4351j">systemic bias</a>, particularly <a href="/facts/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia/mFucIW9M">gender bias</a> against women and <a href="/facts/Ideological_bias_on_Wikipedia/BpQFPMjL">ideological bias</a>. While <a href="/facts/Reliability_of_Wikipedia/1AHqFf4N">its reliability</a> was frequently criticized in the 2000s, it has improved over time, receiving greater praise in the late 2010s and early 2020s, having become <a href="/facts/Wikipedia_and_fact-checking/4QlJ6Qgz">an important fact-checking site</a>. English Wikipedia has been characterized as having less <a href="/facts/Cultural_bias/BeTv4b6h">cultural bias</a> than other language editions due to its broader editor base. </p>