Catalan Wikipedia punches above its weight as online encyclopedia turns 25

Wikipedia celebrates its 25th anniversary this Thursday, with the Catalan edition standing out as the only version to currently have all 10,000 articles deemed essential by the online encyclopedia.

Created in March 2001, shortly after the launch of the original English Wikipedia, the Catalan‑language edition known as Viquipèdia now sits around 20th in article count with almost 800,000 entries, about 1.2% of Wikipedia's 66 million total.

While trailing major languages like English, Spanish, and Chinese, Catalan surpasses several languages with a comparable number of speakers, including Serbian, Bulgarian, Finnish, and Armenian.

Wikipedia has established a list of 10,000 basic articles that every edition should have, including entries on Catalan figures such as Antoni Gaudí, Salvador Dalí, and Joan Miró, and landmarks like the city of Barcelona and the Sagrada Família.

Ahead of the 25-year milestone, the Catalan News Agency (ACN) confirmed that the Catalan edition is the only one that currently has all 10,000 articles.

Wikipedia sources note that the number is fluid, and other editions occasionally reach the target while the Catalan edition may temporarily fall below it.

The English-language Wikipedia launched on January 15, 2001, followed two months later by the Catalan edition, making it the first Wikipedia after English to publish articles. Viquipèdia's oldest entry, àbac (abacus) is also one of the first entries you'd find in a Catalan dictionary.

Over the years, Viquipèdia has seen more than 36 million edits from a community of over 500,000 registered users. Currently, around 2,100 users contribute actively, with 26 serving as administrators.

Podcast

To learn more about the Catalan Wikipedia, or Wikipedia's blind spots around gender bias and Eurocentrism, listen to the podcast below from our archives.