Jean-Baptiste Audras shared some fascinating stats and colorful charts on core contributions focusing on people and companies who contributed to the WordPress 5.6 release. You may recall it was directed by a 100% female Release Squad. Some highlights:
- 605 people contributed to WordPress 5.6. Of these, 236 (39%) had never contributed to WordPress source code before. 🙌
- Of the 57 countries represented by contributors to 5.6, the US once again had the largest number (121), followed by India (46) and then the UK (24). 🌏
- Of the 57 companies that contributed to WordPress 5.6, Automattic had by far the most contributors, with 70 people credited. Yoast is still the second biggest contributor with 16 people. 10up came third with 8 people. Then we have a group with 5 contributors each: Human Made, GoDaddy, WP Engine, and rtCamp. Google closed the lead group with 4 contributors.
I also took note of this comment on Twitter by John James Jacoby:
“Automattic’s ability to devote more staff resources to navigate the growing complexity of teams, processes, history, and initiatives gives them a disproportionate advantage when it comes to influencing the future of WordPress.”
