From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)
What is the trend in browser usage?
Statistics are important information. From the statistics below, you can see that Internet Explorer and Firefox are the most common browsers.
| 2009 | IE7 | IE6 | IE8 | Fx | Chrome | S | O |
| January | 25.7% | 18.5% | 0.6% | 45.5% | 3.9% | 3.0% | 2.3% |
| 2008 | IE7 | IE6 | IE5 | Fx | Chrome | S | O |
| December | 26.1% | 19.6% | 44.4% | 3.6% | 2.7% | 2.4% | |
| November | 26.6% | 20.0% | 44.2% | 3.1% | 2.7% | 2.3% | |
| October | 26.9% | 20.2% | 44.0% | 3.0% | 2.8% | 2.2% | |
| September | 26.3% | 22.3% | 42.6% | 3.1% | 2.7% | 2.0% | |
| August | 26.0% | 24.5% | 43.7% | 2.6% | 2.1% | ||
| July | 26.4% | 25.3% | 42.6% | 2.5% | 1.9% | ||
| June | 27.0% | 26.5% | 0.5% | 41.0% | 2.6% | 1.7% | |
| May | 26.5% | 27.3% | 0.7% | 39.8% | 2.4% | 1.5% | |
| April | 24.9% | 28.9% | 1.0% | 39.1% | 2.2% | 1.4% | |
| March | 23.3% | 29.5% | 1.1% | 37.0% | 2.1% | 1.4% | |
| February | 22.7% | 30.7% | 1.3% | 36.5% | 2.0% | 1.4% | |
| January | 21.2% | 32.0% | 1.5% | 36.4% | 1.9% | 1.4% | |
| 2007 | IE7 | IE6 | IE5 | Fx | Moz | S | O |
| November | 20.8% | 33.6% | 1.6% | 36.3% | 1.2% | 1.8% | 1.6% |
| September | 20.8% | 34.9% | 1.5% | 35.4% | 1.2% | 1.6% | 1.5% |
| July | 20.1% | 36.9% | 1.5% | 34.5% | 1.4% | 1.5% | 1.9% |
| May | 19.2% | 38.1% | 1.6% | 33.7% | 1.3% | 1.5% | 1.7% |
| March | 18.0% | 38.7% | 2.0% | 31.8% | 1.3% | 1.6% | 1.6% |
| January | 13.3% | 42.3% | 3.0% | 31.0% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1.5% |
| 2006 | IE7 | IE6 | IE5 | Fx | Moz | N7/8 | O |
| November | 7.1% | 49.9% | 3.6% | 29.9% | 2.5% | 0.2% | 1.5% |
| September | 2.5% | 55.6% | 4.0% | 27.3% | 2.3% | 0.4% | 1.6% |
| July | 1.9% | 56.3% | 4.2% | 25.5% | 2.3% | 0.4% | 1.4% |
| May | 1.1% | 57.4% | 4.5% | 25.7% | 2.3% | 0.3% | 1.5% |
| March | 0.6% | 58.8% | 5.3% | 24.5% | 2.4% | 0.5% | 1.5% |
| January | 0.2% | 60.3% | 5.5% | 25.0% | 3.1% | 0.5% | 1.6% |
| 2005 | IE6 | IE5 | Fx | Moz | N7 | O8 | O7 |
| November | 62.7% | 6.2% | 23.6% | 2.8% | 0.4% | 1.3% | 0.2% |
| September | 69.8% | 5.7% | 18.0% | 2.5% | 0.4% | 1.0% | 0.2% |
| July | 67.9% | 5.9% | 19.8% | 2.6% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 0.4% |
| May | 64.8% | 6.8% | 21.0% | 3.1% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.6% |
| March | 63.6% | 8.9% | 18.9% | 3.3% | 1.0% | 0.3% | 1.6% |
| January | 64.8% | 9.7% | 16.6% | 3.4% | 1.1% | 1.9% | |
| 2004 | IE6 | IE5 | Moz | N3 | N7 | N4 | O7 |
| November | 66.0% | 10.2% | 16.5% | 0.2% | 1.2% | 0.3% | 1.6% |
| September | 67.8% | 11.2% | 13.7% | 0.3% | 1.4% | 0.3% | 1.7% |
| July | 67.2% | 13.2% | 12.6% | 0.4% | 1.4% | 0.4% | 1.6% |
| May | 68.1% | 13.8% | 9.5% | 0.6% | 1.4% | 0.4% | 1.6% |
| March | 68.2% | 14.6% | 7.9% | 0.8% | 1.4% | 0.6% | 1.4% |
| January | 68.9% | 15.8% | 5.5% | 0.4% | 1.5% | 0.5% | 1.5% |
| 2003 | IE6 | IE5 | Moz | N3 | N7 | N4 | O7 |
| November | 71.2% | 13.7% | 7.2% | 0.5% | 1.6% | 0.5% | 1.9% |
| September | 69.7% | 16.9% | 6.2% | 0.6% | 1.5% | 0.6% | 1.8% |
| July | 66.9% | 20.3% | 5.7% | 0.6% | 1.5% | 0.6% | 1.7% |
| May | 65.0% | 22.7% | 4.6% | 1.0% | 1.4% | 0.9% | 1.4% |
| March | 63.4% | 24.6% | 4.2% | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1.1% | 1.2% |
| January | 55.3% | 29.3% | 4.0% | 1.2% | 1.1% | 1.7% | |
| 2002 | IE6 | IE5 | AOL | N3 | N5 | N4 | IE4 |
| November | 53.5% | 29.9% | 5.2% | 1.1% | 4.9% | 2.0% | |
| September | 49.1% | 34.4% | 4.5% | 1.3% | 4.5% | 2.2% | |
| July | 44.4% | 40.1% | 3.5% | 1.2% | 3.5% | 2.6% | 0.5% |
| May | 40.7% | 46.0% | 2.8% | 1.2% | 2.7% | 3.4% | 0.7% |
| March | 36.7% | 49.4% | 3.0% | 1.2% | 2.4% | 4.1% | 0.7% |
| January | 30.1% | 55.7% | 2.8% | 1.3% | 2.2% | 4.4% | 1.0% |
| IE | Internet Explorer |
| Fx | Firefox (identified as Mozilla before 2005) |
| Chrome | Google Chrome |
| Moz | The Mozilla Suite (Gecko, Netscape) |
| S | Safari (and Konqueror. Both identified as Mozilla before 2007) |
| O | Opera |
| N | Netscape (identified as Mozilla after 2006) |
| AOL | America Online (based on both Internet Explorer and Mozilla) |
Browsers that count for less than 0.5% are not listed.
W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to use Internet Explorer, since it comes preinstalled with Windows. Most do not seek out other browsers.
These facts indicate that the browser figures above are not 100% realistic. Other web sites have statistics showing that Internet Explorer is used by at least 80% of the users.
Anyway, our data, collected from W3Schools' log-files, over a five year period, clearly shows the long and medium-term trends.
There are no absolute trends about the use of JavaScript. Some users have scripting turned off. Some browsers don't support scripting:
| Date | JavaScript On | JavaScript Off |
| January 2008 | 95% | 5% |
| January 2007 | 94% | 6% |
| January 2006 | 90% | 10% |
| January 2005 | 89% | 11% |
| January 2004 | 92% | 8% |
| January 2003 | 89% | 11% |
| January 2002 | 88% | 12% |
| January 2001 | 81% | 19% |
| January 2000 | 80% | 20% |
You cannot - as a web developer - rely only on statistics. Statistics can often be misleading.
Global averages may not always be relevant to your web site. Different sites attract different audiences. Some web sites attract professional developers using professional hardware, while other sites attract hobbyists using old low spec computers.
Also be aware that many statistics may have an incomplete or faulty browser detection. It is quite common by many web-stats report programs, not to detect the newest browsers.
(The statistics above are extracted from W3Schools' log-files, but we are also monitoring other sources around the Internet to assure the quality of these figures).
"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
Oscar Wilde
"First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure."
Mark Twain
From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)