---
title: "WordPress Core Web Vitals: Only 38% of Sites Pass (2026)"
description: "38.4 percent of WordPress sites pass Core Web Vitals versus 44.1 for the rest of the web, and it is entirely a load-time problem. 2.98 million origins."
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Data Study · WordPress
# Only 38.4% of WordPress Sites Pass Core Web Vitals
Written by [Matt Suffoletto](/resources/author/matt-suffoletto)
Published July 16, 2026 6 min read
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On This Page
- [Methodology](#methodology-source "Methodology")
- [Key Findings](#key-findings "Key Findings")
- [Summary](#summary "Summary")
- [What the Data Covers](#what-the-data-covers "What the Data Covers")
- [The Gap Is Entirely Loading](#the-gap-is-real-and-it-is-entirely-loading "The Gap Is Entirely Loading")
- [Why the Pattern Follows](#why-the-pattern-follows-from-what-wordpress-is "Why the Pattern Follows")
- [Put Every Hour Into Loading](#put-every-hour-into-loading "Put Every Hour Into Loading")
- [Embed & cite](#embed "Embed & cite")
- [FAQ](#faq "FAQ")
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Is WordPress really slow? We checked the Core Web Vitals of nearly 3 million WordPress sites against the rest of the web. WordPress passes 38.4% of the time versus 44.1% for everything else, and the entire gap is load time. On responsiveness and stability, WordPress wins.
Analysis of 15.7M origins · CrUX, May 2026
Part of our [WordPress Speed Statistics 2026](/resources/statistics/wordpress) research.
## Methodology & Source
Data source
Chrome UX Report (CrUX) real-user field data joined to per-site technology fingerprints
Collection date
May 2026
Notes
CrUX-covered origins from a 15.7 million origin table, split by whether WordPress was detected in the stack, measured on mobile at the 75th percentile. A site passes only when LCP, INP, and CLS are all present and good; too little traffic to report an INP value counts as not passing, the strict basis used across every PageSpeed Matters study.
## Key Findings
1. 1. [**38.4%** of WordPress sites pass Core Web Vitals on mobile, versus **44.1%** for the rest of the web. A gap of 5.7 points, and WordPress is on the wrong side of it. ](#the-gap-is-real-and-it-is-entirely-loading) Copy stat
2. 2. [The entire gap is loading. Only **59.2%** of WordPress sites have good LCP, versus **72.5%** for everything else, driven by heavy themes, stacked plugins, and unoptimized images. ](#the-gap-is-real-and-it-is-entirely-loading) Copy stat
3. 3. [WordPress beats the rest of the web on responsiveness: **93.8%** good INP, versus **81.0%** elsewhere. ](#the-gap-is-real-and-it-is-entirely-loading) Copy stat
4. 4. [WordPress also wins on layout stability: **91.5%** good CLS, versus **86.7%** for non-WordPress sites. ](#the-gap-is-real-and-it-is-entirely-loading) Copy stat
5. 5. [The median WordPress site loads in **2.3 seconds**, versus **1.8 seconds** for everything else. Slower, and the one number worth moving. ](#why-the-pattern-follows-from-what-wordpress-is) Copy stat
6. 6. [WordPress runs about a third of all measured sites, more than every other content management system combined, so its single weak spot, loading, is one of the highest-impact fixes on the web. ](#put-every-hour-into-loading) Copy stat
## Summary
WordPress is slow is one of the web's most durable beliefs, and it is exactly half right. Across nearly 3 million WordPress sites, 38.4% pass Google's Core Web Vitals on mobile, against 44.1% for everything else. WordPress is behind, but for one specific and fixable reason: load time. The moment a visitor actually tries to interact, WordPress is faster than the average site on the web. It loses in one place and wins in the other two.
This matters because WordPress runs about a third of all measured sites, more than every other content management system combined. Its single weak spot is therefore one of the highest-impact fixes on the entire web, and for any individual owner it is money on the table. Slow loading depresses conversions, drives up bounce, and costs search visibility, since Google treats loading, responsiveness, and stability as ranking signals. A faster WordPress site sells more, keeps more readers, and ranks higher, and the gap to close is smaller than the reputation suggests.
These numbers come from Google's Chrome User Experience Report, the real-user field data collected from the Chrome browsers of actual visitors, joined to per-site technology fingerprints that identify the stack, the same field signals Google's ranking systems use. That combination lets us separate WordPress sites from the rest of the web at a scale no lab test could reach.
## What the data covers
We took CrUX-covered origins from a table of 15.7 million and split them by whether WordPress was detected in the stack, measuring each on mobile at the 75th percentile against Google's [Core Web Vitals](/resources/guides/complete-core-web-vitals-guide) thresholds: 2.98 million WordPress origins against 6.59 million non-WordPress ones. Passing means clearing all three metrics at once: good loading (Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds), good responsiveness (Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds), and good visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1), for the three-quarters of real visitors who define the typical experience.
## The gap is real, and it is entirely loading
At the platform-average level the popular belief holds: WordPress passes 38.4% of the time versus 44.1% for the rest of the web, a gap of 5.7 points, and it is the same 38.4% [our CMS benchmark reports](/resources/data-studies/core-web-vitals-by-cms), where WordPress lands at the bottom of every major platform. But break the pass rate into its three components and WordPress is not behind everywhere. It is behind in exactly one place.
On loading, only 59.2% of WordPress sites have good Largest Contentful Paint, versus 72.5% elsewhere, a 13-point deficit that accounts for the entire gap. On responsiveness WordPress is ahead, 93.8% versus 81.0%. On visual stability it is ahead again, 91.5% versus 86.7%. The median WordPress site loads in 2.3 seconds against 1.8 for everything else. The one metric WordPress loses is the one dragging the whole platform down, and it is the most fixable of the three.
38.4%
Share of WordPress sites that pass Core Web Vitals on mobile, versus 44.1% for the rest of the web. Copy stat
Core Web Vitals pass rate, WordPress vs the rest of the web (mobile)
Rest of the web
44.1%
WordPress
38.4%
Source: PageSpeed Matters, 2.98M WordPress and 6.59M non-WordPress CrUX-covered origins, May 2026.
A 5.7-point gap, and all of it is load time. WordPress is behind in exactly one place and ahead in the other two.
Copy chart embed Download PNG
Good Core Web Vitals by metric, WordPress sites (mobile)
Good INP (responsiveness)
93.8%
Good CLS (stability)
91.5%
Good LCP (loading)
59.2%
Source: PageSpeed Matters analysis of 2.98M WordPress origins with CrUX field data, May 2026.
WordPress interacts and holds still better than the average site. Only 59% have good loading, and that single metric caps the platform.
Copy chart embed Download PNG
## Why the pattern follows from what WordPress is
The pattern follows directly from what WordPress is. It is a server-rendered PHP application that ships a page of HTML and a light dusting of JavaScript. What drags its LCP down is the payload: [bulky themes and a wall of plugins](/resources/data-studies/wordpress-page-builders-core-web-vitals), plus big unoptimized hero images loading before the main content paints. Left unmanaged, those choices compound into slow loading.
That same server-rendered simplicity is why WordPress interacts so well. There is no heavy client-side framework hydrating and blocking the main thread, so taps land fast and layouts hold still. The parts of the web that lose to WordPress on responsiveness are the JavaScript-heavy single-page apps, the modern stacks that were supposed to be faster. WordPress's weakness is a configuration outcome, not an architectural ceiling, which is why it responds so well to a short list of fixes.
**Metric (mobile, 75th pct)**
**WordPress**
**Rest of the web**
Pass all three Core Web Vitals
38.4%
44.1%
Good LCP (loading)
59.2%
72.5%
Good INP (responsiveness)
93.8%
81.0%
Good CLS (stability)
91.5%
86.7%
Median LCP
2.3s
1.8s
WordPress loses on loading, wins on responsiveness and stability. The overall gap is real and entirely LCP-shaped. WordPress n = 2.98M [CrUX](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/crux)\-covered origins, rest of web n = 6.59M.
2.3s
Median WordPress site load time, versus 1.8 seconds for the rest of the web. The one number worth moving. Copy stat
## Put every hour into loading
The diagnosis for a WordPress site is narrow. Its 93.8% good-INP and 91.5% good-CLS already beat the rest of the web, so responsiveness and stability are not where the 5.7-point pass-rate gap comes from. The gap is loading: 59.2% good LCP against 72.5% elsewhere, and a 2.3-second median against 1.8. Every hour you spend on speed should go there.
Three levers close most of that 13-point LCP deficit, and none of them require leaving WordPress. Serve modern image formats with a [right-sized hero](/resources/data-studies/image-formats-of-the-web) so the largest paint is not a heavy photo. [Turn on caching and a CDN](/resources/data-studies/hosting-provider-speed) so the PHP page ships fast. Keep the theme and plugin stack lean so the page is not carrying weight the site never needed. Do those and a WordPress site loads close to the 1.8-second web average while keeping the INP and CLS lead it already holds.
The proof that this is a configuration problem and not a platform ceiling is that more than a million WordPress sites already pass. WordPress runs about a third of every measured site, so this one fixable metric is among the highest-return work available to any owner on the web.
## Embed this research
Paste this on your site to embed the chart. It links back to the source automatically.
Source: Only 38.4% of WordPress Sites Pass Core Web Vitals - PageSpeed Matters
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## Cite this study
APA Copy
Matt Suffoletto. (2026). Only 38.4% of WordPress Sites Pass Core Web Vitals. PageSpeed Matters. https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/average-wordpress-site-speed
Plain link Copy
Only 38.4% of WordPress Sites Pass Core Web Vitals - PageSpeed Matters - https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/average-wordpress-site-speed
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## Frequently asked questions
### How many WordPress sites pass Core Web Vitals?
Only 38.4% of WordPress Sites Pass Core Web Vitals.
### How was this measured?
Chrome UX Report (CrUX) real-user field data joined to per-site technology fingerprints (May 2026). CrUX-covered origins from a 15.7 million origin table, split by whether WordPress was detected in the stack, measured on mobile at the 75th percentile. A site passes only when LCP, INP, and CLS are all present and good; too little traffic to report an INP value counts as not passing, the strict basis used across every PageSpeed Matters study.
## Related studies
- [CMS WordPress Passes Core Web Vitals Least Often of Any Major CMS, at 38.4% ](/resources/data-studies/core-web-vitals-by-cms)
- [WordPress Elementor Is the Slowest Major WordPress Page Builder, Passing on 30% of Sites ](/resources/data-studies/wordpress-page-builders-core-web-vitals)
- [Hosting Web Hosting Speed Compared: Pantheon Passes 61.2%, Bluehost 30.4% ](/resources/data-studies/hosting-provider-speed)
- [Local Local Business Website Speed: 52.2% of 'Near Me' Winners Pass Core Web Vitals ](/resources/data-studies/near-me-local-business-speed)
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