[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #62622: Bump minimum PHP version to 7.4

Thu Jan 1 17:34:29 UTC 2026

#62622: Bump minimum PHP version to 7.4
--------------------------------------+--------------------------
 Reporter:  justlevine                |       Owner:  johnbillion
     Type:  enhancement               |      Status:  accepted
 Priority:  normal                    |   Milestone:  7.0
Component:  General                   |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                    |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch has-unit-tests  |     Focuses:
--------------------------------------+--------------------------

Comment (by samiamnot):

 Updated for early Jan 2026 based on [https://wordpress.org/about/stats/
 WordPress stats].

 7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported
 by WordPress, continued dropping and reached 3.87%. This is a reduction of
 0.11% since last month.

 The percentage of sites on unsupported PHP versions (PHP 5.2 - 7.3) stands
 at 7.61% of sites. Many are old abandoned sites that are unlikely to be
 updated.

 ||='''Month/Year'''=||='''PHP 7.2'''=||='''PHP 7.3'''=||='''PHP 7.2 +
 7.3'''=||
 ||Jul 2023|| 6.48|| 8.16|| '''14.64%'''||
 ||Aug 2023|| 5.64|| 7.62|| '''13.26%'''||
 ||Sep 2023|| 5.55|| 7.18|| '''12.73%'''||
 ||Oct 2023|| 5.31|| 6.87|| '''12.18%'''||
 ||Nov 2023|| 5.20|| 6.51|| '''11.71%'''||
 ||Dec 2023|| 5.08|| 6.17|| '''11.25%'''||
 ||Jan 2024|| 4.79|| 5.90|| '''10.69%'''||
 ||Feb 2024|| 4.67|| 5.54|| '''10.21%'''||
 ||Mar 2024|| 4.30|| 5.11|| '''9.41%'''||
 ||Apr 2024|| 3.80|| 4.79|| '''8.59%'''||
 ||May 2024|| 3.63|| 4.52|| '''8.15%'''||
 ||Jun 2024|| 3.46|| 4.30|| '''7.76%'''||
 ||Jul 2024|| 3.33|| 4.10|| '''7.43%'''||
 ||Aug 2024|| 3.18|| 3.90|| '''7.08%'''||
 ||Sep 2024|| 3.05|| 3.73|| '''6.78%'''||
 ||Oct 2024|| 2.93|| 3.56|| '''6.49%'''||
 ||Nov 2024|| 2.83|| 3.40|| '''6.23%'''||
 ||Dec 2024|| 2.76|| 3.26|| '''6.02%'''||
 ||Jan 2025|| 2.68|| 3.14|| '''5.82%'''||
 ||Feb 2025|| 2.63|| 3.04|| '''5.67%'''||
 ||Mar 2025|| 2.50|| 2.93|| '''5.43%'''||
 ||Apr 2025|| 2.39|| 2.77|| '''5.16%'''||
 ||May 2025|| 2.30|| 2.67|| '''4.97%'''||
 ||Jun 2025|| 2.22|| 2.56|| '''4.78%'''||
 ||Jul 2025|| 2.16|| 2.47|| '''4.63%'''||
 ||Aug 2025|| 2.11|| 2.42|| '''4.53%'''||
 ||Sep 2025|| 2.05|| 2.34|| '''4.39%'''||
 ||Oct 2025|| 1.99|| 2.26|| '''4.25%'''||
 ||Nov 2025|| 1.93|| 2.19|| '''4.12%'''||
 ||Dec 2025|| 1.87|| 2.11|| '''3.98%'''||
 ||Jan 2026|| 1.82|| 2.05|| '''3.87%'''||

 For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported
 versions (support removed in WP 6.6). This is not changing much and many
 are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As it stands
 now, 3.74% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that
 dropped 0.06% in the past month. Since Jan 2025, it dropped 1.32%.

 ||='''Month/Year'''=||='''PHP 5.2'''=||='''PHP 5.3'''=||='''PHP
 5.4'''=||='''PHP 5.5'''=||='''PHP 5.6'''=||='''PHP 7.0'''=||='''PHP
 7.1'''=||='''Total'''=||
 ||Jan 2024|| 0.21|| 0.50|| 0.44|| 0.35|| 3.21|| 1.67|| 1.08||
 '''7.46%'''||
 ||Feb 2024|| 0.21|| 0.49|| 0.42|| 0.35|| 3.12|| 1.62|| 1.04||
 '''7.25%'''||
 ||Mar 2024|| 0.21|| 0.48|| 0.39|| 0.34|| 3.02|| 1.55|| 0.99||
 '''6.98%'''||
 ||Apr 2024|| 0.20|| 0.47|| 0.38|| 0.33|| 2.93|| 1.50|| 0.95||
 '''6.76%'''||
 ||May 2024|| 0.20|| 0.46|| 0.37|| 0.32|| 2.84|| 1.45|| 0.92||
 '''6.56%'''||
 ||Jun 2024|| 0.20|| 0.45|| 0.36|| 0.31|| 2.76|| 1.41|| 0.89||
 '''6.38%'''||
 ||Jul 2024|| 0.19|| 0.44|| 0.35|| 0.30|| 2.63|| 1.36|| 0.86||
 '''6.13%'''||
 ||Aug 2024|| 0.19|| 0.43|| 0.34|| 0.29|| 2.53|| 1.31|| 0.82||
 '''5.91%'''||
 ||Sep 2024|| 0.19|| 0.41|| 0.33|| 0.28|| 2.45|| 1.25|| 0.79||
 '''5.70%'''||
 ||Oct 2024|| 0.18|| 0.40|| 0.32|| 0.27|| 2.38|| 1.20|| 0.76||
 '''5.51%'''||
 ||Nov 2024|| 0.18|| 0.39|| 0.31|| 0.26|| 2.32|| 1.15|| 0.72||
 '''5.33%'''||
 ||Dec 2024|| 0.17|| 0.39|| 0.31|| 0.26|| 2.27|| 1.11|| 0.69||
 '''5.20%'''||
 ||Jan 2025|| 0.17|| 0.38|| 0.31|| 0.25|| 2.21|| 1.07|| 0.67||
 '''5.06%'''||
 ||Feb 2025|| 0.17|| 0.38|| 0.30|| 0.25|| 2.16|| 1.04|| 0.66||
 '''4.96%'''||
 ||Mar 2025|| 0.16|| 0.37|| 0.29|| 0.24|| 2.13|| 1.02|| 0.64||
 '''4.85%'''||
 ||Apr 2025|| 0.16|| 0.36|| 0.28|| 0.23|| 2.04|| 0.98|| 0.62||
 '''4.67%'''||
 ||May 2025|| 0.16|| 0.35|| 0.27|| 0.22|| 1.99|| 0.94|| 0.60||
 '''4.53%'''||
 ||Jun 2025|| 0.15|| 0.34|| 0.26|| 0.22|| 1.93|| 0.91|| 0.57||
 '''4.38%'''||
 ||Jul 2025|| 0.15|| 0.34|| 0.26|| 0.21|| 1.87|| 0.88|| 0.56||
 '''4.26%'''||
 ||Aug 2025|| 0.15|| 0.33|| 0.25|| 0.21|| 1.85|| 0.86|| 0.55||
 '''4.20%'''||
 ||Sep 2025|| 0.15|| 0.33|| 0.25|| 0.20|| 1.80|| 0.84|| 0.53||
 '''4.10%'''||
 ||Oct 2025|| 0.14|| 0.32|| 0.24|| 0.20|| 1.76|| 0.81|| 0.51||
 '''3.98%'''||
 ||Nov 2025|| 0.14|| 0.32|| 0.24|| 0.19|| 1.72|| 0.79|| 0.50||
 '''3.90%'''||
 ||Dec 2025|| 0.14|| 0.31|| 0.23|| 0.19|| 1.68|| 0.77|| 0.48||
 '''3.80%'''||
 ||Jan 2026|| 0.14|| 0.31|| 0.23|| 0.19|| 1.65|| 0.75|| 0.47||
 '''3.74%'''||

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/62622#comment:46>
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