[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #64494: Bump minimum PHP version to 8.*

[WordPress Trac]

#64494: Bump minimum PHP version to 8.*
-------------------------+--------------------------------
 Reporter:  masteradhoc  |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General      |     Version:
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch    |     Focuses:  php-compatibility
-------------------------+--------------------------------

Comment (by samiamnot):

 Updated for early June 2026 based on [https://wordpress.org/about/stats/
 WordPress stats].
 My feeling is that it will be more than year  before we can consider
 moving off PHP 7.4. Out of curiosity, is there an option or a reason to
 drop PHP 8.0 support before dropping 7.4?
 @johnbillion's [https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/ stats graph]
 is really all that is needed. I would love if PHP 8.6 (currently at 0.01%)
 was added to the graph, despite the Nov 2026 release date being well in
 the future. It would also be nice if the projected next 4 months supported
 all versions (currently it is only done for 7.4).

 Is there a way to get PHP stats just for more recent WordPress releases?
 If someone is on WP 4.0, we likely don't care that he is on PHP 7.4.

 As of now there is no concrete plan for removing specific versions from
 support, so there is no total column tracking potential removals yet.


 ||='''Month/Year'''=||='''PHP 7.4'''=||='''PHP 8.0'''=||='''PHP
 8.1'''=||='''PHP 8.2'''=||='''PHP 8.3'''=||='''PHP 8.4'''=||='''PHP
 8.5'''=||='''PHP 8.6'''=||
 ||Jan 2025|| 32.60|| 9.55|| 19.25|| 21.30||  5.80|| 0.30|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Feb 2025|| 31.80|| 9.40|| 19.00|| 22.10||  6.40|| 0.40|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Mar 2025|| 31.00|| 9.25|| 18.75|| 22.90||  7.00|| 0.50|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Apr 2025|| 30.20|| 9.10|| 18.50|| 23.70||  7.60|| 0.70|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||May 2025|| 29.39|| 8.89|| 18.41|| 24.30||  8.53|| 0.97|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Jun 2025|| 28.86|| 8.66|| 18.08|| 24.93||  9.08|| 1.23|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Jul 2025|| 28.22|| 8.48|| 17.55|| 25.49||  9.86|| 1.51|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Aug 2025|| 26.63|| 8.00|| 17.37|| 26.04|| 11.17|| 2.09|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Sep 2025|| 25.66|| 7.63|| 17.01|| 26.38|| 12.22|| 2.62|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Oct 2025|| 24.80|| 7.26|| 16.59|| 26.71|| 13.22|| 3.19|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Nov 2025|| 23.85|| 6.94|| 16.15|| 26.93|| 14.37|| 3.78|| 0.00|| 0.00||
 ||Dec 2025|| 22.92|| 6.44|| 15.92|| 27.45|| 15.16|| 4.25|| 0.10|| 0.00||
 ||Jan 2026|| 22.33|| 5.82|| 15.50|| 27.32|| 16.47|| 4.79|| 0.26|| 0.00||
 ||Feb 2026|| 21.71|| 5.51|| 14.98|| 26.78|| 17.78|| 5.35|| 0.56|| 0.00||
 ||Mar 2026|| 21.10|| 5.19|| 14.46|| 26.25|| 19.09|| 5.92|| 0.87|| 0.00||
 ||Apr 2026|| 20.48|| 4.88|| 13.94|| 25.71|| 20.40|| 6.48|| 1.17|| 0.00||
 ||May 2026|| 20.03|| 4.89|| 13.57|| 26.51|| 22.00|| 7.05|| 1.34|| 0.01||
 ||Jun 2026|| 19.36|| 4.72|| 13.00|| 26.23|| 23.07|| 7.52|| 1.66|| 0.01||


 For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported
 versions (support removed in WP 7.0) going back to 7.0. This is not
 changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old
 versions of WP.

 ||='''Month/Year'''=||='''PHP 7.0'''=||='''PHP 7.1'''=||='''PHP
 7.2'''=||='''PHP 7.3'''=||='''PHP 7.0 - 7.3'''=||
 ||Jan 2024|| 1.67|| 1.08|| 4.79|| 5.90|| '''13.44%'''||
 ||Jan 2025|| 1.07|| 0.67|| 2.68|| 3.14||  '''7.56%'''||
 ||Jan 2026|| 0.75|| 0.47|| 1.82|| 2.05||  '''5.09%'''||
 ||Feb 2026|| 0.73|| 0.45|| 1.77|| 1.99||  '''4.94%'''||
 ||Mar 2026|| 0.71|| 0.44|| 1.72|| 1.91||  '''4.78%'''||
 ||Apr 2026|| 0.69|| 0.47|| 1.68|| 1.83||  '''4.67%'''||
 ||May 2026|| 0.75|| 0.47|| 1.67|| 1.81||  '''4.70%'''||
 ||Jun 2026|| 0.67|| 0.41|| 1.63|| 1.74||  '''4.45%'''||

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64494#comment:8>
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