5 fun facts about PHP [Infographic included]

Even if we don’t acknowledge it, PHP is something we all encounter every day.

This scripting language is one of the most popular in the world today and without it, millions of the world’s websites – including all WordPress sites and the sites of big brands like Facebook and Wikipedia – wouldn’t work.

PHP is a serious tool, but there’s a lighthearted side to it, too – a side that involves elephants, rap songs and happy hours.

Here are five fun facts about PHP…

1. PHP has a mascot

Introducing the PHP elephpant. When developer Vincent Pontier first created this emblem in 1998, it was available in two colours – pink and blue. Today, you can get in in everything from zebra stripes to the colours of the Union Jack flag. What’s more, you can buy the elephpant as a stuffed toy, a drawing or an origami model.

2. There’s a PHP song

Commissioned by the NFQ Group, a group of consulting businesses, PHP song was written and performed by actor and singer songwriter Lam Vissay. Lam appears in the video in a leopard print coat and dark sunglasses and raps about the merits of PHP to a rock soundtrack.

3. There’s a PHP day every year

Organised by non-profit PHP user group GrPHP, PHP day has been celebrated in Italy since 2011. It usually takes place in May when a conference of talks and networking events takes place to mark the occasion.

4. More than 77% of the world’s websites use PHP

Statistics suggest that as many as 77.4% of the world’s websites use PHP, including Facebook, Wikipedia, Zoom and Instagram.

5. PHP developers love a happy hour

Because PHP is an open source language that allows developers to write extensions and add to the functionality, there’s a passionate community surrounding it. Hundreds of user group events and meet ups take place around the world every year and members of the community can participate in a number of large scale conferences where the schedule includes talks, workshops and networking events like happy hours. One of the keystone conferences is The International PHP Conference, which has been taking place for more than a decade.

And now for a more serious fact…

41% of websites are using out of date PHP

Statistics from WordPress indicate that 41.1% of websites still use PHP versions 7.3 or lower. In fact, 15.2% still use a PHP version below 5.6.

As these versions have now reached their end of life, they are no longer supported, meaning that bugs and security issues are no longer fixed for them. This leaves the website that use these outdated versions of PHP open to security breaches and attacks.

How to update your PHP

At tsoHost we are currently advising all of our Managed WordPress customers who are currently running a PHP version of 7.3 or below to update their PHP to the highest possible version their site can support.

You can find out all about how to do this in this Knowledge Base Article.