Data study · Wikipedia readership in the AI answer era

Wikipedia Pages for America's Biggest Cities Lost 37.7% of Their Readers Since 2022, While Towns Under 1,000 People Lost Just 3.2%

KGWritten by Kriszta GrenyoPublished October 20264 min read

Across 22,183 English Wikipedia articles on US cities, towns and census places, views fell 11.9% between 2022 and the past 12 months. The bigger the place, the bigger the drop.

Analysis of 22,183 US place articles on English Wikipedia matched to Census population, 2022 vs October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews and US Census ACS via BigQuery, October 2026

Key findings

1
Wikipedia articles on 22,183 US cities, towns and census places drew 348.7 million views in the past 12 months, down 11.9% from 395.6 million in 2022.
2
Cities of 500,000 or more people lost 37.7% of their views (33 cities), and not one of them gained readers.
3
Places under 1,000 people lost only 3.2% (8,792 places), and 47.3% of them gained readers.
4
Each step up in population meant a bigger loss: 8.6% for 1,000 to 4,999 people, 9.3% for 5,000 to 24,999, 13.3% for 25,000 to 99,999 and 16.0% for 100,000 to 499,999.
5
The summer relocation bump shrank: May to August views were 1.11 times January to April views in 2022 and 1.02 times in 2026; for the biggest cities the bump became a dip, at 0.91.

Summary

Picture a real estate agent in a town of 3,000 people who still gets calls from families who read about the town online before visiting. Then picture an agent in a big metro area who hears a different story: buyers arrive with neighborhood summaries from an AI assistant and rarely mention reading anything else.

We matched 22,183 Wikipedia articles on US places to Census population counts and compared their readers in 2022 and the past 12 months. Overall, views fell 11.9%. But the drop depended heavily on size. Big-city pages lost 37.7% of their readers; pages for towns under 1,000 people lost 3.2%.

One likely reason: AI tools have a lot to say about large cities and can summarize them in seconds. For small towns, they have less to go on, and people still go looking for the details themselves.

What we measured

We built a list of every Census place in the 50 states with its 2020 population from the American Community Survey, formed the standard Wikipedia title ('Place, State'), and matched it to monthly desktop and mobile web views.

We grouped places into six population bands and by state, then compared 2022 with October 2025 to September 2026. For the relocation season we compared May to August with January to April in 2022 and 2026. We excluded places with fewer than 1,200 views in 2022 or a change of more than 20 times either way.

The bigger the place, the bigger the drop

-37.7%change in views for cities of 500,000 or more, 2022 vs past 12 months

Change in views by population band:

Change in Wikipedia views by place population, 2022 vs Oct 2025 to Sep 2026

2022 viewsPast 12 months

Under 1,000

41,498,084

40,164,923

1,000 to 4,999

70,080,037

64,068,722

5,000 to 24,999

103,044,737

93,507,579

25,000 to 99,999

100,768,708

87,394,601

100,000 to 499,999

62,485,993

52,495,150

500,000 and up

17,693,640

11,028,819

All places

395,571,199

348,659,794

% change

Population	Places (N)	2022 views	Past 12 months	% change	Median place change	Share that gained
Under 1,000	8,792	41,498,084	40,164,923	-3.2	-1.2	47.3%
1,000 to 4,999	7,263	70,080,037	64,068,722	-8.6	-3.3	42.0%
5,000 to 24,999	4,380	103,044,737	93,507,579	-9.3	-6.4	34.8%
25,000 to 99,999	1,436	100,768,708	87,394,601	-13.3	-10.2	24.7%
100,000 to 499,999	279	62,485,993	52,495,150	-16	-14.3	10.8%
500,000 and up	33	17,693,640	11,028,819	-37.7	-40.4	0.0%
All places	22,183	395,571,199	348,659,794	-11.9	-3.8	41.1%

Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 22,183 US place articles on English Wikipedia matched to Census population, 2022 vs October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews and US Census ACS via BigQuery, October 2026

Desktop views fell 52.4% for the biggest cities and rose 6.2% for the smallest towns. Mobile web views fell between 8% and 11% for every band except the biggest cities, which fell 23.0%.

The summer moving-season bump faded

1.02xMay to August views vs January to April, 2026 (1.11x in 2022)

Summer is moving season in the US, and town pages used to get a lift from it.

Relocation season ratio (May to Aug views divided by Jan to Apr views)

Population	2022	2026
Under 1,000	1.19	1.06
1,000 to 4,999	1.15	1.05
5,000 to 24,999	1.12	1.03
25,000 to 99,999	1.09	1.00
100,000 to 499,999	1.04	1.01
500,000 and up	1.10	0.91
All places	1.11	1.02

Every band lost part of its summer lift. For the largest cities, summer now draws fewer readers than late winter and spring. Research about where to live may be one of the things people now hand to AI tools.

Western and Sun Belt states lost the most

-22.3%change in views for California place articles (N=1,247)

Change in views by state (excluding Hawaii, where page renames distort the numbers):

States with the largest and smallest changes

State	Places (N)	% change	Median place change
California	1,247	-22.3%	-9.6%
New Mexico	261	-20.9%	-10.9%
Colorado	376	-20.1%	-11.2%
Florida	734	-20.0%	-15.6%
Georgia	556	-18.5%	-11.3%
Indiana	546	-1.1%	+0.1%
Minnesota	686	-0.8%	0.0%
West Virginia	271	-0.6%	-0.3%
North Dakota	255	+1.9%	-2.1%
Maine	121	+10.6%	+1.7%

States with fast-growing metros and heavy in-migration lost the most readers. Rural Midwestern and Northern states, with many small towns, held steady.

What this means

Local businesses in big cities likely face the most competition from AI summaries, because AI tools know a lot about large places and answer questions about them confidently. In small towns, people still go looking for information, and there is less of it, which makes a clear local website more valuable, not less. In a big city, AI brand visibility is a fight for a few named spots in a crowded answer.

Wherever you are, make sure your business details are accurate and consistent online: name, address, hours, services and service area. AI tools are most likely to get small-town details wrong, so check what they say about you. A free AI visibility audit is an easy first step, and an AI SEO consultant can explain which errors to fix first.

Limits

Wikimedia pageview counts include some automated traffic that its filters do not catch, and Wikimedia changed how it detects bots in 2025, which lowers counted views from that point on. Some of the change in any period may reflect better bot filtering rather than fewer human readers.

We count views of titles that had at least 5 views in a given month on a given site, which drops a very small tail of rarely read pages.

Big cities whose Wikipedia titles omit the state are not matched, so the 500,000-plus band has only 33 cities.

Hawaiian place articles were retitled to include the okina during the period, which splits views and overstates their decline; we leave Hawaii out of the state comparison.

Small town pages are more exposed to automated traffic that evades filters, which may inflate their numbers.

Population is from the 2020 5-year American Community Survey.

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<iframe src="https://aisearchoptimization.net/embed/data-studies/us-town-wikipedia-pages-by-population" title="US City Pages on Wikipedia: Big Cities Down 37.7%" width="100%" height="720" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Cite this study

APA

Grenyo, K. (2026). US City Pages on Wikipedia: Big Cities Down 37.7%. AI Search Optimization. https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/us-town-wikipedia-pages-by-population

Plain link

US City Pages on Wikipedia: Big Cities Down 37.7% - AI Search Optimization - https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/us-town-wikipedia-pages-by-population

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Frequently asked questions

Are fewer people reading Wikipedia pages about US towns?

Yes, overall. 22,183 US place articles drew 348.7 million views in the past 12 months, down 11.9% from 395.6 million in 2022.

Do big cities or small towns lose more Wikipedia readers?

Big cities. Cities of 500,000 or more lost 37.7% of their views, while places under 1,000 people lost 3.2%.

Is there still a summer moving-season bump?

It has shrunk. May to August views were 1.11 times January to April views in 2022 and 1.02 times in 2026. For the biggest cities, the ratio fell to 0.91.

Which states saw the biggest drop in town page views?

California (down 22.3%), New Mexico (20.9%), Colorado (20.1%) and Florida (20.0%). Maine rose 10.6%.

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