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TheUrdu Wikipedia (Urdu:اردو ویکیپیڈیا), started in January 2004, is theStandard Urdu-language edition ofWikipedia, a free, open-contentencyclopedia.[1][2] As of 18 February 2026, it has239,342 articles, 206,798 registered users and 8,607 files, and it is the50th largest edition of Wikipedia by article count, and ranks20th in terms of depth among Wikipedias with over 150,000 articles.[3] There were 6 million page views in January 2024.[4] On 7 January 2024, the Urdu Wikipedia became the first South Asian-language Wikipedia to surpass 200,000 articles.
Wikipedia started being multilingual in May 2001. At first, Urdu Wikipedia faced technical problems with the Urdu script font, but now this matter is mostly settled; some unsolved areas remain. Urdu is written inPerso-Arabic script, a right-to-leftwriting system. As a result, users sometimes need to configure their operating systems and web browsers accordingly.
Currently, Urdu Wikipedia uses the "Urdu Naskh Asiatype" font, which was introduced and is freely distributed by theBBC at BBC Urdu Service website.[5] The font is primarily used for article bodies and headings. Urdu variation ofTimes New Roman is used for navigation links. Both of these fonts are variations ofNaskh style. SomePakistani variations of complexNasta'liq script are also supported only as a secondary choice inclass definitions ofCSS, i.e. if default font is not found on client system, then Nasta'liq script is used. The translation of the Wikipedia interface and project information pages into Urdu is still in progress. Some pages about how to edit have been translated.
In January 2016, Urdu Wikipedia ranked first in the number of articles as compared to other Indian languages.[6] InIndia, Urdu Wikipedia activities are hosted and promoted by theDehalvi Wikimedia User Group. The group hosted its first educational program inDeoband in February 2020.[7] Urdu is the second most popular Wikipedia in Pakistan, behind English. It receives approximately 2 million pageviews in the country, and around 610 thousand in India as of November 2022.[8]
Urdu Wikipedia has approximately 320 contributors per month. Most users are from Pakistan, although there are many users from India as well. There are also notable users from Saudi Arabia.[12] Much like the rest of Indic languages, Urdu suffers from an acute shortage of contributors due to various reasons. Ahmed Nisar, a contributor to Urdu Wikipedia from India, claims that some of the reasons are the preference of the people for English-language media, as well as the lack of Urdu-speaking experts which are well versed in various aspects of current affairs.[13]
