Oxford University has the most visited UK university Wikipedia page of 2023. It was viewed more than 1.3 million times last year, with an average of nearly four thousand people googling the University every day. The difference of cumulative views between Oxford and Cambridge was more than three hundred thousand, setting Oxford clearly ahead of Cambridge.
The released data also show how colleges stack up against one another in popularity. Unsurprisingly, Magdalen College, Oxford’s richest college according to assets, is the most visited on Wikipedia, with 177,436 views in 2023. It was closely followed by Balliol College with 169,214 views. This may be due to major news events of 2023 featuring Balliol College alumni such as Boris Johnson and Ghislaine Maxwell.
After Balliol College, All Souls College is the third most popular Wikipedia page, followed by University College, New College, and Lincoln College—all colleges known for their centuries-old buildings with architectural styles ranging from English Gothic to Neoclassical. With the exception of Lady Margaret Hall, Worcester College, and Keble College, the top ten most viewed Oxford Colleges were all founded before 1500.
It is not just on Wikipedia that Oxford garners more attention than Cambridge. Worldwide, Oxford is also more frequently googled than Cambridge. However, within England and China, neither Oxford nor Cambridge is the most googled university –that title belongs to UCL.
Countries with the highest rates of googling for Oxford University are the Philippines, Iran, and Kazakhstan. Comparatively, Cambridge is far more popular than Oxford in Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.
Oxford’s most famous colleges are also more popular in specific countries. Of the top five colleges, Magdalen College is most beloved in Hong Kong and Poland, Balliol College in Norway and Singapore, New College in Hungary and Japan, All Souls College in Malaysia and the Philippines, and University College in Brazil and the USA.
