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I am thrilled to share that this year we are continuing Shog9’s tradition of sharing numbers on closed posts across the network. Please welcome stats that highlight how many questions were closed on different Stack Exchange sites in 2021:

Site Asked Asked
And
Closed		 Percent
Asked
And
Closed		 All
Closed		 Duplicates
Closed		 Duplicates
Reopened		 Off-Topic
Closed		 Off-Topic
Reopened		 Unclear
Closed		 Unclear
Reopened		 Too
Broad
Closed		 Too Broad
Reopened		 Opinion
Based
Closed		 Opinion
Based
Reopened
Meta Stack Exchange 8,602 4,873 56.65% 5,204 1,264 51 3,836 41 76 8 15 3 13 1
Stack Overflow 2,637,207 438,198 16.62% 454,987 142,760 4,165 127,895 1,859 106,048 2,097 61,079 842 17,205 222
Super User 40,841 6,459 15.81% 6,601 1,044 50 3,538 47 1,523 68 162 7 334 8
Server Fault 20,918 3,055 14.60% 3,154 236 2 2,375 7 433 1 59 2 51 0
Stack Apps 202 27 13.37% 41 6 0 32 0 3 0 0 0 0 0
Seasoned Advice 1,538 382 24.84% 399 174 8 102 6 32 4 16 3 75 2
Home Improvement 9,228 743 8.05% 931 114 5 352 11 300 6 63 0 102 1
Game Developers 4,390 662 15.08% 773 117 7 444 21 106 7 59 3 47 0
Arqade 5,022 1,095 21.80% 1,228 443 6 409 16 277 9 28 5 71 2
Geographic Information Systems 17,264 3,511 20.34% 3,816 523 25 1,685 159 899 90 574 89 135 1
Mathematics 198,579 42,932 21.62% 45,376 8,696 242 31,401 662 4,300 83 620 35 359 9
Photography 1,251 230 18.39% 241 68 3 131 7 27 4 5 1 10 0
Statistical Analysis 31,486 6,564 20.85% 7,256 1,471 60 2,485 95 2,891 305 346 35 63 5
Web Applications 4,397 1,208 27.47% 1,311 231 4 702 14 299 14 55 2 24 3
Pro Webmasters 2,460 968 39.35% 991 163 2 469 28 207 37 85 11 67 4
Apple 11,485 1,635 14.24% 1,732 533 24 563 42 468 98 79 14 89 8
Theoretical Computer Science 1,180 230 19.49% 237 3 0 212 0 12 0 8 0 2 1
English Language & Usage 11,267 6,819 60.52% 7,427 1,212 55 4,600 205 779 67 123 8 713 41
Personal Finance & Money 4,279 858 20.05% 890 181 9 450 12 113 4 47 0 99 4
Role-playing Games 3,479 963 27.68% 1,135 393 96 204 19 298 107 83 32 157 31
TeX - LaTeX 22,221 2,740 12.33% 3,116 1,458 60 654 9 877 33 55 2 72 6
Ask Ubuntu 42,236 6,443 15.25% 6,689 2,377 30 2,940 30 1,006 20 105 7 261 3
Unix & Linux 25,226 2,363 9.37% 2,546 947 31 570 3 745 19 112 2 172 3
WordPress 10,681 3,020 28.27% 3,189 81 4 2,712 20 218 4 100 0 78 3
Bicycles 1,782 176 9.88% 189 59 0 79 1 30 1 6 0 15 1
Software Engineering 5,490 2,246 40.91% 2,262 89 0 1,157 12 262 5 448 13 306 12
Android Enthusiasts 4,854 1,050 21.63% 1,210 317 10 643 23 188 22 48 2 14 1
Board & Card Games 717 118 16.46% 122 46 7 32 1 18 5 10 1 16 0
Physics 35,193 10,049 28.55% 10,453 2,006 56 5,650 57 1,884 69 519 49 394 13
Homebrewing 152 2 1.32% 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Information Security 6,488 2,682 41.34% 2,738 423 9 1,540 18 482 25 97 1 196 3
Writing 1,241 362 29.17% 378 58 0 247 4 24 0 16 2 33 1
Electrical Engineering 24,877 4,803 19.31% 4,890 365 10 2,103 57 1,624 57 537 6 261 7
Graphic Design 2,742 337 12.29% 348 71 4 150 4 53 0 52 0 22 0
Database Administrators 9,470 1,872 19.77% 2,113 306 6 892 10 641 28 191 7 83 0
Science Fiction & Fantasy 5,420 1,160 21.40% 1,304 528 26 307 33 197 51 65 15 207 39
Area 51 Discussions 154 13 8.44% 13 2 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Code Review 6,610 1,634 24.72% 1,657 22 0 1,494 46 135 6 1 1 5 0
Code Golf 1,228 410 33.39% 471 85 10 166 9 211 38 6 1 3 1
Quantitative Finance 3,613 630 17.44% 646 50 0 408 0 114 2 41 0 33 0
Project Management 486 89 18.31% 94 6 0 56 0 12 0 5 0 15 0
Skeptics 803 284 35.37% 289 22 1 178 17 42 12 25 8 22 2
Drupal Answers 3,946 827 20.96% 1,145 125 2 221 1 650 8 108 1 41 0
Fitness and Nutrition 669 203 30.34% 214 23 1 141 2 28 0 2 0 20 1
Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair 1,805 281 15.57% 288 32 0 122 1 86 1 7 0 41 1
Parenting 358 98 27.37% 101 6 0 54 3 7 0 9 1 25 0
SharePoint 4,593 183 3.98% 185 20 1 75 0 74 6 11 0 5 0
Music: Practice and Theory 2,812 823 29.27% 970 246 12 409 23 144 8 51 3 120 5
Software Quality Assurance * Testing 860 177 20.58% 195 10 0 44 1 97 5 28 1 16 0
Mi Yodeya 2,628 511 19.44% 524 162 1 196 18 98 8 23 2 45 1
Astronomy 2,282 382 16.74% 392 96 5 151 7 90 3 28 1 27 2
German Language 1,305 279 21.38% 283 64 3 116 7 74 4 12 0 17 0
Japanese Language 2,667 638 23.92% 657 253 5 303 5 67 3 7 1 27 0
Gardening & Landscaping 1,559 46 2.95% 53 3 0 26 0 19 0 3 1 2 0
Philosophy 2,269 465 20.49% 504 21 1 301 6 89 0 30 0 63 0
Travel 2,337 704 30.12% 741 206 10 321 20 117 12 18 1 79 7
Cryptography 3,595 694 19.30% 717 126 5 475 22 61 2 33 4 22 3
Literature 1,262 170 13.47% 190 18 0 88 8 41 3 12 1 31 3
Signal Processing 3,355 375 11.18% 384 45 4 198 2 98 10 33 0 10 1
French Language 1,264 150 11.87% 152 65 2 51 1 17 0 10 0 9 0
Christianity 1,820 497 27.31% 532 91 10 269 24 65 6 36 7 71 7
Bitcoin 4,238 1,234 29.12% 1,324 376 7 739 10 119 5 24 1 66 3
Linguistics 1,318 345 26.18% 354 10 0 210 3 83 6 16 1 35 1
Biblical Hermeneutics 3,232 669 20.70% 738 171 8 367 31 86 11 22 8 92 11
Economics 2,894 709 24.50% 734 45 2 398 8 176 0 35 1 80 5
History 1,552 604 38.92% 611 30 1 278 22 134 6 86 3 83 14
Bricks 410 44 10.73% 47 13 0 10 0 18 3 0 0 6 0
Spanish Language 574 66 11.50% 69 12 0 52 1 2 0 1 0 2 0
Computational Science 1,192 150 12.58% 157 4 0 115 4 36 0 1 0 1 0
Movies 1,550 543 35.03% 553 39 0 316 10 77 5 33 4 88 5
Chinese Language 1,130 104 9.20% 107 10 0 41 2 19 3 6 0 31 0
Biology 3,078 912 29.63% 966 108 2 524 10 168 3 54 1 112 0
Poker 170 29 17.06% 31 12 0 10 1 5 0 0 0 4 0
Mathematica 9,085 2,006 22.08% 2,058 306 9 1,494 14 230 14 18 1 10 0
Psychology & Neuroscience 1,051 365 34.73% 430 52 3 229 4 43 0 48 1 58 2
The Great Outdoors 339 66 19.47% 70 7 1 42 2 12 1 0 0 9 1
Martial Arts 230 21 9.13% 21 5 0 0 0 5 0 4 1 7 1
Sports 480 102 21.25% 109 25 4 42 3 9 2 7 0 26 1
Academia 5,339 1,889 35.38% 1,979 426 12 1,220 18 150 5 55 0 128 4
Computer Science 6,859 942 13.73% 959 181 2 447 6 229 9 75 4 27 0
The Workplace 2,500 789 31.56% 793 87 4 462 17 70 0 56 0 118 4
Windows Phone 16 6 37.50% 6 0 0 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Chemistry 8,260 4,102 49.66% 4,208 530 10 2,055 59 1,316 57 211 10 96 3
Chess 1,114 239 21.45% 266 73 3 43 3 39 7 31 9 80 10
Raspberry Pi 4,321 696 16.11% 803 71 0 470 11 198 14 20 0 44 0
Russian Language 287 98 34.15% 99 5 0 74 10 19 5 0 0 1 0
Islam 3,396 804 23.67% 850 305 1 239 0 186 1 55 0 65 0
Salesforce 16,464 3,695 22.44% 3,748 677 10 2,170 25 709 1 59 0 133 2
Ask Patents 277 31 11.19% 32 0 0 30 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
User Experience 1,483 372 25.08% 531 40 0 218 1 146 1 28 2 99 1
Genealogy and Family History 270 65 24.07% 72 43 2 12 1 11 4 3 0 3 1
Robotics 782 105 13.43% 110 3 0 41 0 24 0 5 0 37 0
ExpressionEngine 82 1 1.22% 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Politics 2,426 886 36.52% 928 137 19 490 63 117 16 65 13 119 13
Video Production 1,041 72 6.92% 78 6 0 47 0 11 0 1 0 13 0
Anime & Manga 1,116 412 36.92% 425 49 0 279 2 35 3 9 1 53 0
Magento 8,702 124 1.42% 145 27 0 41 0 61 2 2 0 14 0
English Language Learners 13,918 2,604 18.71% 2,803 575 8 1,562 39 420 20 83 8 163 11
Sustainable Living 203 21 10.34% 25 5 0 6 1 3 1 5 0 6 0
Tridion 171 2 1.17% 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Reverse Engineering 1,209 68 5.62% 76 5 0 35 0 27 0 2 0 7 0
Arduino 3,137 970 30.92% 1,277 98 3 449 7 474 13 240 12 16 2
Network Engineering 3,000 2,026 67.53% 2,046 139 5 1,507 8 326 37 15 1 59 4
Open Data 447 17 3.80% 17 1 0 14 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
Freelancing 149 31 20.81% 32 2 0 16 0 4 0 2 1 8 0
Blender 20,823 4,398 21.12% 4,570 1,929 83 753 17 1,521 153 201 15 166 4
MathOverflow 17,168 3,202 18.65% 3,244 67 2 2,901 28 236 4 27 2 13 1
Space Exploration 2,503 311 12.43% 321 78 4 116 14 63 7 32 1 32 4
Sound Design 536 183 34.14% 205 14 0 164 4 15 0 4 1 8 0
Tor 479 15 3.13% 26 10 2 1 0 11 0 2 0 2 0
Pets 752 173 23.01% 210 103 1 54 0 28 0 7 0 18 1
Amateur Radio 512 72 14.06% 72 6 1 36 3 23 1 2 0 5 2
Italian Language 170 19 11.18% 19 1 0 17 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Stack Overflow em Português 31,315 17,750 56.68% 18,566 742 20 14,771 193 2,340 50 587 2 126 1
Aviation 2,442 633 25.92% 654 191 8 191 10 150 13 50 4 72 5
Ebooks 107 9 8.41% 9 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Beer, Wine & Spirits 70 7 10.00% 7 0 0 6 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
Software Recommendations 2,474 212 8.57% 216 8 0 174 10 34 3 0 0 0 0
CS50 1,008 27 2.68% 30 5 0 18 0 4 0 2 0 1 0
Expatriates 695 89 12.81% 100 27 1 31 0 13 0 10 0 19 1
Mathematics Educators 369 72 19.51% 73 2 0 46 0 12 0 4 0 9 0
Earth Science 754 124 16.45% 130 21 0 63 3 28 1 10 0 8 0
Joomla 473 15 3.17% 16 4 0 4 0 7 0 0 0 1 0
Data Science 8,449 1,284 15.20% 1,383 50 1 549 1 470 6 193 5 121 0
Puzzling 2,328 430 18.47% 545 71 0 396 31 46 5 13 1 19 0
Craft CMS 1,001 4 0.40% 6 0 0 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 0
Buddhism 631 82 13.00% 87 40 4 22 7 15 4 1 0 9 5
Hinduism 2,603 434 16.67% 466 236 5 121 6 28 1 13 1 68 4
Community Building 26 4 15.38% 5 1 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 0
Worldbuilding 4,861 1,376 28.31% 1,401 151 17 432 34 316 37 242 34 260 18
スタック・オーバーフロー 4,230 282 6.67% 285 25 1 143 12 89 5 14 1 14 0
Emacs 2,806 51 1.82% 53 38 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 4 1
History of Science & Mathematics 640 81 12.66% 83 21 0 36 0 9 0 3 0 14 0
Lifehacks 248 80 32.26% 82 7 0 72 1 3 0 0 0 0 0
Engineering 3,015 571 18.94% 579 24 0 140 1 302 10 56 0 57 0
Coffee 102 12 11.76% 14 5 0 1 0 3 0 2 0 3 0
Vi and Vim 1,828 152 8.32% 163 69 3 56 0 27 0 3 0 8 0
Music Fans 452 50 11.06% 59 6 0 44 4 3 0 2 0 4 0
Woodworking 393 50 12.72% 53 11 0 22 0 11 0 5 0 4 0
CiviCRM 1,225 5 0.41% 5 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Health 1,506 709 47.08% 757 23 1 615 20 44 2 15 2 60 1
Stack Overflow на русском 80,891 12,826 15.86% 13,086 2,018 54 5,634 121 2,881 62 1,428 13 1,125 10
Русский язык 1,322 79 5.98% 82 14 1 28 2 21 1 10 2 9 0
Mythology 167 22 13.17% 25 1 0 10 1 10 0 1 0 3 0
Law 4,475 776 17.34% 796 132 18 442 41 135 15 37 3 50 7
Open Source 668 110 16.47% 112 42 1 48 2 11 0 7 1 4 0
elementary OS 1,193 24 2.01% 25 5 0 11 0 5 1 0 0 4 0
Portuguese Language 258 14 5.43% 14 6 0 6 0 1 0 1 0 0 0
Computer Graphics 500 46 9.20% 49 2 0 35 2 6 0 1 0 5 0
Hardware Recommendations 745 209 28.05% 253 0 0 247 2 4 0 1 0 1 0
Stack Overflow en español 48,537 7,656 15.77% 7,885 527 9 1,989 68 4,327 65 235 5 807 10
3D Printing 1,026 91 8.87% 95 15 1 37 6 27 5 7 0 9 1
Ethereum 11,362 1,122 9.88% 1,172 375 4 387 3 275 0 80 0 55 0
Latin Language 880 60 6.82% 60 16 3 18 3 24 9 2 1 0 0
Language Learning 223 112 50.22% 114 5 0 94 5 7 0 2 1 6 0
Retrocomputing 904 156 17.26% 164 14 0 93 8 19 2 18 3 20 1
Arts and Crafts 361 92 25.48% 95 9 1 49 5 19 5 7 3 11 0
Korean Language 206 9 4.37% 11 4 0 4 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
Monero 444 52 11.71% 57 50 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 4 1
Artificial Intelligence 3,276 569 17.37% 1,109 56 3 509 4 314 5 171 5 59 0
Esperanto Language 62 3 4.84% 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1
Sitecore 1,633 308 18.86% 328 83 3 90 2 118 27 22 5 15 0
Internet of Things 326 63 19.33% 67 1 0 30 0 19 0 7 0 10 0
Vegetarianism 48 7 14.58% 7 0 0 0 0 6 1 0 0 1 0
Ukrainian Language 138 11 7.97% 11 1 0 6 0 3 0 0 0 1 0
DevOps 1,228 94 7.65% 94 0 0 38 0 24 3 25 0 7 0
Bioinformatics 1,071 106 9.90% 149 14 2 29 10 75 6 10 2 21 2
Computer Science Educators 168 48 28.57% 48 0 0 41 1 3 0 2 0 2 0
Interpersonal Skills 457 300 65.65% 302 5 0 180 5 76 7 6 0 35 0
Iota 120 4 3.33% 4 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 0
Stellar 362 71 19.61% 74 33 0 16 0 19 1 5 2 1 0
Constructed Languages 58 5 8.62% 5 1 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Quantum Computing 2,424 258 10.64% 272 69 2 58 1 98 9 38 6 9 1
EOS.IO 218 15 6.88% 16 4 0 9 0 2 0 0 0 1 0
Tezos 422 7 1.66% 8 1 0 4 0 1 0 2 0 0 0
Operations Research 970 43 4.43% 45 10 0 16 1 16 0 2 0 1 0
Drones and Model Aircraft 204 11 5.39% 11 0 0 4 0 7 0 0 0 0 0
Matter Modeling 984 111 11.28% 147 11 0 12 4 116 11 7 2 1 1
Cardano 1,234 64 5.19% 64 9 0 33 0 5 0 5 0 12 0

Notes

  • This counts questions asked in 2021 and questions closed in 2021 - the AskedAndClosed and PctAskedAndClosed columns reflect questions that were both asked and closed in 2021, while the remaining columns total up all questions closed in 2021 - even those asked in prior years.
  • Reopen numbers also include questions asked in years prior - but limit themselves to questions that were closed in 2021 and then also reopened in 2021.
  • If a question was closed twice, it'll be counted twice.
  • If a question was reopened twice, it'll be counted twice.

Alternate formats

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8
  • 2
    Interestingly, how stable the closed question fraction is. 15-20% and not changing much year over year. However, I don't really believe that on SO from 2.6m new questions only 140k were duplicates. One could pick 100 randomly, check carefully and see if the incidence in the test set is compatible with 1 in 18 as suggested by the closure rate.
    – NoDataDumpNoContribution
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 12:32
  • 3
    @Trilarion a lot of the duplicates will have multiple issues and end up closed for one of the other reasons.
    – bad_coder
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 14:30
  • 2
    @bad_coder Could be, but even that would mean that in 2021 people managed to ask up to 2.2m new questions on SO on top of the 20+m existing questions. I would even bet against that. My bet would be that there are lots of non-closed questions that are duplicates, at least on SO (can't really say for the other sites).
    – NoDataDumpNoContribution
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 15:08
  • 1
    @Trilarion On SO notice the 14.3% reduction in questions asked for a marginal 0.41% increase in closing rate. Closing around half a million questions per year is no small feat so the system is being effective.
    – bad_coder
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 15:19
  • 4
    Cool stats but it'd be nice to add the ability to lexicographically sort data in a column.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 1:08
  • 1
    Surprising how many sites have a close rate over 50%. How do they still have traffic?
    – LShaver
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 17:19
  • 2
    +999 for use of Markdown tables compared to previous years. This is a HUGE improvement!
    – iBug says Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jan 5, 2022 at 7:37
  • @NicolasChabanovsky Thanks! Now I need to wonder if I need to get depressed over of the off topic close rate (jk)
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Jan 5, 2022 at 9:22

1 Answer 1

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4

This year's stats are surprising in that the "Too broad" close reason has the second lowest reopen rate, 1.379% (only "opinion based" has a lower rate of 1.29%).

There was some discussion if "Too broad" needed more subcategories (for reference, see Do we really need more focus? and Is the description to "needs more focus" confusing?). But it turns out the "Too broad" reason is being twice more efficient than the "Duplicate" close reason, which we'd expect intuitively to be the most pinpointed closures.

Numbers are for Stack Overflow.

Close reason Closed Reopened Percentage reopened
Duplicates 142760 4165 2.917%
Off-topic 127895 1859 1.454%
Unclear 106048 2097 1.977%
Too broad 61079 842 1.379%
Opinion based 17205 222 1.29%
Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    The stats in your post only refer to Stack Overflow.
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 18:46
  • 4
    @Mari-LouA the post says so above the table. SO is the only site where "Too broad" reopened posts reached 3 digits, on the few other sites where it reached 2 digits any conclusion is likely to be localized so it should be written by a member of that specific community.
    – bad_coder
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 18:53

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