Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level 5

Vital articles

Overview
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

The five nested vital article Levels are meant to give direction to the prioritization of improvements of English Wikipedia articles (e.g. which articles to bring to WP:GA and WP:FA status), to provide a measurement of quality of overall English Wikipedia (e.g. what proportion of the most important articles are at GA and FA status), and to serve as a centralized watchlist of English Wikipedia's most important articles. Unlike the list of articles every Wikipedia should have, they are tailored to the English Wikipedia and are actively maintained by the dedicated WikiProject Vital Articles. All users are welcome to particpate in the process of addition to or removal from these lists. This page contains links to the 50,000 articles of the Level 5 list. This Level 5 list is discussed at the relevant Level 5 sub talk pages.

Level 1 (10 articles) < Level 2 (100 articles) < Level 3 (1,000 articles) < Level 4 (10,000 articles) < Level 5 (50,000 articles)

Level 5 sub-lists

Because of its size, Vital articles Level 5 has been split into several sub-lists. If you spot a duplicate listing, please remove one of them; if you aren't sure in which section a topic belongs, please initiate a discussion on the talk page. Please do not duplicate items on the same level of the list.

Overview
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Level 5 Sublists

People History Geography Arts Philosophy and religion Everyday life Society and social sciences Biology and health sciences Physical sciences Technology Mathematics

Random Level 5 vital article

Current total

As of March 2026, the level 5 Vital Articles list includes 49,965 individual articles. All changes to this list should be proposed on the talk page or the relevant subpage for the proposal. Cewbot provides a more updated count of articles in its edit summaries on subpages.

Counts updated from subpages at 18:00, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Sublist	Current	Target	At quota?	Change in effect?
People	14,531	14,450	Yes	—N/a
Writers and journalists	1,890	1,900	Yes	—N/a
Artists, musicians, and composers	2,193	2,100	Too many	Trim
Entertainers, directors, producers, and screenwriters	2,060	2,000	Too many	Trim
Philosophers, historians, and social scientists	1,358	1,350	Yes	—N/a
Religious figures	501	500	Yes	—N/a
Politicians and leaders	2,377	2,400	Slightly under	—N/a
Military personnel, revolutionaries, and activists	869	900	Slightly under	—N/a
Scientists, inventors, and mathematicians	1,271	1,300	Slightly under	Brainstorm
Sports figures	1,006	1,000	Yes	—N/a
Miscellaneous	1,006	1,000	Yes	—N/a
History	3,286	3,300	Yes	—N/a
Geography	5,182	5,200	Yes	—N/a
Basics and technical geography	139	100	Slightly over	—N/a
Physical geography	1,782	1,800	Yes	—N/a
Regions and countries	1,265	1,300	Slightly under	—N/a
Cities	1,996	2,000	Yes	—N/a
Arts	3,824	3,800	Yes	—N/a
Audiovisual arts	1,943	1,900	Slightly over	—N/a
Narrative arts	1,881	1,900	Yes	—N/a
Everyday life	2,465	2,500	Slightly under	?
Everyday life	1,313	1,300	Yes	—N/a
Sports, games and recreation	1,152	1,200	Slightly under	?
Philosophy and religion	1,509	1,500	Yes	—N/a
Society and social sciences	4,275	4,300	Yes	—N/a
Social studies	552	500	Too many	?
Politics and economics	2,042	2,100	Not enough	?
Culture	1,681	1,700	Yes	?
Biology and health sciences	5,680	5,650	Yes	—N/a
Biology, biochemistry, anatomy, and physiology	1,151	1,150	Yes	—N/a
Animals	2,403	2,400	Yes	—N/a
Plants, fungi, and other organisms	1,006	1,000	Yes	—N/a
Health, medicine, and disease	1,120	1,100	Yes	Brainstorm
Physical sciences	4,755	4,800	Yes	—N/a
Basics and measurement	299	300	Yes	—N/a
Astronomy	904	900	Yes	—N/a
Chemistry	1,183	1,200	Yes	—N/a
Earth science	1,195	1,200	Yes	—N/a
Physics	1,174	1,200	Slightly under	—N/a
Technology	3,247	3,200	Slightly over	?
Mathematics	1,211	1,200	Yes	—N/a
Unallocated quota slots	—N/a	100	—N/a	—N/a
Total	49,965	50,000	Yes	—N/a