Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/5

Overview
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Vital articles

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. This page contains links to the 50,000 articles of the Level 5 list.

Any addition to or removal from these lists should ONLY BE MADE after a discussion on 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

Improve a random Level 5 vital article

Current total

As of December 2025, the level 5 Vital Articles list includes 49,984 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 22:19, 29 December 2025 (UTC)

Sublist	Current	Target	At quota?	Change in effect?
People	14,779	14,800	Yes	—N/a
Writers and journalists	1,952	1,900	Too many	Trim
Artists, musicians, and composers	2,182	2,200	Yes	—N/a
Entertainers, directors, producers, and screenwriters	2,127	2,100	Slightly over	—N/a
Philosophers, historians, and social scientists	1,362	1,400	Slightly under	Brainstorm
Religious figures	496	500	Yes	—N/a
Politicians and leaders	2,395	2,400	Yes	—N/a
Military personnel, revolutionaries, and activists	873	900	Slightly under	—N/a
Scientists, inventors, and mathematicians	1,274	1,300	Slightly under	Brainstorm
Sports figures	1,082	1,100	Yes	—N/a
Miscellaneous	1,036	1,000	Slightly over	Trim
History	3,302	3,300	Yes	—N/a
Geography	5,175	5,200	Yes	—N/a
Basics and technical geography	135	100	Slightly over	—N/a
Physical geography	1,776	1,800	Slightly under	—N/a
Regions and countries	1,275	1,300	Slightly under	—N/a
Cities	1,989	2,000	Yes	—N/a
Arts	3,794	3,750	Too many	Brainstorm
Audiovisual arts	1,946	1,900	Slightly over	—N/a
Narrative arts	1,848	1,850	Yes	—N/a
Everyday life	2,440	2,500	Too few	Brainstorm
Everyday life	1,286	1,300	Yes	—N/a
Sports, games and recreation	1,154	1,200	Slightly under	—N/a
Philosophy and religion	1,484	1,500	Slightly under	?
Society and social sciences	4,172	4,100	Slightly over	—N/a
Social studies	527	500	Slightly over	—N/a
Politics and economics	2,011	2,000	Yes	—N/a
Culture	1,634	1,600	Slightly over	?
Biology and health sciences	5,633	5,600	Yes	—N/a
Biology, biochemistry, anatomy, and physiology	1,137	1,100	Slightly over	—N/a
Animals	2,402	2,400	Yes	Reorganize
Plants, fungi, and other organisms	993	1,000	Yes	Brainstorm
Health, medicine, and disease	1,101	1,100	Yes	Brainstorm
Physical sciences	4,745	4,800	Slightly under	—N/a
Basics and measurement	299	300	Yes	—N/a
Astronomy	902	900	Yes	—N/a
Chemistry	1,180	1,200	Slightly under	—N/a
Earth science	1,190	1,200	Yes	—N/a
Physics	1,174	1,200	Slightly under	—N/a
Technology	3,249	3,200	Slightly over	—N/a
Mathematics	1,211	1,200	Yes	—N/a
Unallocated quota slots	—N/a	50	—N/a	—N/a
Total	49,984	50,000	Yes	—N/a