There are 6,855,086 articles on the English Wikipedia, and 50,000 (circa 0.73%) have been selected as vital articles to the project. They are organized into five levels: Level 1 contains the ten most vital articles, Level 2 contains the one hundred most vital articles (and by definition, includes the articles of Level 1), and each further level expands on the selection of the previous level, as follows:
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.
The key criteria in determining whether an article is vital are:
Coverage: Vital articles at higher levels tend to "cover" more topics and be broader in their scope. For example, Science1 is a Vital-1 article, while Scientific method3 is a lower level of vitality. Determining which articles are vital at lower levels often involves looking at the articles at higher levels. For example, since History2 is of high vitality, World War II3 is also a vital article, just at a lower level.
Essential to Wikipedia's other articles: While Scientific method3 may be less vital than Science1, since it is such a critical topic regarding science, covering many science-related topics in Wikipedia, it is undoubtedly a vital article.
Notability: Individuals within the People section represent the pinnacles of their field with a material impact on the course of humanity, such as Albert Einstein3 in "Inventors and scientists", William Shakespeare3 in "Authors", and Genghis Khan3 on "Leaders".
No (Western) bias: While the vitals list is for English Wikipedia, the focus is on the world. For example, the current consensus is to list two cities in China (Hong Kong, Beijing) and India (Delhi, Mumbai), but only one in the United States.
Pageviews: The number of views a page receives should be considered (i.e. it is a proxy on its importance to Wikipedia's structure), however, pageviews should be treated with caution as they can be driven by WP:RECENTISM, which is a particular concern at Levels 1-4.
All Wikipedia extended confirmed editors are welcome to propose an article that should be added, removed, or demoted from one of the Level 1-4 vital article lists (which are ECP-protected from here), and/or !vote or comment on any existing proposal. Any editor can make a proposal at Level 5.
A number of guidelines/practices have been agreed regarding the proposal process:
When proposing to add or remove a particular topic from the vital articles list, we strongly recommend that the proposer review and compare the other articles in the same category to get a better sense of what is considered vital in that area and that they also check the talk page archives for that Level to see if the topic was previously proposed, and what was the resulting discussion. Use the 'VA link' template to allow editors to easily check its location (e.g. Internet3).
A proposed vital article must exist at a lower level before being nominated at a higher level, as agreed here. For example, a proposal to move the Level 5 vital article Twitter5 to Level 3 could not happen until it had first been successfully proposed for Level 4. Only after it had been added to the Level 4 list, could it then be proposed to Level 3.
Levels 1 to 4 are usually at their full quota, and any nomination to 'Add' a topic to one of these Levels is often accompanied by a proposal to 'Remove' an existing topic. For example, a Level 3 proposal could say: "Add Steve Jobs4" and Remove Henry Ford3". While it is not obligatory to frame proposals as a swap (and not needed if the proposal is to 'Remove'), it is recommended, as some discussions may fail to progress (and be closed as 'no consensus'), as no agreement could be reached on a suitable swap candidate.
Any Level 1–4 proposal can be closed by any editor, including editors who have already !voted in the proposal (i.e. the concept of WP:INVOLVED does not arise in vital article closures), provided it meets the following specific criteria:
After 15 days it may be closed as PASSED if there are (a) 5 or more supports, AND (b) at least two-thirds are in support.
After 30 days it may be closed as FAILED if there are (a) 3 or more opposes, AND (b) it failed to earn two-thirds support.
After 30 days it may be closed as NO CONSENSUS if the proposal hasn't received any !votes for +30 days, regardless of tally.
After 60 days it may be closed as NO CONSENSUS if the proposal has (a) less than 5 supports, AND (b) less than two-thirds support.
Any Level 5 proposal can also be closed by any editor, including editors who have already !voted in the proposal, provided it meets the following specific criteria (these are different from Level 4 due to the greater frequency of proposals at Level 5):
Before being closed, a Level 5 discussion must:
Run for at least 14 days; AND
Allow at least 7 days since the most recent vote; AND
Have at least 4 participants.
For a proposal to be implemented on the Level 5 list:
The closer of any proposal, following the above rules for closing, must execute the resulting changes to the existing vital article lists (e.g. adding or removing an article from the relevant vital article lists); closers who are not able to do this should not close proposals. Once a Level 1-5 proposal is closed on the VA talk page, it should be left for auto-archiving and not be immediately archived by the closer.
Cewbot will later update the VA-status on the talk page of the article in question (i.e. removing, adding, or updating the VA level per the latest VA article lists). The closer of a VA discussion does not need to edit the article's talk page.
A useful script for automatically closing discussions is the User:DannyS712/DiscussionCloser tool, however, this tool only closes the discussion on the talk page, and does not make the physical changes to the articles and the VA lists that are needed as part of any close.
-class (%)
class (%)
