WordPress, the popular Web publishing software, now powers 14.7 percent of the top million Web sites in the world and is used in 22 percent of new active domains in the United States. That’s the word from WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg, who posted the stats in a new State of the Word blog on the WordPress Web site.

WordPress it the popular open-source Web publishing system used by countless blogs around the world. It even powers The Loop.

Mullenweg says that a recent WordPress developer survey revealed that 6,800 of 18,000 respondents were personally responsible for a total of more than 170,000 WordPress-based Web sites. The median hourly rate charged by those developers is $50.

“In tough economic times, it’s heartening to see Open Source creating so many jobs,” said Mullenweg.

A video embedded on that page features Mullenweg offering more details.