- Key
- 10 = Obvious inclusion on Core list.
- 9 = Quite clear inclusion on Core list.
- 8 = Another necessary inclusion.
- 7 = Should probably be included, but not completely vital.
- 6 = Possibly include, but this article is more marginal.
- 5 = Close, but probably shouldn't be included.
- 4 = Almost certainly shouldn't be included.
- 3 = Very clearly not a core topic.
- 2 = Not even close.
- 1 = ... Is this a joke?
- 0 = Barely even noteworthy, at best.
Assessment of relative essentialness of current "Core Topics" entries
edit| Article | Rating | Justification and notes | Parent articles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising | 6 | Fairly important topic in economics, but possibly not "Core". | Marketing, Mass media |
| Africa | 7 | Articles for the continents are very important, but they may not all fit into a list of only 150. | Continent |
| Agriculture | 8 | Essential to understanding human history and industry. | Food, Technology |
| Aircraft | 7 | Parent article of the airplane (fixed-wing aircraft). Its aquatic counterpart is watercraft, a much less common term which complicates having consistent inclusion standards. See also spacecraft. | Aviation, Transport, Vehicle |
| Algebra | 6 | Mathematics | |
| Ancient history | 6 | Though very broad, this article probably isn't necessary alongside history, human history, anthropology, archaeology, etc. | Archaeology, History |
| Animal | 8 | Major Kingdom of organisms, along with plant. | Organism (Eukaryote) |
| Animation | 6 | Important aspect of film, but perhaps not quite "Core". Debatable. | Film |
| Antarctica | 6 | Almost entirely unpopulated, thus less essential than the other continents despite its size. | Continent |
| Anthropology | 7 | Essentially "the study of humans". | Social sciences |
| Archaeology | 6 | A subset of anthropology. | Anthropology |
| Architecture | 8 | Art, Technology | |
| Arithmetic | 6 | More significant for its everyday and historical usage than for its role in mathematics. | Mathematics |
| Art | 10 | Difficult to fairly deal with because of its numerous distinct and broad meanings, including skill (e.g. "martial arts, cooking arts"), visual art, and the arts. | Culture |
| Asia | 7 | Articles for the continents are very important, but they may not all fit into a list of only 150. | Continent |
| Astronomy | 8 | An extremely important scientific field, encompassing the study of all things outside of the Earth's atmosphere (including astrophysics and cosmology). | Science (Natural sciences, Physical sciences) |
| Australia | 5 | Difficult to fairly rate due to its dual status as a country and a mini-continent. As a mini-continent, rates at about a 6; as a country, rates at about a 3. Since no other individual countries are included in the list, it may be more neutral and consistent to use some broader geographic equivalent (i.e. Oceania) in lieu of Australia. | Continent, Country, Oceania |
| Automobile | 8 | Arguably more important than aircraft, due to its profound impact on daily life. | Transport, Vehicle |
| Biology | 8 | Life, Science (Natural sciences) | |
| Biotechnology | 4 | Biology, Technology | |
| Boat | 5 | Extremely debatable inclusion, with strong potential arguments for both sides. Less important than ship, either way. | Transport, Vehicle (Watercraft) |
| Botany | 4 | Tempting to include, but not really noteworthy enough, and doesn't have a counterpart in "scientific study of animals" to use. | Biology, Plant |
| Buddhism | 4 | Too specific for inclusion in the top 150, despite being the 4th-largest world religion (after Hinduism). | Religion |
| Business | 7 | Important Economics topic, but conceivably not "Core". | Economics |
| Chemistry | 8 | Science (Natural sciences, Physical sciences) | |
| Christianity | 5 | The largest religion in the world, but probably too specific to include in the top 150. Just because automobile is a "Core Topic" doesn't make the best-selling automobile one too. There are also major POV issues with including the largest religions in the list: no matter where we draw the line, those who barely missed the cut will be, rightly, upset. (Especially if we aren't consistent: we list Judaism, which has 15,000,000 practitioners, but exclude Shintoism, which has almost 70,000,000.) | Religion |
| City | 7 | Important geo-political unit, and more ancient than units such as the state and nation. Consider also the town, village, etc. | Geography, Society |
| Civilization | 7 | Though a major concept, part of its broadness is the result of it having so many distinct meanings, which may make it a mediocre candidate for "Core Topics" due to its ambiguity. | History, Society |
| Climate | 8 | Confusingly, although "climate" encompasses weather, "climatology" doesn't include meteorology, the study of weather (see atmospheric sciences). | Geography, Science (Earth sciences) |
| Clothing | 8 | Very important social topic, encompassing most of fashion. | Culture, Fashion |
| Communication | 8 | Conceivably a 9, conceivably a 7. | Behavior, Information, Society |
| Community | 7 | Conceivably an 8, conceivably a 6. | Sociology |
| Computer | 8 | Revolutionary modern technology, currently comparable to automobiles in impact. | Electronics, Technology (Information technology), Telecommunication |
| Computer science | 6 | Important field, but possibly not "Core"-level important. | Computing/Computer, Information science |
| Country | 7 | Can refer to either a nation (cultural entity) or state (political entity). | Geography, Politics |
| Crafts | 5 | More basic than important. Too vague for inclusion in the top 150. | Art, Skill |
| Crime | 6 | Important subset of law, but might not quite meet the cut for the top 150. Less important (or at least basic) than evil, for example. | Law |
| Culture | 10 | Society | |
| Dance | 7 | Fairly important and universal art. Less important than music due to being a subset of the performing arts. | Entertainment, Performing arts |
| Drawing | 6 | Debatable importance, as a specific type of visual art. | Craft, Visual arts |
| Earth | 10 | Much more important than the other 7–8 planets in the Solar System, due to having life. | Planet, Science (Earth sciences), Solar system |
| Earth sciences | 5 | As this article is more about a typology of scientific classification than about an aspect of the phenomenal world, its importance is dubious, and more based on categorizational utility than importance. For the same reason, including applied sciences, environmental science, information science, natural sciences, physical sciences, social sciences in the top 150 is debatable. It would probably be wiser to exclude most or all of those, and simply mention them in the science article itself rather than spending an entire top-150 article on the topic. | Science |
| Ecology | 6 | In essence, "environmental biology". | Biology, Earth sciences |
| Economics | 8 | Science (Social sciences), Society | |
| Education | 8 | Science (Social sciences), Society | |
| Electronics | 7 | Electromagnetism, Engineering, Technology | |
| Employment | 5 | Economics, Labor | |
| Energy | 9 | Very important and basic aspect of the physical world, moreso than even matter. | Physics |
| Engineering | 8 | Science, Technology | |
| English language | 5 | Not necessary to include in the top 150: too specific. Although English is the most widely-spoken second language in the world, and the most widely-distributed language, it is not of much historical importance compared to other major languages, and has only half as many speakers total as Chinese language. Focusing on this language alone may also worsen the Wikipedia's systemic Anglocentric bias (cf. Christianity). | Language |
| Environment | 9 | A complex topic, involving many different basic concepts (including natural environment). | Nature |
| Ethnic groups | 5 | A better name for this article would probably be "ethnicity". | Culture, Demography |
| Europe | 7 | Articles for the continents are very important, but they may not all fit into a list of only 150. | Continent |
| Family | 8 | Society | |
| Festival | 4 | Comparable to Holiday. | Culture, Entertainment |
| Fiction | 6 | Pretty important concept, akin to mythology. | Entertainment |
| Film | 7 | A significant form of mass media, along with television, radio, magazines/newspapers and the Internet. | Culture, Entertainment, Mass media, Performing arts |
| Finance | 5 | Important economic field, but pretty clearly not a Core Topic. | Business, Economics, Money. |
| Food | 9 | Encompasses drinks as well. | Culture, Health |
| Game | 8 | Essential aspect of human culture. | Culture, Entertainment |
| Gender | 6 | The social equivalent of biological sex. | Human sexuality, Social sciences |
| Geology | 6 | Science (Earth sciences) | |
| Geography | 7 | Science (Earth sciences) | |
| Geometry | 6 | Mathematics | |
| Government | 8 | Politics | |
| Health | 8 | Life, Science, Society | |
| Hinduism | 5 | Too specific for inclusion in the top 150, despite being the 3rd-largest world religion (after Islam). | Religion |
| History of the Earth | 4 | Not necessary in the top 150, for the same reason history of science isn't necessary even though science is level-10: the Earth article should cover the most important aspects of its history on its own. Also, including both history of the world and history of Earth on the list is inefficient use of space. (In fact, there's an argument to be made for including neither in the top 150.) | Earth, History |
| History | 10 | Social sciences | |
| History of the world | 6 | If it's going to be included on the list, it should most certainly be correctly-named, as Human history or History of humanity or similar. "The world", in this context, is an unencyclopedic, and extremely ambiguous, colloquialism. | History |
| Hobbies | 3 | Entertainment | |
| House | 8 | See also home. | Architecture, Culture, Engineering |
| Human | 10 | See also person. | Organism (Ape) |
| Humanities | 6 | Although suitably broad, this is a somewhat arbitrary, Eurocentric categorizational system, and may not merit inclusion in the "top 150" for the same reason liberal arts doesn't. | Academia |
| Humour | 8 | Quite important for understanding human society and psychology. | Culture, Entertainment |
| Industry | 6 | Probably not a good Core Topic. | Business |
| Information | 8 | Very broad (even, unfortunately, vague) topic. | None |
| Internet | 7 | Electronics, Mass media, Technology | |
| Islam | 5 | Too specific for inclusion in the top 150, despite being the 2nd-largest world religion (after Chritsianity). | Religion |
| Judaism | 4 | Too specific for inclusion in the top 150. Although historically important (like the much more diminished Zoroastrianism), Judaism has only 15 million adherents, making it significantly smaller than a number of religions that have never been considered for inclusion in
Core Topics, including Sikhism (23 million) and Shintoism (69 million). || Religion | |
| Language | 9 | Very important topic, dramatically more so than Linguistics (which is merely the study of language). | Communication, Culture, Technology |
| Law | 8 | Ethics, Government, Society | |
| Leisure | 3 | Very unimportant, relative to a "Core Topics" list. Dramatically less important than labor, for example. | Behavior, Freedom, Labor |
| Linguistics | 6 | Probably doesn't really fit on a list of the top 150; including language is sufficient. | Anthropology, Language, Social sciences |
| Literature | 7 | Art, Culture, Document | |
| Logic | 7 | Mathematics, Philosophy | |
| Manufacturing | 5 | Industry, Technology | |
| Map | 5 | Not basic enough. | Cartography, Geography, Navigation |
| Mass media | 7 | Communication, Culture, Information, Society | |
| Mathematics | 10 | Science | |
| Mathematical proof | 2 | Extremely specialized and non-essential. | Logic, Mathematics |
| Matter | 8 | Nature, Physics | |
| Measurement | 8 | Metrology, Science | |
| Medicine | 8 | Biology, Health | |
| Middle Ages | 4 | A little too narrow to fit on the list, especially if historical periods like the Industrial Revolution and Prehistory are rejected. Also, although the term "Middle Ages" is a useful concept in general, it lends an unfortunate tinge of Eurocentrism to the Core Topics project. | Europe, History |
| Mind | 7 | Brain, Metaphysics, Psychology | |
| Mineral | 6 | Shouldn't be included if we exclude quite basic articles like metal, crystal and rock (not to mention oil, wood, plastic, water, etc.!). | Crystal, Material, Mineralogy |
| Modern history | 3 | More an article about a certain historical typology than about an actual historical period itself, and thus inappropriate for a "top 150" list. A more concrete and significant term in modern history, like Industrial Revolution, would be more appropriate and useful, though including any specific historical periods at all probably isn't a good idea on such a limited list. | History |
| Money | 7 | See also currency. | Economics |
| Museums | 2 | Very clearly not sufficiently important. | Culture, Entertainment, History, Recreation, Tourism |
| Music | 9 | Art, Entertainment, Sound | |
| Mythology | 7 | Legend, Religion, Tradition | |
| Natural disaster | 6 | Disaster, Nature | |
| Nature | 9 | Environment | |
| North America | 7 | Articles for the continents are very important, but they may not all fit into a list of only 150. | Continent |
| Nuclear technology | 4 | Probably less essential than such topics as nuclear reaction, nuclear power and electromagnetism. | Physics, Technology |
| Number | 8 | By analogy, it is necessary to consider whether letter, word, alphabet, etc. merit inclusion in the top 150. | Mathematics |
| Oceanography | 2 | Hydrography, Hydrology, Ocean | |
| Oceania | 6 | Continent | |
| Optics | 3 | Electromagnetic radiation, Physics, Technology | |
| Organisation | 6 | Society | |
| Painting | 6 | Debatable importance, as a specific type of visual art. | Visual arts |
| Park | 4 | Geography, Recreation, Tourism | |
| Personal life | 5 | This is an extremely debatable page. "Personal life" really isn't considered by the vast majority of people to be a very basic or essential encyclopedic topic; the ubiquity of this classification on Wikipedia seems to be more the result of categorizational necessity than any inherent essentialness of the actual term. The topic may be fairly essential, but the specific term "personal life" isn't. | Human, Person |
| Philosophy | 7 | Belief, Culture | |
| Physical science | 5 | See earth sciences, above. | Science |
| Physics | 8 | Science (Natural sciences, Physical sciences) | |
| Plant | 8 | Major Kingdom of organisms, along with animal. | Organism (Eukaryote) |
| Poetry | 7 | Literature | |
| Politics | 9 | Ethics, Society | |
| Popular culture | 6 | Debatable term. | Culture |
| Publishing | 2 | Mass media | |
| Psychology | 7 | Behavior, Social sciences | |
| Race | 7 | Anthropology | |
| Radio | 7 | Broadcasting, Culture, Electronics, Mass media, Sound, Telecommunication | |
| Recreation | 5 | Behavior | |
| Reference | 3 | Knowledge | |
| Religion | 9 | Belief, Culture, Society | |
| Science | 10 | Academia, Knowledge, Nature | |
| Sculpture | 7 | Art (Plastic arts) | |
| Sex | 8 | Biological reproduction, Genetics, Sexuality | |
| Ship | 6 | Transport, Vehicle (Watercraft) | |
| Football (soccer) | 2 | Sport | |
| Social movements | 5 | Society, Sociology | |
| Social sciences | 5 | See Earth sciences, above. | Academia, Science, Society |
| Society | 10 | None. | |
| Sociology | 7 | Social sciences, Society | |
| Sound | 9 | Hearing, Waves | |
| South America | 7 | Articles for the continents are very important, but they may not all fit into a list of only 150. | Continent |
| Sports | 8 | Culture, Entertainment, Exercise, Game, Recreation | |
| Statistics | 6 | Mathematics | |
| Technology | 10 | Culture | |
| Telecommunication | 6 | Communication, Electronics, Engineering | |
| Television | 7 | Broadcasting, Culture, Electronics, Entertainment, Mass media, Telecommunications | |
| Theatre | 8 | Entertainment, Performing arts | |
| Theorem | 5 | Science | |
| Time | 10 | Metrology, Nature, Physics | |
| Tools | 9 | Technology | |
| Tourism | 5 | Entertainment, Recreation | |
| Toy | 6 | Child, Entertainment | |
| Tradition | 9 | Culture | |
| Train | 6 | Transport, Vehicle | |
| Trigonometry | 4 | Calculus, Geometry | |
| Universe | 10 | Cosmology, Environment | |
| Visual arts | 8 | Art | |
| Western civilization | 5 | Culture | |
| War | 9 | Conflict, Politics, Violence | |
| Weather | 8 | Meteorology, Nature |
Assessment of relative essentialness of proposed "Core Topics" additions
editAssorted articles that have been proposed as possible additions to the "Core Topics" list.