WordPress DOM tree depth and the Core Web Vitals

Sites with 15 to 20 DOM levels maximum DOM depth have a good INP most often: 97%, against 97% of all WordPress sites. Sites with 32+ DOM levels DOM depth have it least often, at 94%.

21 to 31 DOM levels is the most used: 42.0% of WordPress sites. 15 to 20 DOM levels is 39.2% of WordPress sites.

On jQuery, 43% of sites use 21 to 31 DOM levels maximum DOM depth, and 97% of jQuery sites have a good INP, against 97% of all sites. On Vue, 79% of sites use 21 to 31 DOM levels, and 95% of Vue sites have a good INP.

FrameworkMaximum DOM depth on its sitesGood INP

All WordPress sites 63,295 sites21 to 31 levels deep 42%15 to 20 levels deep 39%Under 15 levels deep 15%97%

jQuery 60,314 sites21 to 31 levels deep 43%15 to 20 levels deep 39%Under 15 levels deep 14%97%

React 2,233 sites21 to 31 levels deep 50%15 to 20 levels deep 37%96%

Vue 4,844 sites21 to 31 levels deep 79%15 to 20 levels deep 12%95%

Alpine 380 sites15 to 20 levels deep 49%21 to 31 levels deep 28%Under 15 levels deep 22%88%

21 to 31 levels deep 15 to 20 levels deep Under 15 levels deep 32+ levels deep

Does the framework explain the maximum DOM depth difference?

On jQuery, 97% of sites with 15 to 20 DOM levels maximum DOM depth have a good INP, against 96% of jQuery sites with 21 to 31 DOM levels. Within jQuery, sites with 15 to 20 DOM levels have a good INP more often. On Vue, 96% of sites with 15 to 20 DOM levels maximum DOM depth have a good INP, against 96% of Vue sites with 21 to 31 DOM levels. Within Vue, sites with 15 to 20 DOM levels and 21 to 31 DOM levels have a good INP about equally often.

Why deeply nested wrapper chains slow down event bubbling and layout

Maximum DOM depth measures the longest chain of nested parent-child elements from the root html tag to the deepest leaf node. Across 24,825 sites (39.2%) at 15 to 20 levels, 97% achieve good INP (94ms median). Another 42.0% (26,611) nest 21 to 31 levels deep (96% good INP, 103ms median), while the 3.9% (2,470) exceeding 32 levels drop to 94% good INP (108ms median).