Every version of PHP from 7.0 and below has been designated end of life (EOL). Currently, WordPress’ minimum PHP requirement is 5.2.7 which was EOL’d over 8 years ago.
In the 2018 State of the Word Matt said we would be moving to PHP 5.6 as a minimum requirement in April, 2019 and increasing the minimum to PHP 7.0 by the end of 2019.
This presentation will attempt to describe the safeguards put in place to avoid breaking the internet.