As a convention, the first page (or cover page) does not hold a page number.

Normally in Word, we insert the page number field either in the header or footer section of documents. This saves us from inserting page numbers manually to each page, as content placed in the header/footer section is repeated throughout the document.

Incidentally, this way Word inserts page number to the first page too. Here is this workaround to overcome this.

1.   On the Ribbon navigate to the Page Layout tab and within the Page Setup group, click the Page Setup dialog-box launcher icon.

2.   In the dialog box, under the Headers and Footers section, click option Different First Page. As a result, the header and footer section disappears from the first page.

Subsequently, you can reset the page numbering in your document so that number starts at the second page. Here is how you can do so.

1.   On the Ribbon, under the tab Insert, within the group Header & Footer, click Page Number. The page number drop-down appears.

2.   From the drop-down list, click the Format Page Numbers option. Page Number Format dialog box appears.

3.   On the dialog box, under the section Page numbering, click the Start At option box and using the spin box set the starting page number to “0”. This way, the second page in your document will have page number 1.