April stats

[sillydoll]

The monthly pilgrim stats have been posted on the official website - http://www.archicompostela.org

[edit ivar: the url above did not work, now it does]

For those who have difficulties in accessing the site, here are the figures:

During the month of April, 7010 pilgrims were received at the Pilgrim’s Office. (The number of pilgrims in the year 2005 during the same period was 3307.) Of those pilgrims, 2903 were women and 4107 men.
5855 pilgrims arrived on foot, 1119 by bicycle, 35 on horseback and 1 in a wheelchair.
3053 pilgrims were younger than 30 years old; 3397 were between 30 and 60 years old; 559 were aged above 60 years old.
Motivation of the Pilgrimage:
Religious: 2683 38,2 %
Religious and Cultural: 3613 51,5 %
Cultural: 713 10,2 %
Nationalities of the pilgrims:
Spanish: 4120 pilgrims
Foreigners: 2890 pilgrims.
Most of the pilgrims come from the following countries: Portugal (748); Germany (450); France (348); Italy (247); Great Britain (131); United States (101) and other countries summing up a total number of 58.
Regarding the professional fields, the majority of pilgrims are the students (2047); employees (1076); freelances (863);technicians (843); teachers (572); retired people (537)...
Most started their Way to Santiago in:
Sarria (1614);
O Cebreiro (583);
Ponferrada (482);
Roncesvalles (423);
León (353); Tui (352);
Saint jean Pied de Port (321);
Valença (251);
Astorga (218)....
Most of the pilgrims chose the French Way (5104 pilgrims). The Portuguese Way was done by 1082 pilgrims , the Silver Way by 361, the Northern Way by 312 pilgrims, the English Way by 82 pilgrims and the Primitive Way by 48 pilgrims.

 

[gholsong]

re: numbers

If this trend continues, and the numbers continue to skyrocket out of control (I mean, good Lord, the figure for this April is double last year's), do you think the archdiocese might try making the compostella requirement longer than 100km? It seems that 1,600+ people started from Sarria alone.

And how old is this custom anyway?

Thanks,
Grant

 

[Peter Robins]

The monthly pilgrim stats have been posted on the official website - http://www.archicompostel.org
For those who have difficulties in accessing the site

Everyone will have difficulties accessing that site - should read http://www.archicompostela.org
or to go direct to the English stats page http://www.archicompostela.org/Peregrinos/Inglés/Statistics.htm

 

[Peter Robins]

Re: re: numbers

I mean, good Lord, the figure for this April is double last year's

Holy Week is the big spring peak, which was in March last year. Over the 2 months, nos up from 6400 to 8100, about 25% higher.

do you think the archdiocese might try making the compostella requirement longer than 100km? It seems that 1,600+ people started from Sarria alone.

That is nothing new; most years, a high proportion start in Galicia. I have been wondering too when the backlash starts. Quite apart from anything else, it must be costing the archbishopric a fair amount just to issue the compostelas. If they stopped issuing them, I wonder whether nos would decline?

And how old is this custom anyway?

if you mean the compostela, from the 1970s, I believe. The first figures I have seen are 23 in 1977 and 13 in 1978