Naturally, the numbers of pilgrims walking the Camino in 2020 has been severely effected by the onset of the Covid-19 virus. Exactly what the long term effect will have on the numbers remains to be seen, but without a vaccine and considering the high numbers of pilgrims in the high risk category it may be years before the number of pilgrims reverts back to the heady heights of 2019.
In 2019, 347,578 pilgrims received their Compostela in Santiago. This doesn’t accurately reflect total numbers as many people don’t bother collecting a Compostela and many others do sections of the Camino that don’t finish in Santiago.
For the second year in a row, women (177,801) outnumbered men (169,777) with numbers of solo women especially increasing exponentially in recent years. 54.52% of all pilgrims were 30-60, 26.74% under 30 and 18.73% over 60.
Naturally, Spaniards made up the vast majority of pilgrims (146,350) followed by Italy (28,749), Germany (26,167), USA (20,652) and Portugal (17,450) making up the top 5. Australians came in 11th with 5,301 pilgrims.
No doubt about it the Camino is a wonderfully diverse experience!
