Tuesday 5 July 2022

Planning - Historical Camino Information and 2022 Outlook - 71 Days to go

This post provides a Historical perspective on the Camino de Santiago routes and some key statistics. As such, unlike other posts 😂🤣, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

How this all started

Christian legend has it that when the Apostles divided the known world into missionary zones, the Iberian peninsula fell to James. He spent a number of years preaching there before returning to Jerusalem where in the year 44 AD he was beheaded by the king.

Popular belief is that his followers carried his body to the coast and put it on a stone boat which was guided by angels and carried by the wind to land near Finisterre, at Padron, in northern Spain.

The local queen buried the body in a marble tomb with two of his disciples. And there he lay, forgotten until the 9th century when a hermit living in Galicia had a vision that he saw a star or field of stars which led him to the place of burial.

A small village named Campus de la Stella (Field of Stars) and a monastery were established on the site. The news of the discovery spread like wildfire and the pilgrimages began from all over Europe. The objective was to leave your doorstep and possessions behind and walk to Santiago de Compostela to obtain absolution for your sins.

Many pilgrims died on this journey in the Middle Ages either through starvation, being murdered or simply from exhaustion. The pilgrimage rivalled more well known pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem in terms of numbers. It peaked in the Middle Ages and almost ceased to exist in the last few centuries. Over the past number of years the number of pilgrims has really grown again to the point where in excess of 300,000 pilgrims walk yearly to earn their Compostela. To receive this document you must demonstrate through the collection of sellos (stamps) that you have walked at least the last 100 kilometres to Santiago de Compostela.

The most popular pilgrimage route is the Way of St. James or French route which starts in St. Jean Pied de Port in France, crosses the Pyrenees into Spain and finishes in Santiago de Compostela.

2013/2014 My Camino Long Walk
Route


2022 Camino Salvador & Camino Primitivo Upper Left Area, 2018 Camino Portuguese far Left Area

Historical Compostela Statistics and 2022 Outlook

No point publishing numbers, graphs etc if you can't draw conclusions! The long and short of it is that the Camino Routes are really busy and will almost certainly set all time records in 2022 for the Camino routes in total and for the Camino Primitivo in particular. Numbers for the Camino Salvador are not recorded by the Pilgrims Office.

Sooo...reserving private rooms in advance makes sense given that September is traditionally the 5th highest walking month of the year.

Camino de Santiago pilgrim growth has been explosive since 1985 as shown in the first graph below. Of note red bars are Papal Years as declared by the Catholic Church. The impacts of the 2020/2021 COVID Pandemic years are clearly shown.

June 2022 numbers for all Camino routes are 9.3% higher than June 2019 numbers...for total year 2019 a record 347,585 pilgrims walked various Camino routes. 

June 2022 numbers for the Camino Primitivo route are 18.2% higher than June 2019 numbers...for total year 2019 a record 15,715 pilgrims walked the Camino Primitivo route. 

Note the above numbers are for Pilgrims who walked at least the last 100 kms into Santiago de Compostela...had the requisite pilgrim stamps in their Credentials AND requested an official Compostela document. A number of pilgrims simply do not obtain a Compostela...I have 3 Compostela's and 1 Distance document...do I really need another tube with a Compostela sheet rolled up inside? Maybe/Maybe not...will see.

Other numbers which may be of interest...all numbers by definition are of interest to me 🤣😂. As of June 2022:
  • 49.9% of pilgrims were Male
  • 50.1% of pilgrims were Female

  • 22.8% of pilgrims were < 30 years old
  • 52.6% of pilgrims were 30 - 60
  • 24.6% of pilgrims were > 60 👌😀

  • 42.6% of pilgrims walked from Sarria, Tui, Lugo or Ferrol which means they walked the minimum 100 kms (or slightly more) to obtain their Compostela's

  • 10,846 or 7.2% of total pilgrims walked from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago the Compostela. This represents the entire Camino Frances route which I walked with my brother Marc and Paulo in 2014. Paulo it should be noted chose to walk the easy route the first day to Roncesvalles...apparently he was scared of the fog on the Napoleon Route. It is the route depicted in the movie The Way with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez...fun movie to watch.
I think that is enough for numbers...next Planning blog posting will focus on the Physical and Mental preparation...such as it is 🤔

Enjoy the graphs 🤣😂 they are all mine!

Guy



Yearly Pilgrim Numbers by Year since 1985



All Camino Routes Cumulative Pilgrim Numbers



All Camino Routes Monthly Pilgrim Numbers

Camino Primitivo Cumulative Pilgrim Numbers

Camino Primitivo Monthly Pilgrim Numbers


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