Pilgrim numbers at Santo Domingo dela Calzada in 2013

[brawblether]

When I was at the Spanish Confraternity's albergue in Santo Domingo dela Calzada this February they printed off their sheet of statistics for 2013 and gave it to me. I hope that the photo will be readable (the printing is small so I left it as a large photo).

What I found most amazing is that this gives a totally different picture from the statistics at SdC at the pilgrim office. Here you can see that the busiest months are May and September, and that pilgrim numbers increase by 1000 between Feb-Mar, Mar-Apr, Apr-May, drop 800-900 in Jun/Jul, and drop again in Oct before dipping right down in Nov-Feb. (Keep in mind this is one of two albergues in a town and so the interest is in the change of numbers from month to month more so than the actual number themselves.)

It also shows the breakdown of Nationality

After the utter bliss of peace and relative solitude in February, it's interesting to see how many more pilgrims are around a few weeks later in March. Can't wait to walk a spring Camino!

 

[NoQ]

July is actually a fantastic time to walk the this part of the Camino. Plenty of daylight, lovely warm weather, everything is open and it is definitely not so busy. Different matter when getting past Astorga, and particularly Sarria, though.

 

[Felipe]

Not a very scientific conclusion..but I have the feeling that nationality/composition/age of "long range pilgrims" (starting in Navarre) is different to the ones of "short range pilgrims" (that is, those starting in Galice). I guess that if you could break the SdeC records by starting place, the patterns would be similar to the ones recorded in Roncesvalles or Sto Domingo. I know, I know, the Camino is not about stats -I am just curious.
Early spring is a very good season to walk -more or less mild weather, the right number of pilgrims, more abergues open, and you can see the first signs of spring blossom on the fields.

 

[stratophile]

Very interesting! One thing that jumps out to me is the relative breakdown of nationality. Spanish pilgrims make up 50%-ish of the pilgrims showing up in Santiago but only 33% of those on this listing. It's interesting seeing some of the numbers for other countries as well (my fellow Canadians only make up less than 3%).

 

[SYates]

When I was at the Italian Confraternity's albergue in Santo Domingo dela Calzada ...

Which albergue is that? I only know about the Confraternity one and the one in the monastery - is there a new one? SY

 

[brawblether]

Oops, I meant Spanish not Italian - sorry.

 

[AlanB]

Percentage of Spanish pilgrims definitely increase as you near Santiago