23 year old starting Camino late May

[Anto]

Hi All,

Second time to post this .Not sure where the first one ended up.
My 23 year old son starts the Camino in SJPDP in late May .He is going solo .My question is what will the age profile be like at that time of year.

 

[Tincatinker]

19 to 99

Actually it will probably lean towards an older demographic. Many of the younger generations will be in school or university. The middlies will have children in school or university. It'll be the boomers partying like its 1969. But we are quite friendly unless roused.

 

[Anto]

Ok .He is doing the full CF and wont be in a hurry so maybe the colleges will be finished for Summer in late May/ Early June .Have a second son in college and he finishes around 24th May.
Just didnt know if the age demographic changes on Camino when the college's close for Summer recess

 

[stratophile]

I can't give any hard stats on the demographics but my own anecdotal experience is that he'll see plenty of all age groups. I agree with Tincatinker that it will skew slightly older (especially compared to what you would see on other long-distance trails), but universities are mostly out by late May (my daughter is already done for the year...) and lots of 20-somethings do the Camino.

He won't be solo for long unless he wants to be alone.

 

[Dorpie]

@Tincatinker is probably right, from my experience the Camino skews younger in July/August than in May/June but there will still be more than enough people in that range. While I haven't checked the stats I feel it's far more the middle that's under-represented in Camino demographics, obviously the more responsible of my peers are busy having jobs and families and stuff.

 

[Anto]

Ok
should be ok then . He's happy with his own company anyway but was curious .
I have done sections of camino myself (SJPDP to Pamplona last year and Sarria to Santiago 2016) so have some experience of it but was late September when colleges would have been open. Even at that time of year I tought age profile was younger between Sarria and Santiago

 

[Deleted member 3000]

May arrivals last year had 14% under 30.
June arrivals last year had 22% under 30.
July arrivals last year had 40% under 30.
August arrivals last year had 37% under 30.

Adjust the arrivals back to a departure up to a month earlier and it is clear that the crowd gets younger as the summer progresses!

 

[Mito]

He'll be fine. There will be more than enough youngsters. I'm in my 60s and made friends from all age groups. I just got back from walking in March and there were far more younger folks this time than I expected.