- Time of past OR future Camino
- Too many and too often!
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No -- April/May and September/mid-October are the busiest periods as far as "the whole Camino" (ahem !!) is concerned in that there are the highest numbers of people walking ALL of the Way between SJPP or further and Santiago -- which means that those are the months when there will be the greatest numbers of pilgrims on the Meseta and on other "boring" sections that some people choose to skip.Given that this graph shows that the number of pilgrims starting from St. Jean and claiming a Compostela or Distance Certificate this year was well below the peak of 2019.
AND
During April this year people were saying that they had never seen such high numbers before and suggesting that the Camino Frances was overcrowded and "full".
There seems to be two possibly contradictory statements.
I seem to be reading more posts here and elsewhere these days from people who plan to walk a section of a Camino route but with no particular intention of ending their journey in Santiago. People who ask what the most attractive parts of a Camino route might be for a given number of days.Many walk to Pamplona or Logroño or somewhere, then bus it to León or Astorga or Sarria or something.
That's why the numbers don't add up.
Very difficult to know how many that would be. Me certainly in recent years. I didn't register in SJPDP when I last passed through there in September or in Santiago on my last arrival so I am one of those invisible pilgrims. Given the many possible routes and starting points it is simply not possible to know how many people start a Camino in a given year and make the comparison with the far more definite number of Compostelas handed out. My impression is that the percentage who do not ask for a Compostela at the end of their journey may be growing but I cannot point to any solid evidence for that.And that doesn’t count the enormous amount of people who don’t claim a Compostela
I don't use Facebook and so I can't see if this person has provided a more useful breakdown than this.
Given that this graph shows that the number of pilgrims starting from St. Jean and claiming a Compostela or Distance Certificate this year was well below the peak of 2019.
AND
During April this year people were saying that they had never seen such high numbers before and suggesting that the Camino Frances was overcrowded and "full".
There seems to be two possibly contradictory statements.
It would be nice to know:
If April this year was busier than April 2019 but then the rest of this year was a lot less busy than 2019
OR
If people were just overstating how busy things were this year because they were perhaps a bit lazy and just compared this year's figures with last year's figures and didn't take the longer term figures into account.
Is there a reason that you take that as given? So far as I'm able to ascertain these are the numbers of people who have passed through the Pilgrim Office in St. Jean and there is no check as to whether these have claimed a Compostela or Distance Certificate. I'm not sure how such a check would be done. I don't believe that the Pilgrim Office in Santiago shares information except in aggregate numbers.Given that this graph shows that the number of pilgrims starting from St. Jean and claiming a Compostela or Distance Certificate
I’ve walked three, with four different people and none of us have claimed a Compostela , as you say it’s impossible to estimate how many there are.Very difficult to know how many that would be. Me certainly in recent years. I didn't register in SJPDP when I last passed through there in September or in Santiago on my last arrival so I am one of those invisible pilgrims. Given the many possible routes and starting points it is simply not possible to know how many people start a Camino in a given year and make the comparison with the far more definite number of Compostelas handed out. My impression is that the percentage who do not ask for a Compostela at the end of their journey may be growing but I cannot point to any solid evidence for that.
Good points! I know the Pilgrim's office in Santiago collects information about the route taken and start location... Do they publish the numbers based on route/start? Maybe the proportion of walkers on the Frances has declined, as the infrastructure and knowledge of alternative routes has grown?Since we know many, many pilgrims start closer to Santiago on the Frances (like in Sarria) or on other routes (like the Portugues), that could easily account for the fact that this is a record year according to the Pilgrim Office in Santiago while not being a record year in St. Jean.
The Santiago pilgrim office publish numbers broken down by route followed and also by starting point. Certainly the percentage of pilgrims choosing the Frances has declined as other routes have gained in popularity. Especially the variants of the Portugues. But because numbers walking overall on all routes have risen greatly in the last 10 years or so the numbers being recorded in SJPDP have not fallen dramatically in absolute terms.Do they publish the numbers based on route/start? Maybe the proportion of walkers on the Frances has declined, as the infrastructure and knowledge of alternative routes has grown?
I've never looked at this before! Fascinating! It would be awesome if they included multiple variables... for example: starting point by route taken and nationality. That level of detail might not be important tho for most. But, as a marketer, I'd love to know that too! (ex. build/own a Swiss themed albergue/hotel where?) (I'm not Swiss, I just remember an albergue that was branded that way!)The Santiago pilgrim office publish numbers broken down by route followed and also by starting point. Certainly the percentage of pilgrims choosing the Frances has declined as other routes have gained in popularity. Especially the variants of the Portugues. But because numbers walking overall on all routes have risen greatly in the last 10 years or so the numbers being recorded in SJPDP have not fallen dramatically in absolute terms.
Perhaps some of the confusion of the numbers is the chart provided here is only the folks that walked from SJPDP. Most folks start closer to Santiago and those numbers are not included here.I don't use Facebook and so I can't see if this person has provided a more useful breakdown than this.
Given that this graph shows that the number of pilgrims starting from St. Jean and claiming a Compostela or Distance Certificate this year was well below the peak of 2019.
AND
During April this year people were saying that they had never seen such high numbers before and suggesting that the Camino Frances was overcrowded and "full".
There seems to be two possibly contradictory statements.
It would be nice to know:
If April this year was busier than April 2019 but then the rest of this year was a lot less busy than 2019
OR
If people were just overstating how busy things were this year because they were perhaps a bit lazy and just compared this year's figures with last year's figures and didn't take the longer term figures into account.
57,000 for 2023 seem very low considering all the publicity about return of big numbers. Is this really only those who identify as Pilgrims rather than walkers/travellers etc.Here are the monthly numbers from the SJPP pilgrims office. They were just posted yesterday.
View attachment 161424
It is those who passed through the Pilgrims Office in St. Jean Pied de Port.57,000 for 2023 seem very low considering all the publicity about return of big numbers. Is this really only those who identify as Pilgrims rather than walkers/travellers etc.
My mistake, 2am syndrome on my part. I didn't read the original post correctly. I misread it as figures from the Pilgrim Office in Santiago de Compostela.Is there a reason that you take that as given? So far as I'm able to ascertain these are the numbers of people who have passed through the Pilgrim Office in St. Jean and there is no check as to whether these have claimed a Compostela or Distance Certificate. I'm not sure how such a check would be done. I don't believe that the Pilgrim Office in Santiago shares information except in aggregate numbers.
This won't count the number of pilgrims who start in St. Jean without visiting the Pilgrim Office there, just as the Santiago numbers don't include the number of pilgrims who don't show up there to request a certificate. While it will include pilgrims who do not make it to Santiago this year (either because they choose to end their pilgrimages earlier or because they are doing the Camino in stages over a number of years and this year's won't make it to Santiago), it won't include people who make it to Santiago starting closer than St. Jean or on another route. Since we know many, many pilgrims start closer to Santiago on the Frances (like in Sarria) or on other routes (like the Portugues), that could easily account for the fact that this is a record year according to the Pilgrim Office in Santiago while not being a record year in St. Jean.
In terms of this being a "record year" from St. Jean in April but not overall, perhaps the pilgrims in previous years were more spread out and this year were more concentrated in particular weeks.
@diegoromerosm Provides very useful website(s) that give much more detail about various parameters. His data is scraped from the Santiago de Compostela Pilgrim Office website. The Santiago de Compostela Pilgrim Office website used to provide access to their raw data (non personally identifiable) but for reasons unknown they have stopped doing this.I've never looked at this before! Fascinating! It would be awesome if they included multiple variables... for example: starting point by route taken and nationality. That level of detail might not be important tho for most. But, as a marketer, I'd love to know that too! (ex. build/own a Swiss themed albergue/hotel where?) (I'm not Swiss, I just remember an albergue that was branded that way!)
Is the raw (non personally identifiable) data available?
And that doesn’t count the enormous amount of people who don’t claim a Compostela
From surveys done in 2021 IIRC and published last year, it seems about 15% of those who reach Santiago do not claim a Compostela -- though the % of pilgrims not claiming theirs is a lot smaller in October to April than during high pilgrim season.Very difficult to know how many that would be.
Yes,I've done four but only claimed for first one.And that doesn’t count the enormous amount of people who don’t claim a Compostela
And I've done four, but only failed to claim for the first one (although the last one was vicarie pro for someone whose health did not permit her to walk and I gave the Compostela to her - I kept the other 5 certificates from that walk, though).Yes,I've done four but only claimed for first one.
Numbers have always been a lot lower at that end of the Camino than in the Sarria to Santiago section, and that was true even before the fashion for "doing" Sarria to Santiago came into being.I must admit I am somewhat surprised. I would have thought the annual number would have been a couple hundred thousand.
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