First quarter figures on the Camino de Santiago point to another record year

Camino de Santiago

The historical record of pilgrims registered last year can be exceeded in 2018. In 2017, 301,036 compostelas were delivered, although this result is on track to be exceeded this year. At least, this is what the balance of the first quarter indicates, which shows the delivery of 14,865 certificates at the reception center of carretas street in Santiago de Compostela, far exceeding the 8,227 in the same period in 2017. Although in this case there is no it has so much in mind the added factor of Holy Week since this year has been much more early in the month of March, while last year these marked dates coincided in the month of April.

Even without Holy Week, the current trend of this first quarter of 2018 points to another record. In January and February of this year, more pilgrims arrived, 1,628 and 2,181 respectively, while last year there were 1,355 and 1,696 pilgrims. In addition, the balance of the first quarter is also significantly higher than the last Holy Year, which took place in 2010. In that year, which also coincided with the Holy Week bridge between March and April, a total of 8,710 pilgrims had registered .

In addition to increasing the number of pilgrims, there has also been a greater percentage of pilgrims of Spanish nationality in March with a total of 56.2% compared to 44.2% reached during the same month of 2017. On the other hand, among the foreigners there has been an increase of Americans, who now occupy the third place, finding themselves behind Portuguese and Germans and taking a bit of advantage to the Irish and Italian pilgrims.