The Camino de Santiago in 2022: How many pilgrims walked it?

Grupo de peregrinos recorriendo el Camino De Santiago - Envato

The Way of St. James in 2022: All the data

As has happened in all areas, Covid-19 has also affected the Camino de Santiago in recent years. In 2020, obviously, the numbers were very low due to the situation, but gradually pilgrims have been able to return to normal. Thus, the year 2021, although it began with very low numbers, these were improving over the months and in the middle of the year the situation began to resemble the pre-pandemic.

For its part, this 2022 has managed to return to the Camino de Santiago the figures we are used to seeing, and even better. And is that during this year, the number of pilgrims who came to Santiago has been even higher than that collected in 2019.

In addition to the reduction of restrictions related to Covid-19, there is another reason why 2022 has been a great year in the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. This is because the Xacobeo year, which took place in 2021, was also extended to 2022 so that more pilgrims could make their adventure during this special time.

Thus, pilgrims from all over the world through the dozens of routes that make up the Camino, threw his backpack on his back to enjoy this experience and return to the Camino de Santiago the affluence it deserves, leaving us such impressive data as those presented below.

The Camino de Santiago month by month: summer is still the preferred season

Although any time is good for the Camino de Santiago, there are certain months of the year that continue to welcome more pilgrims than others. Specifically, August remains the month with the highest number of walkers, with more than 85,000 people. But if we count the total number of pilgrims who requested their compostela, the figure reaches more than 438,000, making 2022 the most successful Xacobeo year in history. 

• January: 1,617 (2022) / 60 (2021) / 1,999 (2020) / 1,651 (2019) 
• February: 1.894 (2022) / 14 (2021) / 3.076 (2020) / 2.119 (2019) 
• March: 7,389 (2022) / 194 (2021) / 1,710 (2020) / 7,474 (2019)
• April: 34,283 (2022) / 1,024 (2021) / 0 (2020) / 31,721 (2019) 
• May: 48,254 (2022) / 4,295 (2021) / 0 (2020) / 46,672 (2019)
• June: 58,012 (2022) / 14,824 (2021) / 12 (2020) / 49,057 (2019) 
• July: 67,374 (2022) / 35,963 (2021) / 9,752 (2020) / 53,319 (2019) 
• August: 85,842 (2022) / 43,575 (2021) / 19,812 (2020) / 62,814 (2019) 
• September: 66,196 (2022) / 37,463 (2021) / 10,441 (2020) / 45,649 (2019) 
• October: 51,356 (2022) / 31,170 (2021) / 6,418 (2020) / 36,115 (2019) 
• November: 11,283 (2022) / 9,094 (2021) / 586 (2020) / 8,237 (2019)
• December: 4,682 (2022) / 1,193 (2021) / 99 (2020) / 2,710 (2019)

Spanish pilgrims in the lead in 2022, but with a surprise in the Top 3

The Camino de Santiago is transited each year by hundreds of thousands of people who come from all over the world, but the Spanish nationality remains the most abundant among the pilgrims in this 2022 and, although by little, the number of women also continues to be higher than men.

On the other hand, a non-European country has been placed among the three that have given more pilgrims to the Camino de Santiago this year, which is a novelty. In addition, the number of bicigrinos has also increased, which indicates that this way of walking the different routes is increasingly common. Here are some more detailed figures.

• How many women and men have walked the Camino in 2022? This 2022 continues to have a very equal percentage of participants by sex. Specifically, a total of 231,461 women, 206,860 men and 2 people who did not want to specify. 
• How many people walked the Way of Saint James this year? A total of 414,340 pilgrims walked the Way. The second most frequent mode was by bicycle with a total of 22,863 pilgrims, followed by horseback with 545, sailing with 448 and 127 completed it in wheelchairs. 
• What country were the pilgrims from in 2022? As in 2021, the country that gave more pilgrims to the Camino de Santiago has been Spain, with a total of 239,417. In second position, also repeats Italy, with 27,078. The surprise comes with the United States, which was the third most represented country this year, with a total of 26,000 pilgrims. These countries are followed by Germany and Portugal, with 23,212 and 20,166 pilgrims respectively.

The most chosen Jacobean routes in 2022

While the French Way is still the most travelled by pilgrims, the Portuguese Way is gaining more and more prominence. And although last year was already in second place, its variant along the coast has managed to overcome other routes such as the English Way, thus ranking as the third most chosen option for pilgrims. Of course, the overall increase in walkers this year has also been reflected in the secondary routes, which year after year are counting with greater influx of pilgrims.

• French Way: 226,887 pilgrims
• Portuguese Way: 93,193 pilgrims
• Portuguese Way along the coast: 30,609 pilgrims
• English Way: 24,205 pilgrims
• Primitive Way: 21,360 pilgrims
• Northern Way: 20,866 pilgrims