We from the Jacobean Foundation will comment, as every year, on the statistics of the Pilgrim Welcome Office for 2024. Since the main interest of the Foundation is the pilgrims, our reading will focus particularly on them, on the trends that the statistics show regarding pilgrims, as to their nationalities and origins.
In 2024, 499,241 pilgrims were recognized with the Compostela. Of these, 425,045 walked the Camino on foot; 20,776 by bicycle; 9,146 by boat; 591 on horseback; 272 by sail; and 270 in a wheelchair. These figures show a slight decrease in the presence of cyclists on the Camino and, above all, a huge increase in the number of pilgrims who arrived in Galicia by boat, almost double that of 2023. Regarding gender, there were hardly any changes compared to the previous year: women continue to be more numerous, with a percentage of 53%, 254,677 pilgrims; While men maintain a percentage of 46%, 210,423 pilgrims.
Regarding the origin of the pilgrims, for another year the number of foreign pilgrims exceeded the national ones. The gap between foreign and Spanish pilgrims widens by 2% compared to the previous year: in 2024, 58% of the pilgrims were foreign, 268,232 in total; compared to 42% of Spanish pilgrims, 208,378.
Regarding nationalities, the first data to highlight is the continuity of the United States phenomenon. In 2023, the USA managed to take second place as the country of origin of pilgrims, overtaking the Italians and Germans who traditionally occupied second and third place, but in 2024 it will overtake the rest of the foreign countries by a much greater distance, reaching 38,052 pilgrims. Everything seems to indicate that the growth of pilgrims from the USA is far from reaching its ceiling and they will surely play a major role in the upcoming Holy Years.
Behind Spain and the United States, the main countries of origin of pilgrims are our usual European neighbours: Italy in third place with 28,599 pilgrims, Germany in fourth with 23,462, followed by Portugal 21,935, the United Kingdom 13,095, France 10,245 and Ireland 10,212.
Among the countries that follow, we find those that we could call “classics of the Camino”, a group that includes both European and non-European countries. In the case of Europe, we find ourselves contributing more than a thousand pilgrims to the Camino: Poland 7,478, Holland 6,353, Czech Republic 5,162, Denmark 3,820, Belgium 3,481, Austria 2,459, Switzerland 1,907, Hungary 1,837, Slovakia 1,596, Romania 1,588, Ukraine 1,848, Sweden 1,394, Bulgaria 1,093 or Croatia 1,006. In addition, other European nationalities were present on the Camino with several hundred pilgrims: Norway, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, Malta, Estonia, Greece, Luxembourg, Serbia or Iceland. Regarding the non-European “classics”, four historical ones remain strong: Canada 7,767, Australia 7,661, South Africa 1,646 and New Zealand 1,481. Another key trend that the 2024 statistics confirm is the growth of Asia: there are more and more eastern countries on the Camino. Among the Asian countries, there are two that have had a long-standing presence on the Camino: Japan, the first to arrive, which this year contributed 1,473 pilgrims; and Korea, one of the great phenomena of the 21st century on the Camino, which with 7,910 pilgrims occupied tenth place in 2024. But the real novelty is the important and much more novel presence of other eastern countries: Taiwan, from where 3,406 pilgrims arrived in Santiago; China, which contributed 2,557; and other countries that are beginning to establish their presence on the Camino: Singapore 807, Hong Kong 562, Malaysia 512, Indonesia 411,
Among the trends, the important presence of Latin American countries on the Camino is also consolidated. The presence of Mexico stood out, which took ninth place with 9,481, and Brazil, which with 7,093 was fourteenth. But there was also a significant presence on the Camino: Argentina 4,807, Colombia 4,549, Venezuela 1,417, Puerto Rico 1,078, Chile 1,013 and Uruguay 968. The rest of the Latin American countries also contributed a few hundred pilgrims, such as Peru, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Paraguay, Cuba, Bolivia or Panama. We assume that many of the Latin American pilgrims are residents in Spain, but, certainly, a significant proportion are not and show an upward trend in pilgrims arriving from America.
At the end of this list we could refer to the Philippines, an Asian country that shares with Latin America the religious motivation and the cultural link with Spain, which last year 2024 contributed 1,308 pilgrims to the Camino. Among the countries present we also find other important presences such as Russia with 1,393 pilgrims who recognized the Compostela.
Among the countries that sent pilgrims, we also find other important presences such as Russia with 1,393 pilgrims who collected the Compostela. But we also see much more unusual presences such as Iran 445, India 220 or Iraq 115.
And we end these references by commenting on a last and discreet presence: 275 pilgrims from Israel. We are interested in highlighting the data from Israel to underline an essential element at play in recent times: the Gaza conflict. We believe that the data for 2024 also respond to this phenomenon, that is, that there has been a certain displacement of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land towards other pilgrimage centres. We do not forget the medieval history of the West: if access to the Holy Land is closed, the pilgrimage to Santiago grows.
We also summarise the rest of the data collected by the statistics of the Pilgrim Welcome Office, relating to the most travelled routes and the starting points. As in recent years, the most popular routes of the Camino de Santiago were the French Way and the Portuguese Way. The French Way was the choice of 47.38% of the pilgrims who collected the Compostela, 236,379 pilgrims in total. Regarding the Portuguese Way, there is a significant increase in the number of pilgrims on its main routes, which as a whole are increasingly closer to the Hispanic routes: 95,453 pilgrims walked the Central Portuguese Way, 19.13% of the total for 2024, and 74,758 walked the Portuguese Coastal Way, which is 14.98%.
By a long way, the fourth most popular route was the English Way, with 28,058 pilgrims, 5.62% of the total. In fifth place, we find the Camino Primitivo, with 24,464 pilgrims, 4.9% of the total, which, given the difficulty of the route, we consider a fairly high percentage. What is most surprising are the 21,417 pilgrims who walked a route as attractive from a heritage and natural point of view as the Camino Norte, which represents a scant 4.29%, and, above all, the 0.45% who walked the Vía de la Plata, which represents only 9,028 pilgrims.
Without a doubt, the growing number of foreign pilgrims has something to do with the figures we have just discussed, particularly in the growing weight of the Portuguese routes of the Camino, much more accessible for those who arrive from other countries by air thanks to the presence of large airports on the routes such as those in Lisbon or Porto.
Finally, the starting points were the usual “kilometre 100” of the French Way, Sarria with 152,091 pilgrims, and the Portuguese Way, Tui with 36,576 pilgrims. The starting points of the long distance on the French Way were very far behind in figures: S. Jean P. de Port with 32,576 pilgrims and Roncesvalles with 4,386.
Where the greatest growth was seen compared to the previous year was in Oporto: as a starting point for the Central Portuguese Way, with 31,842 pilgrims, and as an important starting point for the Portuguese Way along the Coast, with 22,414 pilgrims. Other starting points of the Portuguese routes are also consolidated, such as Valença do Miño with 16,896 pilgrims.
Other traditional starting points remain strong and have similar numbers to last year: Ferrol as the start of one of the routes of the English Way, with 26,780 pilgrims, and Oviedo as the start of the Primitive Way, with 13,838 pilgrims.
In addition to the great diversity of starting points on the various routes of the Camino de Santiago, we are interested in highlighting the presence of some very long-distance starting points such as: Le Puy 3,090, France 1,413 (on the French Way), France 317 (on the Northern Way), Lourdes 306, Belgium 282, Germany 258, Italy 205, Paris 195, Holland 192, Arles 155, Vezelay 139, Ireland 122 (on the English Way), Switzerland 113, United Kingdom 81 (on the English Way), Poland 61, Austria 57, Bulgaria 20, Rome 17, Hungary 9, Norway 9, Russia 9, Sweden 9… and even 2 pilgrims began their Camino in Egypt as well as 2 in the city of Jerusalem.
