- Feb 5, 2002
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SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (OSV News) — U.S. pilgrims made up the largest international group walking the famous Camino to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 2023. The Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James, welcomed over 32,000 American visitors in a record year for the ancient pilgrimage site.
Interest in the Camino de Santiago — a network of pilgrim routes across Europe that lead to the Tomb of Saint James — is greater than ever, with the worldwide number of pilgrims walking the site approaching half a million. Not everyone, however, walks because of religious reasons.
According to the statistics published by the pilgrims’ office, 446,035 pilgrims from all over the world arrived in the City of the Apostles last year. With 44% of the pilgrims (almost 200,000) being Spanish, Americans were the most common international visitors (32,063), followed by Italians (28,645) and Germans (24,342). The Portuguese, French, British, Mexicans, South Koreans and Irish were also represented in the top ten, followed by pilgrims from destinations as far as Australia, Brazil and Canada.
The Camino also welcomes pilgrims from unusual places — unusual for the fact that they are geographically very far from Spain and the journey is costly — two arrivals each came from Laos and Myanmar, and one person each from Lesotho, Senegal, Somalia and the Solomon Islands. There were three arrivals from citizens of the Vatican. In terms of gender, women were in the lead.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Interest in the Camino de Santiago — a network of pilgrim routes across Europe that lead to the Tomb of Saint James — is greater than ever, with the worldwide number of pilgrims walking the site approaching half a million. Not everyone, however, walks because of religious reasons.
According to the statistics published by the pilgrims’ office, 446,035 pilgrims from all over the world arrived in the City of the Apostles last year. With 44% of the pilgrims (almost 200,000) being Spanish, Americans were the most common international visitors (32,063), followed by Italians (28,645) and Germans (24,342). The Portuguese, French, British, Mexicans, South Koreans and Irish were also represented in the top ten, followed by pilgrims from destinations as far as Australia, Brazil and Canada.
The Camino also welcomes pilgrims from unusual places — unusual for the fact that they are geographically very far from Spain and the journey is costly — two arrivals each came from Laos and Myanmar, and one person each from Lesotho, Senegal, Somalia and the Solomon Islands. There were three arrivals from citizens of the Vatican. In terms of gender, women were in the lead.
Continued below.
More Americans walked the Camino in 2023 than ever before
The Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James, welcomed over 32,000 American visitors in a record year for the ancient pilgrimage site.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
