Camino de Santiago numbers continue to increase

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The Pilgrim Office in Santiago de Compostela keeps records of each person who receives the Compostela certificate of completion. The minimum distance that you need to cover to qualify for the Compostela is 100 kilometres.

Figures for 2018 have just been released, showing that a total of 327,342 people received a certificate in that year. That compares to 301,036 in 2017 and 277,854 in 2016 and demonstrates the ongoing surge in popularity being witnessed by the Camino de Santiago.

There are a number of different routes (“caminos”) to Santiago de Compostela. The Pilgrim Office figures show the top five routes as:

  1. The Camino Frances - 56.88% of all finishers.

  2. The Camino Portugues - 20.72% of all finishers.

  3. The Camino del Norte - 5.82% of all finishers.

  4. The Camino Primitivo - 4.59% of all finishers.

  5. The Camino Ingles - 4.32% of all finishers.

The top three starting points were: Sarria - 27% (on the Camino Frances and just outside the 100 km minimum qualifying distance for the Compostela); Porto - 10% (on the Camino Portugues) and St Jean Pied de Port - 10% (on the Camino Frances).

The top 10 nationalities were: Spain, Italy, Germany, United States, France, UK, Ireland, Korea, Brazil and Australia.

Cathy Henderson