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THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO STATISTICS & TRENDS OVER TIME.

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Are there any other Camino geeks out there? If so, this blog post is especially for you. We got our hands on recent data from the Pilgrims Office in Santiago and decided to see what we could find.

Below we analyze how many people walk each route of the Camino each year, finding out which is the most popular Camino route. How many men versus women walk the Camino? And, which nationality are the biggest fans of the Camino?

How many people walk the Camino de Santiago each year?

We’ve looked at data from the past ten years to see how many people walk the Camino de Santiago each year.

2023 was a staggering year on the Camino de Santiago, with a total of 442,101 people completing a section of the Camino. That’s nearly half a million pilgrims! And, more than double the number of people who completed a section of the Camino de Santiago in 2013 – 215,879 people.

During 2020 and 2021, due to the global Covid pandemic, numbers of people on the Camino were very low. But they quickly picked up again in 2022.

And, what about 2024? Will it be the biggest year yet on the Camino de Santiago? At time of writing, 84,448 pilgrims have arrived in Santiago de Compostela already – that’s around 42,000 walking in April and 23,000 in March. Looking at those figures, I’d say 2024 will be a record breaking year on the Camino.

Which is the most popular Camino de Santiago route?

There are many different Camino routes, but which ones are the most popular?

We’ve written extensively about the different Camino routes, and we are fortunate to have walked the Frances, the Norte, Portuguese Coastal and Portuguese Central route. For this reason, I was very interested to delve into the stats about the Camino routes and find out once and for all, which is the most popular route?

Here’s what we found:

There are six popular routes

Over time, we can see that there are six routes that have remained the most popular over time. This is, the Frances, Portuguese Central, Portuguese Coastal, Ingles, Primitivo and Norte.

If you’d like more information on each route – you can find our guide here.

A few Camino routes have become less popular

Now, it is very much still true that the Camino Frances is by far and away the most popular route. It has the most infrastructure, and is the first route that most people think of as being “The Camino.”

However, on closer inspection, I noticed that the number of people walking the Camino Frances has increased by only 18% over the last five years. This is interesting, because the total number walking all routes has increased by 135% over the same period.

I saw a similar trend in relation to the Camino del Norte too. Over five years, the number of pilgrims walking the Camino has increased by only 9%. I am aware that a number of Albergues on the Norte closed during the pandemic, so this could be a reason for the dip in popularity. I still believe that the Norte is the most beautiful Camino route, so it feels a shame to see that the popularity is perhaps waning.

Is the popularity of longer routes fading over time? Or perhaps more pilgrims are going off the beaten track.

And three Camino routes are soaring! Which Camino route has grown most in popularity?

Conversely, three routes in particular are becoming increasingly popular.

The Ingles route has gained a massive 70% increase in popularity over five years. The Primitivo saw a 38% increase too.

But there is one route that has become so popular, that it is now the third most walked route – the Camino Portuguese Coastal. Over five years, the number of people walking this route has quadrupled. I walked this route most recently and have to say – I can see why it is much loved.

Find my guide to the Portuguese Coastal Route here.

What is the most popular month to walk the Camino de Santiago?

I compared information about pilgrims on the Camino from 2018 with data from 2023 to find out which month is the most popular on the Camino de Santiago. Over time, the busiest months over the year have remained fairly stable.

Anecdotally, I believed that May and September were the busiest months on the Camino. However, it appears that the most popular month to walk the Camino de Santiago, based on this data, is August. This has remained consistent over the last five years.

It’s worth noting that this data represents start dates for walking, so if lots of people start walking in August, this explains why September always feels very busy on the Camino.

In 2023, there was a spike in people walking in April, followed by fairly steady numbers until August, which saw a second peak.

So, there you have it, if you want to avoid the peak – June, July and late September may be the best times to walk the Camino. You can find our guide to avoiding the race for beds on the Camino here.

What nationality walks the Camino the most?

Have you ever wondered where most pilgrims come from to walk the Camino de Santiago?

We’ve looked at the nationalities of pilgrims walking the Camino over a four year period. You’ll notice that 2020-2021 are omitted from our analysis. Due to the pandemic, these two years had record low numbers of pilgrims walking, and those who did walk were from Spain predominately due to travel restrictions.

Here are the key takeaways:

Over four years the top 5 nationalities have remained the same

For the period that we analyzed, more people from Spain, Italy, Germany, the USA and Portugal walked the Camino than any other nationalities.

Spanish people are by far the largest group by number, representing between 44% and 55% of all people completing the Camino de Santiago.

However, the order has changed

The race for “second place” has well and truly hotted up in the last few years. In 2018, around 5% of all people on the Camino were from The USA (approximately 18,500 people).

Over the years, the number and % of Americans walking the Camino has increased. In 2023, 7% of all pilgrims were from the US – a whopping 32,070 people.

Whilst Portugal has seen the fifth highest number of pilgrims of all nationalities, Italy and Germany have also remained in the top five – jostling for second, third and fourth places.

A few nationalities have a new found love for the Camino

Between 2018 and 2019, there was a notable increase of two nationalities on the Camino de Santiago. Pilgrims from Korea increased by 44% to 8,213 and Taiwanese pilgrims increased by 59%.

Between 2022 and 2023, there were also some interesting trends in the context of nationalities. The numbers of pilgrims from outside Europe saw a big jump, specifically Korean by 21%, Mexicans by 42% to 8,278, Australians by 166% and Indonesia pilgrims jumped a massive 800% to 1,979. It’s possible that some of these increases were due to the easing of travel restrictions post Covid.

As a Brit, I was also interested to see that pilgrims from the UK increased by 30% between 2022 and 2023.

What about the gender of pilgrims on the Camino?

I’ve always been quite interested in the gender breakdown of pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago. Anecdotally, I feel that I’ve met more women on the route – especially the Portuguese route.

Statistically, this is shown to the case too. More women do tend to walk (or cycle) the Camino than men. In 2018, women represented 50.3% of all pilgrims. By 2023, this had increased to 53% women and 47% men on the Camino. Whilst this may not sound much of a difference, this equates to approximately 31,000 more women than men across the year.

Camino de Santiago stats

A big thank you to the Camino de Santiago pilgrim office. They have diligently recorded these statistics and made them publicly available. Credit to The Pilgrims Office for the information that allowed us to provide this analysis. And, I should say, that the information provided in this blog post is only as good as the stats – I know that not every pilgrim will register with the office. So, consider that caveat applied!

Would you like us to plan your walk for you?

Embark on a journey of a lifetime with Lotus Eaters Travel Planning, where we turn your dream of long-distance walking into a meticulously planned reality.

Our passion for exploration, love for diverse cultures, and commitment to providing an unparalleled experience drive us to offer personalized consultation services for some of the world’s most iconic walking trails

Find out more here.

Written by Emma

Wine Lover. Yogi. Hiker. Writer.

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