As we finish our final preparations to depart for the Camino de Santiago at the end of the week, I was looking at the statistics for the pilgrimage.  It gives me great confidence to see that so many pilgrims are successful in finishing the route and that the vast majority of pilgrims are older than 30 years old rather than just being teens or college-aged men and women.  We are looking forward to participating in such a historic spiritual and cultural event.  Just a few days to go.

-Alan and Tracy’s ages:  

• 55 and 49

-Weight of Alan and Tracy’s backpacks:

• 21.5 pounds (9.7 kilograms), 15.4 pounds (7 Kilograms)

-Distance from Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain (the Camino Francés):

• 490 miles (791 kilometers)

-Additional distance from Santiago de Compostela to Finisterre and then on to Muxia:  

• 71.6 miles (115.2 kilometer)  (An estimated 5% of pilgrims continue to Finisterre)

-Number of pilgrims that finished the Camino (2012):

• 192,448

-Number of pilgrims, by month, that finished the Camino in 2012:

•  January 884
• February 1,300
• March 3,257
• April 14,753
• May 21,766
• June 25,513
• July 32,820
• August 41,095
• September 27,318
• October 18,085
• November 4,173
• December 1,484

-Gender of pilgrims (2012):

• Male:  56.53%
• Female:  43.47%

-Pilgrims by age (2012):

• Less than 30 years old:  28.43%
• 30-60 years old:  56.79%
• Over 60 years old:  14.78%

-Pilgrims by nationalities (top ten countries in 2012):

• Spain:  49.50%   95,275
• Germany:  8.11%   15,620
• Italy:  6.44%   12,404
• Portugal:  5.37%   10,329
• France:  4.22%  8,121
• United States:  3.67%   7,071
• Ireland:  2.00%   3,844
• United Kingdom:  1.95%   3,758
• Netherlands:  1.57%   3,015
• Canada:  1.51%   2,904

-Pilgrims’ mode of transportation (2012):

• Walking:  85.60%
• Bicycle:  14.24%
• Horse:  0.15%
• Wheelchair:  0.01%

-Motive for pilgrimage (2012):

• Religious and other:  52.56%
• Religious:  41.30%
• Non-religious:  6.14%

-Top five starting points (2012)

• Sarria:  21.16%  (To earn the “Compostela” you need to have walked as a minimum the last 100km from Sarria.)
• Saint jean-Pied-de-Port:  11.54%
• León:  5.41%
• Cebreiro:  5.36%
• Roncesvalles:  4.40%

-Camino route followed (2012):

• Camino Francés:  70.12%
• Camino Portugués:  13.31%
• Camino del Norte:  6.71%
• Vía de la Plata:  4.24%
• Camino Primitivo:  3.30%
• Camino Inglés:  1.86%
• Otros Caminos:  0.46%

-Earliest recorded pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees Mountains to visit the shrine at Santiago de Compostela:

• 11th Century
• First pilgrims from England arrived between 1092 and 1105 A.D.