Spain's famed Camino wraps up the year with a record half million pilgrims

Spain's famed Camino wraps up the year with a record half million pilgrims
By Andreas Drouve , OSV News

(OSV News) -- The boom in the number of pilgrims on Spain's famous El Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, hit a new record of almost half a million last year. Among them were 38,000 Americans.

According to the pilgrims' office in Santiago de Compostela, 499,239 completion certificates were issued to pilgrims from all over the world in 2024. This was the third record year in a row after 2023, when 446,082 pilgrims visited, and 438,307 pilgrims arriving in 2022. To top 2024 off -- 183 pilgrims arrived on New Year's Eve, Dec. 31.

The Way of St. James has been leading pilgrims to the tomb of St. James the Apostle in Santiago de Compostela since the Middle Ages. The pilgrimage routes cross the whole European continent and then join up on the final stages in Portugal, France and Spain.

The tomb developed into one of the three main destinations of Christian pilgrimages alongside Rome and Jerusalem. In recent decades, the route has experienced a renaissance.

The peak of pilgrimages begins in May every year, when gorgeous and pilgrimage-perfect weather reaches the Spanish Galicia region, known for harsh oceanic-climate winters. Pilgrims, according to the Santiago-located bureau, arrive in large numbers until October, with an average of around 2,300 arrivals per day.

American pilgrims again broke records with over 38,000 people arriving at the tomb of St. James, overtaken only by native Spaniards of whom over 200,000 walked the Camino in 2024. In 2023, 6,000 fewer Americans walked the Camino.

Among the record-breaking pilgrims, 28,599 Italians and 23,462 Germans crossed the route, and there were also a few pilgrims from such far-away places as Gambia, Suriname, Laos and the Solomon Islands -- with one pilgrim each.

Traditionally, those who wanted to receive the special certificate had to prove that they had completed at least the last 100 kilometers (62 miles) on foot or the final 200 kilometers (124 miles) by bike by stamping their pilgrim's identity card. The ways to reach St. James tomb and Santiago de Compostela are numerous, however, and 591 pilgrims reached the dream point of the pilgrimage on horseback in 2024.

While the influx of pilgrims has been exciting, local communities are feeling the strain with overcrowded accommodations and growing concerns over noise and congestion. Despite these challenges, the Camino remains a route for spiritual growth, adventure and cultural exploration.

Jorge Martínez-Cava, chairman of the European pilgrimage association Camino Europa Compostela, which has more than 40,000 members in 20 countries, described motives for making the pilgrimage: "Catholic faith is the decisive factor for around 30 to 35%. A similar number are spiritually motivated," he said. The rest have other reasons. "After all, the Way of St. James is also a route of art, nature, friendship, gastronomy and sport," he told KNA German Catholic news agency.

Martínez-Cava considers the Way of St. James through Spain to be "safe" but recommended the "Alertcops" app created by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior for those who have concerns. The app has an SOS button function and the option to be located by the police. So far, the app is only available in Spanish. However, instructions for use in other languages are in the works.

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Andreas Drouve is a staff writer for KNA International, an English-language news service covering the Catholic Church in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. OSV News contributed to this report.