It has been just over four years since we walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. In that year, 114,377 walked or biked the entire network of Camino trails to Santiago, (nearly 100,000 along the famous camino frances route) and received their Compostela. Another estimated 400,000 to 500,000 also traveled sections of the way but did not arrive in Santiago or they did not receive their Compostela.
The number of people traveling the Camino continues to rise steadily. Last year in 2010, being a Holy Year, saw 272,135 pilgrims arrive in Santiago. There is no indication of the number of people that just simply walked or biked a section of the path but did not received their Compostela but a rough guess is that nearly one million did some or all of the Camino last year.
An interesting statistic is that most of the pilgrims are Spanish; nearly 70% - followed a smaller group of Germans, Italians and French. North Americans make up a very small percentage of those do the Camino
Another interesting statistic is that approximately 25% only walk the last 100 km into Santiago. Another 50% or so start somewhere in between Santiago and France for example. Very start in places like St Jean P. Port or Roncesvalles.
This year, the numbers have dropped but by early indications, 2011 will see approximately 180,000 pilgrims arrive in Santiago via the Camino, a 50 increase in just four short years!
With the movie, The Way released this year, staring Martin Sheen and produced by Emilio Estevez, one can only assume the number of people wanting to walk the Camino will explode in numbers!
/>Meanwhile in Italy Europe’s other great pilgrim trail the Via Francigena quietly grows in popularity. There isn’t the same level of official records kept as you see in Santiago Spain, but in 2008 when we walked the Via Francigena, an estimated 500 people arrived in Rome and received their Testimonium. More interesting was that only 1,000 people for the entire decade prior to 2008 had arrived in Rome. Therefore, you might conclude 2008 was a banner year for the Via Francigena!
Further, in 2010, some estimate that the number of pilgrims arriving in Rome has risen to nearly 1,000 people. And others estimate that maybe another 1,000 walked some section of the Via Francigena but did not arrive in Rome; an increase of 100 - 200% in just two short years!
However, these numbers are still less that those that traveled the Camino in Portugal, the Camino Norte, the Via de la Plata and Camino Primitivo in Spain in 2010. It is even less than those that walked the Le Puy route in France, the Via Jacobi in Switzerland and maybe the Jakobsweg in Austria and a probably a number of less known trails in Germany.
Nevertheless, it is impressive in many ways.
Still, like the Camino in Spain, the majority of people traveling the Via Francigena are Italians and most travel that last 100 plus kilometers into Rome through Lazio. Only dozens of people walk the entire distance through Italy.
The Via Francigena in Italy in many ways is and remains today, an elusive, barely discovered, almost secretive trail.



