Patrick Comerford
The viewing and reading figures for this blog continue to overwhelm me. These figures reached the 39 million mark by late this morning (22 May 2026). These figures reached the 38 million mark last week (14 May 2026), the 37 million mark the previous week (8 May 2026), 36 million six days before that (2 May 2026) and 35 million at the beginning of this month (1 May 2026). The figures have now passed the million mark five times so far this month, and passed that mark four times last month also: 34 million (29 April), 33 million (25 April), 32 million (19 April) and 31 million (8 April).
These viewing and reading figures are overwhelming, to say the least, and this blog continues to reach a volume of readers that I never have expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. Half the total hits (19.5 million) have been within less than six months, having reached 19.5 million hits just over five months ago (14 December 2025). The total hits in March 2026 were the highest monthly total ever (4,523,648), followed by 4,365,464 hits for last month (April 2026); so far this month the figure for May is more than 4.32 million.
At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 18 million hits or visitors in 2026.
I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year and last, the daily figures continue to be overwhelming on many occasions. Of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog, three were this month (1, 6 and 14 May 2026), three were last month (26, 29 and 30 April 2026), three were in March, one was in February, and two were in January 2025:
• 1,124,925 (1 May 2026)
• 525,719 (14 May 2026)
• 509,644 (29 April 2026)
• 344,003 (30 April 2024)
• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 322,038 (26 April 2026)
• 318,835 (6 May 2026)
• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
The daily average is about 200,000 so far in May, although that figure is distorted by the exceptionally high number of hits on three days so far this month. There were about 145,000 or more hits a day last month; ten years ago, in 2016, the daily average was around 1,000.
To put this latest figure of 39 million into perspective:
Donald Trump routinely grants access to businesses that pay money to his companies, PACs and pet projects, giving big business a seat at the table that most small businesses cannot afford.
Trump has enabled fraudsters and wiped out payments owed to fraud victims by pardoning his political allies and donors. One egregious example is the nursing home owner Joseph Schwartz pardoned just three months into his sentence for a $39 million fraud scheme. Schwartz admitted withholding from the IRS around $39 million in payroll taxes in his nursing home businesses, and court documents show the toll his fraud took on patients and workers, including small businesses left with unpaid bills. His debts include almost $19 million to a grieving family.
A PPE firm linked to the disgraced Tory peer Michelle Mone owes £39 million in taxes. The amount is on top of the £148 million the company already owes to the government.
It is estimated that bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will cause 39 million deaths between 2025 and 2050 – the equivalent to three deaths every minute. The figures warn that drug-resistant infections will claim millions of lives globally if current trajectories continue.
On the other hand, 39 million is the approximate population of California, Canada or Yemen.
39 million metres in 39,000 km: China has over 39,000 km of high-speed rail, the largest network in the world, and it is said to be a faster and more comfortable alternative to domestic flights.
39 million minutes is approximately 74 years, 1 month and 24 days. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take more than 74 years, from late March or early April 1952, just two or three months after I was born, to reach today’s figure of 39 million.
I retired from active parish ministry over four years ago, on 30 March 2022. These days, though, about 120-140 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning. A similar number have been reading my recent series of postings on churches and local history in Staffordshire, and were reading my recent series of postings on the churches and chapels of Walsingham. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 850 to 1,000 or more people each week.
This evening, I am truly grateful to the real readers among those 39 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I am thankful for the faithful core group of 120-140 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each morning.
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