Patrick Comerford
This blog reached a new record, with a total of 61 million readers or hits by about 9 pm last night (11 October 2026). This is the second time this month that this blog has passed the million-reader mark, having reached 60 million readers or hits a week earlier (4 October 2026). Before this, last month (September 2026) was an exceptionally busy time on this blog, with a steady, overwhelming rise in viewing and reading figures, passing the million mark on 10 occasions last month alone.
These viewing and readership figures continue to be overpowering as this blog continues to reach volumes of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 40 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone, and more than 10.4 million last month (September), the highest total in any single month since I began blogging.
Half of all hits or reader figures have been within a little more than six months or so, with 30.5 million hits since early April 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, the daily figures have often been overwhelming, with an average of 130,000 to 140,000 so far this month.
Some curious though random statistics help to put this new figure of 61 million into perspective:
Results from a randomised controlled trial of political mobilisation messages delivered to 61 million Facebook users during the US congressional elections in 2010 show that the messages directly influenced political self-expression, information seeking and real-world voting behaviour of millions of people. The messages not only influenced the users who received them but also the users’ friends, and friends of friends.
A £61 million redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford was completed in November 2009 and officially reopened by Queen Elizabeth II in December 2009. The project, designed by Rick Mather Architects, replaced poor 19th-century additions behind the 1845 Grade I-listed Charles Robert Cockerell Greek revival building.
An estimated 61 million adults in the US – about 1 in 4 adults – are living with a disability. They have described as the largest and fasted growing minority in the US, yet they are constantly jeered and mocked by Donald Trump at public events.
Amid fears of renewed conflict in Northern Ethiopia, the EU is providing €61 million in humanitarian funding to help the most vulnerable people in Ethiopia affected by conflict, displacement, disease outbreaks and climate-related hazards, including the impact of El Niño.
A £61 million fund to encourage people to save treasured local assets was launched in June as part of a set of reforms aimed at putting more power in the hands of communities in the UK. The £61 million fund is aimed at encouraging local people to step in and save pubs, shops and other community gems.
61 million metres is 61,000 km and 61 million square metres is 61,000 sq km. The Sinai Peninsula between the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba at the north end of the Red Sea, has an area of 61,000 sq km (approximately 23,500 sq miles), or about 6 % of Egypt’s total area.
Voyager 1 has a Sun relative velocity of about 17 km/s which is about 61,000 km/h. Voyager 1 has been traveling at 38,000 mph since 1977 and will keep drifting through interstellar space for millions of years.
Switzerland has around 61,000 km of rivers and streams and 1,500 lakes.
61 million minutes is equal to 115 years, 11 months, and 23 days, which means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in November 1910.
I retired from active parish ministry over 4½ years ago, on 31 March 2022. These days, though, about 150 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning, or more than 1,000 people each week. As this blog moves beyond 61 million hits, I am truly grateful today to the real readers among that 61 million. In particular, I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.
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