Patrick Comerford
This blog reached a new record, with a total of 62 million readers or hits by about xx last night (xx October 2026).
This is the third time this month that this blog has passed the million-reader mark, having reached 61 million readers on 11 October 2026 and 60 million readers or hits a week earlier (4 October 2026). Last month (September 2026) was exceptionally busy 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 41 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 little more than six months or so, with 31 million hits since 8 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 140,000 to 150,000 so far this month.
Some curious though random statistics may help to put this new figure of 62 million into perspective:
The population of England and Wales was estimated to be 62 million in mid-2025, up by 224,900 people, or 0.4%, from 61.8 million a year earlier, the ONS said. This was the lowest annual population growth rate since 2020. More people continued to move to England and Wales from abroad than leave, but net international migration fell sharply.
South Africa recorded a population of approximately 62 million people in its 2022 national census.
Oriental Orthodoxy, which includes the Ethiopian, Coptic, and Armenian Apostolic Churches, has an estimated global population of 62 million adherents.
Estimates for the number of practicing or self-identified Orthodox Christians in Russia range from 62 million to 104 million.
62 million metres in 62,000 km and 62 million square metres is 62,000 sq km. In the US, the state of West Virginia extends to 62,756 sq km.
China has built 62,000 km of ultra-high voltage (UHV) power lines, which is enough distance to circle the Earth about 1.5 times. UHV lines operate between 800 kV and 1,100 kV. These lines stretch from energy-rich regions like the Gobi Desert, Xinjiang, the Tibetan plateau, and Yunnan’s rivers straight to the eastern seaboard to supply power for roughly 800 million people.
62 million minutes, if you factor in precise leap year distributions, translate into 117 years, 10 months, and 17 days, which means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in 1908.
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 62 million hits, I am truly grateful today to the real readers among that 62 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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