Patrick Comerford
I continue to be overwhelmed by the viewing and reading figures for this blog. These figures reached 47 million earlier today, around 3:30 this afternoon (17 August 2026), having reached 46 million eight days ago (9 August 2026). Last month, the readership figures passed the million mark three times: 45 million (29 July), 44 million less than a fortnight earlier (16 July 2026), and 43 million 12 days before that (4 July 2026).
These viewing and reading figures are overpowering at time, and 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 26 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone, and almost over 1.6 million hits already this month.
Half of all hits or reader figures have been within the past six months, with 23.5 million hits since 17 February 2026. I first began blogging back 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 are overwhelming on many occasions. Of the ten days of busiest traffic on this blog, three were in May (1, 6 and 14 May 2026), three were the previous month (26, 29 and 30 April 2026), three in March, and one in February:
• 1,124,925 (1 May 2026)
• 525,719 (14 May 2026)
• 509,644 (29 April 2026)
• 344,003 (30 April 2026)
• 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)
The daily average was over 187,000 throughout May, but that figure was distorted by the exceptionally high number of hits on three days. There was an average of almost 88,000 hits a day last month, and an average of about 97,000-100,000 a day so far this month. Yet, I remember ten years ago, back in 2016, hwen the daily average was around 1,000, or 30,000 a month.
To put this latest figure of 47 million into perspective:
47 million people are suffering acute hunger because of global turmoil and food shortages, according to the World Food Programme.
Spain’s total population is about 47.8 million people. Spain is the world’s second-most-visited country after France and received 46.6 million international tourists in the first half of this year.
Malaysia is hoping for 47 million international tourists in 2026, with a focus on key markets such as Central Asia, the Middle East, south-east Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
The Amazon rainforest and river basin region is home to about 47 million people, including over 2 million indigenous residents.
The Lake Victoria Basin, a shared freshwater basin in East Africa, directly supports the livelihoods and water needs of more than 47 million people.
A €47 million cross-border VAT carousel fraud scheme in Greece was uncovered by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office last month (July 2026). The investigation targeted the illicit trade of electronic devices and led to record digital asset seizures.
A poster by Gerald Dickson in 1926 and that was eye-catching in London 100 years ago, explained that ‘£47 million has been spent on providing the Underground railways’. It said: ‘£47 million has been spent on providing the Underground railways. Tunnels £15,700,000. Rolling stock £7,000,000. Permanent Way Equipment & Signalling £2,800,000 Land £4,000,000 Stations £17,500,000 £47,000,000 has been spent on providing the underground railways. 2d. was the average fare paid by the passenger in 1925. 3½% was the return to the ordinary shareholder on his investment. ?’
47 million minutes is equal to 89 years, 4 months, and 10 days, and about 13 hours. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, I would have blogging in early April 1939, five months before World War II began.
I retired from active parish ministry over four years ago, on 30 March 2022. These days, though, about 120 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning. A recent series of postings on churches in Pimlico and Belgravia has attracted similar readership figures. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 800-900 or more people each week.
This evening, once again, I am truly grateful to the real readers among those 47 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I am thankful for the faithful core group of 150 or so people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each morning.
