Patrick Comerford
This blog reached yet another new peak this morning today (23 August 2025), totalling up 15.5 million hits since I first began blogging about 15 years ago, back in 2010.
This is yet another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once more I am left with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.
After I began blogging, it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It was over a year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. It climbed steadily to 2 million, June 2015; 3 million, October 2016; 4 million, November 2019; 5 million, March 2021; 6 million, July 2022; 7 million, 13 August 2023; 8 million, April 2024; and 9 million, October 2024.
But the rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal this year, reaching 9.5 million on 4 January 2025, 10 million over a week later (12 January 2025), 10.5 million two days after that (14 January 2025), 11 million a month later (12 February 2025), 11.5 million a month after that (10 March 2025), and 12 million early in May (3 May 2025).
The figures claimed steadily throughout June, July and August, from 12.5 million early in June (6 June 2025), 13 million less than two weeks later (17 June 2025), 13.5 million a week after that (24 June 2025), 14 million a week later (1 July 2025), 14.5 million ten days later (11 June), 15 million two weeks after that (25 July 2025), and 15.5 million less than a month later (23 August 2025).
So far this month, this blog has had almost 366,000 hits. Last month, for the third time, this blog had more than a million hits in a single month, with 1,195,456 hits in July; June 2025 was the second month that this blog had more than 1 million hits in one month, with 1,618,488 hits by the end of that month. These figures follow January’s record of 1 million hits by the early hours of 14 January, and a total of 1,420,383 by the end of that month (31 January 2025).
So far this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were in June alone, four were in January 2025, and one was last month (1 July 2025):
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 82,043 (23 June 2025)
• 81,037 (21 June 2025)
• 80,625 (22 June 2025)
• 79,981 (19 June 2025)
• 79,165 (20 June 2025)
• 69,722 (18 June 2025)
• 69,714 (30 June 2025)
• 69,657 (1 July 2025)
This blog has already had more than 6 million hits this year, almost 39 per cent of all hits ever.
With this latest landmark figure of 15.5 million hits this weekend, I once again find myself asking questions such as:
• What do 15.5 million people look like?
• Where do we find 15.5 million people?
• What does £15.5 million, €15.5 million or $15.5 million mean?
• What would it buy?
Around 15.5 million people in England (34% of the population) have chronic pain.
Istanbul has a population of 15.5 million people. It is the largest city in Turkey, the largest megalopolis in Europe and the seventh most populous city in the world.
Countries with populations of about 15.5 million people include South Sudan.
The UK, through organisations like UK for UNHCR, provided £15.5 million in humanitarian aid last year to support refugees and displaced people, including those from Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Ukraine, according to UK for UNHCR.
Figures show 15.5 million Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA.
Concern Worldwide responded to 66 emergencies in 20 countries last year, reaching almost 15.5 million people with urgent necessities such as shelter, psychosocial support, healthcare, and food as well as longer-term livelihood training that benefit both displaced and host communities.
The global Jewish population is estimated to be 15.5 million, according to the Holocaust Encyclopaedia, the Pew Research Centre, statistics from the Jewish Agency for Israel and other reports and studies – fewer than the 16.6 million Jews living in 1939. The majority of world Jewry lives in Israel (7 million) or in the US (6 million), followed by France, Canada, the UK, Argentina, Russia, Australia and Germany.
It is estimated that 15.5 million women are currently going through the menopause in the UK.
The Ministry of Agriculture in Cyprus has a €15.5 million package this year to aid farmers impacted by drought and adverse weather.
The total length of the coastline of Greece, including islands, is roughly estimated at around 15,500 km or 15.5 million metres.
Ukrainian farmers had threshed a total of 15.5 million metric tons of various grains from the new 2025 harvest by the end of last month (31 July 2025), while Russia is spending about a billion rubles – or around $15.5 million – an hour on its war in Ukraine.
One of the most warming figures personally in the midst of all these statistics continues to be the one that shows my morning prayer diary reaches an average of 80-85 people each day. It is almost 3½ years now since I retired from active parish ministry. But I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches averaged or totalled 560 to 580 people a week.
Today, I am very grateful to all 15.5 million readers of this blog to date, and for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.
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