Patrick Comerford
This blog continues to reach more and more readers, and has reached yet another staggering landmark, with 19.5 million hits by early afternoon yesterday (14 December 2025) and already heading towards 20 million hits, with more than 1.08 million readers so far this month, an average of about 72,000 hits each day in the first half of December, and over 130,000 hits by 6 pm today.
I first began blogging back in 2010, and the 19 million mark was reached less than a week ago (9 December), having passed the 18.5 million mark less than a fortnight earlier at the end of last month (27 November 2025), the 18 million earlier that month (2 November 2025), 17.5 million the previous month (18 October) and 17 million less than three weeks earlier (30 September 2025).
The latest figure of 19.5 million is all the more staggering as more than half of those hits (10 million) have been within this year, since January 2025. The rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal throughout this year, and the daily figures have been overwhelming at times. With this latest landmark figure of 19.5 million readers today, I once again find myself asking questions such as:
• What do 19.5 million people look like?
• Where do we find 19.5 million people?
• What does £19.5 million, €19.5 million or $19.5 million mean?
• What would it buy, how far would it stretch, how much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?
Official estimate earlier this year show that both Somalia and Chile each has a population of about 19.5 million.
Cairo, the capital of Egypt, has a population of about 19.5 million permanent inhabitants, while Greater Cairo has over 20 million people. Over 19.5 million people live in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, which is known as one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The New York metropolitan area was estimated to have a population of 19.75 million people in one ranking.
Florida, with the population of 19.5 million people, is one of the five largest states in the US.
The major global refugee crisis means there are about 19.5 million refugees worldwide. There are 19.5 million refugees in a world population of 7 billion, which means, of course, that it is a manageable problem but lacks the political will on the part of world leadership to solve it.
Among the top 10 most visited cities in 2025, Istanbul and Dubai rank fifth and sixth, with about 19.5 million visitors each.
In Greece, 19.5 million passengers passed through the 14 regional airports managed by Fraport Greece between January and July 2025, a 2.1% increase from the previous year. These airports are in Corfu, Chania (Crete), Kefalonia, Kavala, Aktion (Preveza), Thessaloniki (Makedonia), Zakynthos, Mykonos, Skiathos, Santorini (Thira), Kos, Mytilene (Lesvos), Rhodes and Samos.
Matenisa Trading, owned by the Melissanidis family, recently bought the Agia Triada Beach and Camping resort in Thessaloniki for a total of €19.5 million at a digital auction. The final price was 140.7% higher than the original starting price of €8.1 million.
The United Kingdom has a total coastline of about 19.5 million metres or 19,500 km, including larger islands. Although the shoreline of Great Britain’s mainland is about 17,820 km, adding major islands brings it close to the 19,500 km mark.
The Kruger National Park in South Africa covers 19.5 million sq metres or 19,500 sq km.
Winston Churchill’s former home in London was on the market last year with an asking price of £19.5 million. Churchill lived at 27 Hyde Park Gate from 1946 until he died in 1965. He bought the house in Kensington in 1946 for a £7,000 – the equivalent of about £250,00 today.
Donald Trump failed to disclose a loan of $19.5 million loan from a company with ties to North Korea while he was president the first time round, according to reports in 2022. The $19.8 million loan was from the South Korean firm Daewoo, which has historic ties to North Korea, and that debt remained more or less static between 2011 and 2016. Trump did not list the debt in financial disclosure filings while running for office in 2016, and only repaid the loan five months into his first presidency, the Forbes report said. Trump frequently brags about his close relationship with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
And 19.5 million minutes is almost 13,542 days or about 37.1 years. If this blog was getting one hit a minutes, it would have taken over 37 years to reach this 19.5 million mark.
So, yet again, this blog has reached 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.
A continuing and warming figure in the midst of all these statistics continues to be the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach up to 80-100 people each day, with similar figures for my daily Advent Calendar postings at noon. It is almost four 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 700 people twice a week.
Today, I am very grateful to all the 19.5 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I am grateful for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.
On the shores of Lake Eola in downtown Orlando … Florida has a population of 19.5 million people (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
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