Patrick Comerford
Once again, this blog continues to reach more and more readers, reaching yet another overwhelming landmark, with 20.5 million hits late last night (25 December 2025), with more than 5000,000 readers in the past week alone and almost 2 million visitors to this blog so far this month with over 1.95 million by mid-afternoon today, an average of about 75,000-80,000 hits each day so far in December.
This is the fourth time this month alone that this site has passed the half million mark, having hit the 20 million mark last week (18 December 2025), 19.5 million readers the previous Sunday (14 December 2025), and the 19 million mark less than three weeks ago (9 December).
I began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It more than another year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. This blog reached the 10 million mark earlier this year (12 January), almost 15 years later.
So far this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Eight of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were this month alone and four were in January:
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 166,155 (15 December 2025)
• 146,944 (14 December 2025)
• 140,417 (16 December 2025)
• 122,398 (17 December 2025)
• 112,221 (13 December 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 94,824 (12 December 2025)
• 93,584 (25 December 2025)
• 93,575 (11 December 2025)
The latest figure of 20.5 million is all the more staggering as more than half of those hits (10.5 million) have been within this year, since 12 January 2025. The rise in the number of readers has continued to be phenomenal throughout this year, and the daily figures have been overwhelming at times. With this latest landmark figure of 20.5 million readers, I once again find myself asking questions such as:
• What do 20.5 million people look like?
• Where do we find 20.5 million people?
• What does £20.5 million, €20.5 million or $20.5 million mean?
• What would it buy, how far would it stretch, how much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?
Globally, 20.5 million people die each year from Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD), making it the leading cause of death.
Coronavirus wiped out more than 20.5 million years of human life worldwide, according to a findings published in the journal Scientific Reports.
An estimated 20.5 million (17.2%) Americans aged 40 years and older have cataracts in one or both eyes.
Nine million fewer viewers tuned in for Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony than for Joe Biden’s in 2021. According to the audience measurement company Nielsen, 24.6 million people watched Trump take office, compared with 33.8 million who saw Biden’s inauguration. That number was significantly down on the 30.6 million Americans who watched coverage of Trump’s first inauguration. Trump’s viewing figures are the lowest since Barack Obama’s second inauguration, in 2013, which drew 20.5 million viewers.
Delhi, the capital of India, has a population of about 20.5 million in its metropolitan area, while the metropolitan area of Mumbai also has a population of about 20.5 million. The metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil, with a population of about 20.5 million people, is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Israeli Ministry of Settlements and National Mission, which is headed by a far-right settler leader, budgeted $20.5 million (75 million shekels) last year for security equipment for ‘young settlements’ – the term it uses for unauthorised Jewish farms and outposts in the West Bank. The money was quietly authorised last December while Israelis were focused on the war in Gaza.
20.5 million metres is 20,500 km or 12,700 miles, which is close to the greatest distance between any two capital cities, the air distance between Madrid in Spain and Wellington in New Zealand (20,350 km, 12,645 miles).
New Zealand has a coastline of about 20,500 km (12,700 miles) if its offshore islands and the Chatham Islands are included.
Limerick City and County Council Active Travel team has been allocated €20.5 million by the National Transport Authority (NTA)for the design, planning and construction of walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure.
The number of animals farmed for their fur has plummeted from 140 million in 2014 to 20.5 million in 2024.
Greggs shared a record £20.5 million with some long-serving staff members earlier this year after recording a jump in sales and profits in 2024.
Hong Kong welcomed 20.5 million visitors last year, the world’s fourth most visited city, following Bangkok (32.4 million), Istanbul (23 million) and London (21.7 million).
Florida produces 20.5 million boxes of oranges a year, along with 1.9 million boxes of grapefruit, and 500,000 boxes of tangerines.
And 20.5 million minutes is approximately 38.99 years or 341,666.67 hours. If this blog was getting one hit a minute, it would have taken almost 39 years to reach this 20.5 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 90-100 people each day, with similar figures for my daily Advent Calendar postings and Christmas Card postings at noon throughout this month.
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 totalled 600 to 700 people twice a week.
Today, I am very grateful to all the 20.5 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.
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