Patrick Comerford
This blog continues to reach more and more readers, and reached yet another staggering total at the weekend, with 18 million hits by late Sunday afternoon (2 November 2025). I first began blogging back in 2010, and the 17.5 million mark was passed on 18 October and the 17 million mark about three weeks earlier (30 September 2025). In all, there were almost 900,000 hits (887,314) last month (October 2025).
The latest figure of 18 million is all the more staggering because about half of all those hits have been within the past 12 months, since Octover 2024. 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 18 million readersyesterday, I once again found myself asking questions such as:
• What do 18 million people look like?
• Where do we find 18 million people?
• What does £18 million, €18 million or $18 million mean?
• What would it buy, how far would it stretch?
The Netherlands has 18 million inhabitants. Other countries with a similar populations include Guatemala, Senegal and Ecuador. Cities with a population of around 18 million include Mexico City, Mumbai, Delhi and Shanghai.
About 18 million Sikhs live in the Indian state of Punjab, about 58% of the total population, making it the only Indian state where Sikhism is the majority religion.
A new airport being near Kastelli, south of Hersonissos in Crete, is due to open in 2027. It is going to replace Greece’s welcomed second-biggest airport at Iraklion, and it is designed to handle up to 18 million passengers a year. That’s the same as the number of people who visited all of Greece in the first half of last year (January to July 2024). For all of 2024, Greece welcomed about 36.9 million foreign travellers. So this new airport could transform not only Hersonissos, but quiet mountainside village resorts I have known for the past 30 years or so, including Piskopiano and Koutoulafari, perhaps even the whole of Crete.
About 18 million people visit the Lake District each year.
There are plans to build a new £18 million primary school with spaces for 630 children in Milton Keynes. The school will be on the fast-growing Whitehouse South estate, where hundreds of new homes are being built. Milton Keynes City Council agreed in October to start the process of choosing a contractor to build the school, with an anticipated start date of summer 2027. The school is expected to open in September 2028.
Sub-Saharan Africa hosts over 18 million of the world’s refugees, a number that has grown due to crises in regions like the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Nigeria. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, sub-Sahara Africa hosts more than 26% – over 18 million – of the world's refugees.
The number of refugees has soared over the years, partly due to the crises in the Central Africa Republic, Nigeria, South Sudan and Burundi. The causes include conflicts, civil unrest, environmental disasters, oppressive regimes and the abuse of human rights. The countries with the highest refugee burdens are: Ethiopia (659,000) Kenya (551,000), Chad (453,000), Uganda (386,000), Cameroon (264,000) and South Sudan (248,000).
Nearly 18 million people in Sudan, or almost one in three people there, are grappling with acute food insecurity, due to the armed conflict there.
In Yemen, over 18 million people are dependent on humanitarian assistance and protection due to the civil war.
Over 18 million adults in the UK are deaf, have hearing loss or have tinnitus. In other words, over half the population aged 55 or more has hearing loss. Researchers at the University of Manchester and the University of Nottingham have found that 18 million people are affected by hearing loss, 6 million higher than previously reported.
Another study of 18 million people by the University of Bristol last year found increased mental illnesses incidence following severe COVID-19, especially in unvaccinated people.
Aston Villa rejected an £18 million bid from Everton for captain John McGinn in August. Villa made its first signing this year with the £18 million fee paid to move Donyell Malen from Borussia Dortmund.
18 million sq metres is 18 sq km, the size of Iraklia, a quiet island in the Cyclades, near Naxos and Amorgos and with fewer than 100 residents.
18 million minutes adds up to about 34.2 years.
Donations from crypto-currency executives and companies to Trump’s inauguration fund totalled about $18 million. His insistence on spending his weekends in Florida playing golf cost US taxpayers in excess of $18 million in his first two months in office alone. Which just goes to show that $18 million can buy influence and indolences, power and conceit all at the same time.
The Jewish population across the world reached the highest figure of around 18 million immediately before World War II. But figures show that although World War II ended 80 years ago, the Holocaust continues to has had a lasting and devastating effect. Based on population data from late 2024 and early 2025, depending on the criteria used, the number of Jewish people in the world today is estimated at between 15.7 million and 15.8 million.
Once 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 80-90 people each day. It is 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 630 people a week.
Today, I am very grateful to all the 18 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.
