Patrick Comerford
This month of February and this year so far have seen a phenomenal amount of traffic on this blog, reaching a volume of readers that I could never have expected in the past. Earlier today (26 February), this blog passed a new milepost of 25 million, and has passed the half-million mark six times in all this month: 24.5 million hits earlier this week (22/23 February Sarawak or Irish time), 24 million last week (20 February 2026), 23.5 million (17 February 2026), 23 million (12 February 2026), and 22.5 million (4 February).
At the end of 2025, this blog had 21 million hits by New Year’s Eve (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 4 million hits or visitors for 2026, and February 2026 has been the busiest month ever, with over 2.6 million hits.
I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers – a number reached six times this month alone. Half of the 25 million hit – 12.5 million – have been within the nine months since 6 June 2025.
Throughout last year and into this year, the daily figures were overwhelming on many occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog have been in this month so far, one was last month, two were in December last and two were in January 2025:
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2026)
• 195,391 (20 February 2026)
• 190,630 (23 February 2026)
• 190,467 (21 February 2026)
• 188,376 (19 February 2026)
• 183,317 (22 February 2026)
• 166,155 (15 December 2025)
• 156,311 (18 February 2026)
• 146,944 (14 December 2025)
• 145,259 (17 February 2026)
The rise in the number of readers seems to have been phenomenal throughout last year, and the daily figures are overwhelming at times, currently running at over 100,000 a day. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.
With this latest landmark figure of 25 million readers, I once again find myself asking questions such as:
• What do 25 million people look like?
• Where do we find 25 million people?
• What does £25 million, €25 million or $25 million mean?
• What would it buy? How far would it stretch? How much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?
I was just one among almost 25 million people who visited Greece between January and August last year, and by the end of 2025 Greece had 38 million international visitors, surpassing all previous records.
Malaysia welcomes almost 25 million tourists annually.
About 25 million people, including 14 million children, are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Sudan.
The bubonic plague or Black Death in the 14h century, killed more than one third of Europe or 25 million people in the space of 10 years.
The US spent about $12 billion on global health in 2024. Those programmes are now severely threatened by the capricious polices of the Trump regime. Yet, the journal Nature warned last year, without that yearly spending, about 25 million people could die in the next 15 years, according to models that have estimated the impact of such cuts on programmes for tuberculosis, HIV, family planning and maternal and child health.
A study published in the British Medical Journal last year (March 2025) estimates the number people with Parkinson’s Disease worldwide will grow to more than 25 million by 2050.
Schizophrenia affects approximately 23 million people or 1 in 345 people (0.29%) worldwide.
The number of Asian Americans reached 25 million, or 7% of the US population, in 2023.
Ireland is providing €25 million to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund to support Ukraine in restoring light and warmth to people’s homes.
25 million sq metres is 25,000 sq km, and that’s roughly the same size.
In 2023, Seet Wai Song, a 65-year-old chef, concluded an epic overland journey from Kuala Lumpur to Stuttgart, Germany, traversing 21 countries in 60 days. He drove the 25,000 km journey done in a 1974 custom-painted Mercedes-Benz W115 sedan. The self-funded journey aimed to raise funds for the National Cancer Society Malaysia.
Inflation in Greece was so overwhelming during World War II that the Bank of Greece issued a 25 million drachmai banknote on 10 August 1944.
A federal judge in the Southern District of California in 2018 finalised a $25 million settlement to be paid to people who attended the so-called Trump University. The Attorney General of New York, Eric T Schneiderman, described the settlement as a victory for Trump University’s ‘victims’, meaning the victims of ‘Trump’s fraudulent university will finally receive the relief they deserve.’
And 25 million minutes is 47 years, 6 months, and 26 days, or more than 17361 days, or almost 416,667 hours. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take more than 47½ years to reach today’s 25 million mark.
It is almost four years now since I retired from active parish ministry. These days, though, about 100 people on average are reading my daily prayer blog posted on this blog each morning. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 700 people or more each week.
Today, I am very grateful to all the 25 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I remain grateful for the faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.
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