Patrick Comerford
This blog continues to surpass all previous records, with yet another record landmark with 27 million views or hits by eaarly this morning (12 March 2023). It has been like this for weeks now, reaching 26 million ten days ago (Sunday 2 March 2026), when the hits that day were also the highest daily figure I have ever recorded (318,307), and 26.5 million hits two days later (3 March 2026).
Last month (February), indeed this year so far, has seen a phenomenal amount of traffic on this blog, reaching a volume of readers that I never have expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. Half the total hits (13.5 million) have been within less than nine months, since 24 June 2025, and the total of hits last month (February 2026) was the highest monthly total ever (3,386,504).
The new figure of 27 million hits for this blog followed the mileposts of 26.5 million hits last week (3 March 2026), 26 million two days earlier (1 March), and 25.5 million the day before (28 February). Indeed, this blog passed the half-million mark seven times in all last month: 25 million two weeks ago (26 February), 24.5 million earlier that week (22 February), 24 million the previous 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 (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 6 million hits or visitors for 2026, and February 2026 was the busiest month ever, with over 3.3 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 seven times last month alone. Half of the 27 million hits – 13.5 million – have been within less than nine months, since 24 June 2025.
Throughout last year and this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Eight of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog have been in February alone, two were this month (March) and two were in January last year:
• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 280,802 (26 February 2026)
• 273,022 (27 February 2026)
• 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)
The number of readers has been overpowering this year and last, with the daily averages currently running at over 100,000 hits a day so far this month. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.
To put this figure of 27 million in context:
Researchers at the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute have created the largest-ever family tree, and it links more than 27 million people – both living and long dead – across the world. It marks a major milestone in the journey towards mapping the entirety of human genetic relationships, according to the study published in the journal Science.
This family tree helps us know more about where and when our human ancestors lived – namely in Africa – the researchers said.
‘We have basically built a huge family tree, a genealogy for all of humanity, that models as exactly as we can the history that generated all the genetic variation we find in humans today,’ said one of the co-authors, Dr Yan Wong, an evolutionary geneticist at the institute. ‘This genealogy allows us to see how every person’s genetic sequence relates to every other, along all the points of the genome.’
In layperson’s terms, the comprehensive tree, which appeared as both a research paper and a video, depicts how people around the world are interrelated, like an all-encompassing 23andMe.
Specifically, the study mixed-and-matched data from both modern and ancient human genomes from eight different databases, spanning a total of 3,609 individual genome sequences from 215 populations across the world. The ancient genomes ranged in age from 1,000 to over 100,000, while ‘the resulting network contained almost 27 million ancestors.’
According to the study, the algorithms ‘predicted where common ancestors must be present in the evolutionary trees to explain the patterns of genetic variation.’
The map also employed location data, allowing scientists to estimate where the common ancestors had lived, and included seminal evolutionary events such as our migration out of Africa. The earliest ancestors included in the map are an extinct species of human that predates homo sapiens. They lived a million years ago in a region estimated to be modern Sudan.
The unprecedented family tree is just the foundation ‘for the next generation of DNA sequencing,’ Dr Wong said. The genome scientists are currently working on making the blueprint even more comprehensive by ‘continuing to incorporate genetic data as it becomes available.’
Their ultimate goal was to produce an all-encompassing map of how everyone around the globe is related to each other. ‘As the quality of genome sequences from modern and ancient DNA samples improves, the trees will become even more accurate, and we will eventually be able to generate a single, unified map that explains the descent of all the human genetic variation we see today,’ Wong said.
The map is not just applicable to humans. ‘While humans are the focus of this study, the method is valid for most living things, from orangutans to bacteria,’ he explained.
In another understanding of the figure 27 million, estimates indicate that over 27 million people are enslaved globally. ‘Twenty Seven Million’ is a song released in 2012 by the evangelical songwriter Matt Redman and the electronic dance music group LZ7. The song was aimed at raising awareness for the anti-human trafficking movement, and in support of the A21 Campaign to abolish modern-day slavery.
Matt Redman said: ‘It’s a huge issue in our world that’s rising to the surface. Governments, police and the media are all talking about it, and the church is doing a lot of stuff – this is a song to recognise that and hopefully drive some more awareness. Let’s propel this somewhere good together, make some noise about this issue that is on the heart of God and the heart of the Church.’
About 27 million people rely on unsafe water which, for malnourished children, can lead to fatal diarrheal diseases. UNICEF reports that 27 million people lacked safe water in countries facing or at risk of famine.
The Soviet Union World War II losses of about 27 million lives during World War II, both civilian and military deaths from all war-related causes.
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in 1953 was the first coronation ever to be televised, and was watched by 27 million people in the UK alone and millions more around the world. It was probably the first time many homes in the UK bought a television.
27 million metres is 27,000 km and 27 million square metres is 27,000 km. The Crimean peninsula, which is almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov, is 27,000 sq km. Crimea is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine but has been occupied by Russia since 2014.
And 27 million minutes is equal to 51.33 years, 18,750 days, or 450,000 hours. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take more than 51 years to reach this latest 27 million mark.
It is four years since I retired from active parish ministry in March 2022. These days, though, about 100 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 700 or more people each week.
Today, I am very grateful to the real readers among those 27 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I remain grateful to the faithful core group of about 100 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each day.
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