Saudi Arabia Announces Number of Pilgrims Received Over 54 Years

On Friday, Saudi Arabia announced that it "has welcomed more than 99 million pilgrims over the past 54 years, up to last year's Hajj season." Saudi Press Agency "SPA," citing data from the General Authority for Statistics, stated that "the total number of pilgrims coming to the Kingdom since the Authority began its census process in the year 1390AH, under the name of the General Authority for Statistics and Information, until last year 1443AH (2022), has exceeded (99 million pilgrims)." The Kingdom expects to receive more than two million pilgrims this season, starting next Monday. The number of pilgrims during last season was 899,353, including 779,919 from outside the Kingdom, which was below the targeted upper limit for that time. Meanwhile, the Hajj season in 2021 was limited to the participation of only 60,000 from within the Kingdom, due to stringent health regulations at that time due to the pandemic. In contrast, the year 2020 saw an exceptional Hajj season, as the number of pilgrims was limited to about 10,000 from within Saudi Arabia only, compared to around 2.5 million in 2019 from all over the world.