The Organizing Committee of World Youth Day (WYD) has released the official numbers for the 37th edition taking place this week in Lisbon.

Newsroom (04/08/2023 18:41, Gaudium Press) The 37th edition of World Youth Day (WYD) began yesterday, August 1, with the opening Mass celebrated by the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal Manuel Clemente. The WYD organizing committee released today at a press conference the first official figures for the event.

According to the data provided, WYD 2023 has had 354,000 registered pilgrims from 200 different countries, the number is three times lower than expected. However, official figures for the event are expected to be updated throughout the week, as around 1 million pilgrims were expected.

The most represented countries among the pilgrims are Spain (77,224), Italy (59,469), Portugal (43,742) and the fifth country with the most representatives is France (42,482). 1,750 pilgrims have intellectual or mobility disabilities.

The number of volunteers participating in the meeting is 25,000 people. The countries most represented among the volunteers are Portugal, Spain, France, Brazil and Colombia respectively. The number of clerics is also surprising, with 688 bishops coming from all over the world, 30 of whom are cardinals. Italian bishops are the majority among their namesakes, with 109; 70 bishops are Spanish, 65 French, 61 from the United States and 36 are Portuguese.

The committee also published the figures for the establishments responsible for feeding the pilgrims: in all, there are 1,800 restaurants and the number of meals is estimated at 2.7 million during the week. 8,831 local families have volunteered to host 28,618 pilgrims. According to the Organizing Committee, there are 322,769 accommodation places for WYD pilgrims. (FM)

Compiled by Dominic Joseph