7% rise in Umrah pilgrims this year, says ministry

The Ministry of Haj and Umrah issued on Wednesday a statistical report on the footfall of pilgrims visiting the Kingdom in the month of Shaban (April 6-May 5).

The report was compiled after accessing information such as the number of issued visas, the number of pilgrims arriving and leaving the Kingdom, and the number of pilgrims still in the Kingdom.

The ministry said until the end of Shaban (May 5), 6,136,139 pilgrims from around the world performed the minor pilgrimage of Umrah, which is an increase of 7 percent compared to the same month last year when the number of pilgrims was 5,719,398.

The number of issued visas until the end of Shaban was 6,730,109 while it was 6 percent less at 6,314,448 last year.

As many as 5,589,537 pilgrims left the Kingdom after performing their rites by May 5.

The pilgrims stayed 13 days in Makkah on average and 8 days in Madinah.

Last year, the average stay of Umrah pilgrims in Makkah was for 9 days and in Madinah for 5 days.

Most pilgrims arrived in the Kingdom via air with a total of 5,486,345 pilgrims while 567,976 entered by land and 81,818 pilgrims via seaports.

According to the ministry, 426,986 pilgrims were under 15 years old, 439,835 pilgrims between 15-24 years, 775,937 between 25-34 years, 993,922 pilgrims 35-44 years, 1,197,432 between 45-54 years, and 1,293,615 between 55-64 years. There were 1,008,412 pilgrims who were above 65 years.

The ministry said 3,190,533 of the pilgrims were male while female pilgrims numbered 3,539,576. Out of 6,730,109 visas, 2,155,231 pilgrims arrived in the Kingdom with their families and 4,574,878 pilgrims came into the Kingdom alone.

The highest number of Umrah pilgrims by nationality came from Pakistan. As many as 1,371,544 Pakistanis performed Umrah as of May 5. They were followed by 894,571 Indonesians, 595,429 Indians, 422,365 Egyptians, 292,498 Turkish, 274,109 Yemenis, 266,333 Algerians, 262,109 Malaysians, 231,342 Iraqis, and 169,529 Jordanians.

The variety of nationalities entering the Kingdom played a role in the diversity of languages with Urdu, Malay, Hindi, Arabic and Turkish becoming the top five languages spoken by the pilgrims.

"The Umrah season is open most of the year so that more Muslims can visit and perform the minor pilgrimage," the ministry said.

The number of Saudi employees within Umrah companies and institutions has also marked a significant increase of 120 percent this year compared to last year. This Shaban, there were 10,713 Saudi employees including 8,862 males and 1,851 females compared to 4,865 employees, including 4,220 males and 645 females, in the same month last year.