WYD by the numbers...
John Freund, CM
August 1, 2013
WYD by the numbers…
After a highly successful event, organizers for World Youth Day in Brazil released final attendance tallies, with two of the days surpassing the 3 million mark… representing 175 countries.
In all over 3.5 million pilgrims took part in the events for WYD, even though only 427,000 pilgrims registered. Attendance increased as the week went on. On Tuesday, July 23, 600,000 people participated. However, by that Friday, the number of pilgrims swelled to 2 million.
Saturday’s events, including the prayer vigil at the Copacabana Beach, drew a staggering 3.5 million people. But Sunday’s closing Mass was by far the largest event, with 3.7 million participants.
The nearly half a million registered pilgrims came from 175 countries, and 60 percent of them were between the ages of 19 and 35. The countries with the largest number of registered participants were Brazil, Argentina, USA, Chile and Italy.
Participants also included over 7800 priests. The faithful received the Eucharist over 4 million times, during the various Masses for WYD:In all, visitors spent an estimated 1.8 billion Reais, or 784 million dollars, during the week long event in Rio.
Tags: Rome Reports, World Youth Day, Youth