Saudi Arabia welcomes over 15 million Umrah pilgrims in early 2025

Dubai: Saudi Arabia welcomed more than15 million pilgrims for Umrah in the first quarter of 2025, underscoring the continuing surge in religious travel to the Kingdom, according to new figures from the General Authority for Statistics. Saudis make up 24 percent of the total pilgrims, while men accounted for 60.5 percent of pilgrims, and women represented 39.5 percent.

The data show that 6.5 million of those pilgrims came from abroad — a 10.7 percent increase compared with the same period in 2024 — with the vast majority arriving by air. Another 8.7 million performed Umrah domestically, more than half of them non-Saudis residing in the country. January proved to be the busiest month for international visitors, while domestic pilgrimages peaked in March.

Medina also recorded high traffic, with 6.45 million visitors in the first three months of the year, including more than 4.4 million from overseas.

The quarterly statistics, introduced in 2024, draw on field surveys and administrative data from the Ministry of Tourism and the Pilgrim Experience Program, providing one of the most detailed snapshots yet of Umrah travel patterns.