This page collects the official Umrah figures we can source, with the date and origin of each, so that a family planning a trip from Morocco, or anyone looking for a quick answer, can read them correctly. It does not estimate a yearly total, because no source in our register gives one.
How many people perform Umrah each quarter?
GASTAT publishes Umrah counts by quarter. The 2025 figure comes from its own website1. We give the 2026 figure according to Siasat, citing GASTAT2: it comes from an Indian news site, and we have not yet read it on the authority's own pages.
Three things are worth knowing before you quote these numbers:
- They count people performing Umrah, not foreign visitors. In the first quarter of 2026, fewer than half came from abroad, according to Siasat, citing GASTAT2. Saudi citizens and residents make up the rest, and they can reach Makkah for a day or a weekend.
- The two first quarters are almost identical. Between 2025 and 2026, the total stayed above fifteen million and changed very little: the 2025 count comes from GASTAT, the 2026 count according to Siasat, citing GASTAT12.
- A first quarter can contain Ramadan. In 2026, Saudi Arabia set 1 Ramadan 1447 on Wednesday 18 February 20266, so the month of Ramadan fell inside that quarter. A quarterly total therefore mixes ordinary weeks with the busiest weeks of the year.
How many pilgrims arrived after the new season opened?
The season figures are about pilgrims coming from outside Saudi Arabia, which is the group a Moroccan traveller is part of.
From 15 Dhul Hijjah 1447 to the end of Muharram 1448, 931,500 pilgrims entered Saudi Arabia on Umrah visas, up 22.5% on a year earlier3. Counting every pilgrim from abroad, the total passed 1.27 million3.
About 75% of them arrived by air3. The largest groups came from Pakistan (about 200,000), Indonesia (170,000) and Iraq (130,000)3. Morocco is not among the countries named in the announcement.
For scale, Moroccans are a small part of this flow. Before the pandemic, Umrah drew more than 100,000 Moroccan pilgrims a year, nearly 60% of them during Ramadan, according to Challenge7. A Moroccan family therefore shares the airports, trains and hotels with a very large international crowd, whatever month it chooses.
What do the figures mean for choosing your dates?
They do not point to a quiet quarter, because we only hold first-quarter counts. They do tell you where the pressure comes from:
- Arrivals are mostly by air, so the strain starts at Jeddah and Madinah airports and on the road or rail out of them. Our guide to getting between Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah explains the options.
- Residents can add to the crowd at the Haram on weekends and holidays, even when international flights are not full. That is when a hotel far from the mosque costs you the most time and energy; see what hotel distance means day to day.
- Ramadan is the peak, and the trains show it. During the last 10 days of Ramadan 2026, Saudi Arabia Railways raised Haramain train trips to more than 140 a day, according to TradeArabia, citing SPA8.
For the full picture by period, with Moroccan school breaks and the heat, read our guide to the best time for Umrah from Morocco. If you are travelling with an older parent, a period with smaller peaks matters more than any single statistic.
To confirm before you leave
- A month-by-month series for a full year: the counts we hold are quarterly, and cover only the first quarter of two recent years.
- The other quarters: no second, third or fourth quarter count is in our register yet.
- The split by origin for early 2025: our source gives only the total for that quarter1.
- How people are counted: our sources do not say whether someone who performs Umrah twice in a quarter is counted once or twice.
- A recent count of Moroccan pilgrims: we have none from an official source.
Next in the notebook: once you know when you want to go, match the dates to school breaks and the heat, then plan the transfer from the airport.