Rome Jubilee 2025 by the Numbers: a 33.5 Million Vatican Count and 1.4 Million Foreign Visitors Who Came for It

Three units for one Jubilee: passages, visitors and arrivals

Archbishop Rino Fisichella of the Dicastery for Evangelization announced the final count at the Holy See Press Office on 5 January 2026. Vatican News reported 33,475,369 pilgrims from 185 countries. The Italian government's Jubilee commissioner's office called the figure certified on the same day. It did not say who certified it. The announcement came one day before Pope Leo XIV closed the Holy Door of St Peter's, so part of the total was a projection. Catholic News Service reported it as at least 33 million by the 6 January close.

Catholic World Report and the Salesian news agency ANS described the method. A camera at the Holy Door of St Peter's recorded daily passages. Flows at St John Lateran, St Mary Major and St Paul Outside the Walls were estimated as percentages of the St Peter's flow, with volunteers using manual clickers. Attendance at events and audiences was cross-checked against registrations on the official Jubilee website. Catholic News Service added that the figure drew on estimates from a study by Roma Tre University.

Fisichella acknowledged that the number was only an estimate and could include double counting, the Associated Press reported. AP added that closed-circuit cameras at St Peter's recorded around 25,000 to 30,000 people a day crossing the Holy Door. No source opened for this article explains whether a person who passed through several Holy Doors, or the same door twice, counted once or several times. No source separates Rome residents from visitors, or day-trippers from overnight guests. The Italian agency AgenSIR worded the total as people who "avranno attraversato le Porte Sante", those who will have passed through the Holy Doors, and gave a range of 33.4 to 33.8 million by 6 January.

The components do not add up cleanly. Santa Maria Maggiore's own closing release, published on the Holy See Press Office site, says more than 20 million pilgrims and faithful passed through its Holy Door. It gives no method and no count date. At AP's range of 25,000 to 30,000 a day, St Peter's would have recorded about 9.5 to 11.4 million passages over the 379 days of the Jubilee (our calculation). Those two doors alone reach 29.5 to 31.4 million before St John Lateran, St Paul and the events are added. Either the total is not a simple sum of door passages, or one component is overstated. No source reconciles the two.

The daily average has the same problem. AgenSIR reported an average of 90,400 a day over 358 days. That multiplies to 32.4 million, about 1.1 million short of the stated total (our calculation). The Jubilee ran 379 days, from 24 December 2024 to 6 January 2026 inclusive. Divided over that span, 33,475,369 comes to about 88,300 a day (our calculation).

The peaks show what kind of number this is. AgenSIR put the period from Pope Francis's death on 21 April 2025 to the election of Leo XIV on 8 May at 3.9 million. ANS gave almost 4 million for the funeral, conclave and election together. That figure sits inside the 33.5 million total. The Jubilee of Youth is larger still. ANS reported 13 million passages through the Holy Doors between 21 July and 10 August. Catholic News Service wrote that the period from 21 July to 10 August registered more than 13 million people. The Vatican estimated about 1 million at the closing Mass at Tor Vergata, while organizers put the vigil the night before at 800,000, according to AFP. Thirteen million unique young people in three weeks does not fit a final gathering of about 1 million. The 13 million reads as passages. It equals about 39% of the whole year's count (our calculation).

The origin shares also need care. ANS reported Italy at 36.34% and Europe at 62.63%. Catholic News Service put the United States at nearly 13% and Spain at 6%. Catholic News Service said these shares describe registered pilgrims only. They cannot be applied to the 33.5 million total, though they show that Italians were the largest single group among those who registered.

Before the Jubilee, a Roma Tre University sociology study projected 31.7 million, according to Catholic World Report, and Fisichella cited the same 31.7 million forecast, Italpress reported. Vatican News gave the Roma Tre forecast as 31 million, and the commissioner's office also cited 31 million. The final estimate beat 31.7 million by 5.6% (our calculation).

The Bank of Italy took a different route. Its monthly border survey interviews non-residents as they leave Italy. From 24 December 2024 it added a question: did you come to Italy to take part in the Jubilee, or would you have come anyway? Taking part included official events and acts such as passing through a Holy Door. A note by Claudio Doria, published on 28 August 2026, analyzes the interviews from 1 January to 31 December 2025. The Jubilee questions were carried by 65,282 interviews, 87.2% of all questionnaires given to foreign travelers. In 1,117 cases, 1.5% of those questionnaires (1.7% of the 65,282, our calculation), the interviewee named the Jubilee as the main reason for the trip, and 1,399 more took part without it being the main reason. About two-thirds of the 1,117 were interviewed at Rome's two airports.

Scaled up to the full flow of travelers, the survey gives 1.376 million foreign overnight visitors who came for the Jubilee. They were 2.2% of all foreign overnight travelers to Italy in 2025 and spent 9.713 million nights. A further 2.186 million foreign overnight visitors took part in Jubilee events but said they would have come to Italy in any case. Together the two groups total 3.562 million, or 5.8% of foreign overnight travelers. Against that wider group, the Vatican count is 9.4 times larger (our calculation). Day-trippers, transit passengers and cross-border commuters sit outside these Jubilee estimates, and Italians sit outside the survey altogether.

The survey also shows who came. The United States sent the most Jubilee travelers, 235,000 or 17.1%. Spain followed with 151,000 or 11.0%, then Poland with 111,000, the United Kingdom with 106,000 and France with 105,000. The Bank of Italy's 26 June 2026 statistics release says Rome was the main destination for more than 90% of Jubilee-related flows. It also found that just under a third of those who came for the Jubilee gave religion or pilgrimage as the main purpose of the trip. More than half said holiday and leisure.

Rome's own figure is the third unit. Turismo Roma, the city's tourism site, published 22.9 million arrivals for 2025, about 12 million of them foreign, up 3.42% on 2024. Nights reached 52.92 million, up 2.87%. The data come from the Ente Bilaterale del Turismo del Lazio and count stays in accommodation. The page says the year beat the previous record, set in 2024. The page refers to the city but does not define the area covered, and it does not mention the Jubilee. The Vatican count is 1.46 times Rome's total recorded tourist arrivals for the year (our calculation). For another Italian attempt to put a number on visitors, see our analysis of the Venice access-fee results.

The money: €1.6 billion measured, €4.0 billion with visitors who came anyway

The Bank of Italy puts the spending of foreign travelers who came for the Jubilee at €1.615 billion. That is 3.0% of the €54.6 billion that foreign overnight travelers spent in Italy in 2025. The Doria note says the sum equals about two-thirds of the year-on-year increase. The bank's 26 June press page says almost two-thirds of the growth came from visitors who traveled to Italy to take part in the Jubilee.

The two-thirds holds on both bases we checked. Total foreign-traveler spending, including day-trippers, rose from €54.2 billion in 2024 to €56.7 billion in 2025, an increase of €2.5 billion. €1.6 billion is 64% of that (our calculation). On the overnight base, the regional figures in the note's Table 6 sum to €52.04 billion for 2024 and €54.62 billion for 2025, an increase of €2.57 billion. €1.615 billion is 62.7% of that growth (our calculation). The bank reported foreign spending up 4.6% in 2025, or 3.1% in real terms, and a tourism surplus of €22.7 billion.

The €4.0 billion figure comes from the same note but measures something wider. It adds the 2.186 million other participants, who spent €2.4 billion, to the Jubilee travelers. Together they account for 7.4% of foreign overnight spending. The other participants said they would have come to Italy without the Jubilee. Their spending would have happened anyway. Only the €1.6 billion is extra money attributable to the Holy Year. Money.it headlined €4 billion of spending by foreign tourists for the Jubilee on 15 September 2026, although its article body explained the split.

Jubilee travelers spent more per head than other visitors. The note gives €1,173 per trip, €166 a day and 7.1 nights for those who came for the Jubilee, against €889 per trip, €139 a day and 6.4 nights for all foreign overnight travelers. That is 32% more per trip (our calculation). The note's Table 5 was garbled in extraction and its labels were matched by arithmetic, so these figures need a manual check against the PDF. By origin, American Jubilee travelers spent €430 million, Spanish €125 million, British €111 million, French €97 million and Polish €69 million.

Most of the money stayed in one region. Foreign spending in Lazio rose 19.2% in 2025, from €8.59 billion to €10.24 billion. In the other regions combined it rose 2.1%. The Bank of Italy's regional report on Lazio, as reported by Quotidiano.net on 10 June 2026, says 11.1 of those 19.2 points came from Jubilee visitors. That is 58% of Lazio's spending growth (our calculation), which matches a footnote in the Doria note giving 58% of spending growth and 45% of traveler growth. Both percentages refer to Lazio. Lazio's spending increase was €1.654 billion, and 58% of it is about €959 million (our calculation). So most of the €1.6 billion landed in Lazio, though not all of it.

The national share of traveler growth is smaller. Foreign overnight travelers rose from 57.8 million to 61.4 million, an increase of about 3.6 million. The 1.376 million Jubilee travelers equal about 38% of that increase (our calculation, from rounded totals, so indicative only). The 45% figure belongs to Lazio and should not be quoted for Italy.

The forecasts were on a different scale and a different scope. Before the Jubilee, the chambers of commerce tourism observatory projected about 35 million arrivals and about €17 billion of spending, figures carried by the Tourism Ministry and reported by Wanted in Rome on 31 January 2025 and Panorama on 15 August 2025. Il Sole 24 Ore gave €16.7 billion on 7 March 2025 without naming its source. Those forecasts covered Rome, Italian and foreign visitors, and all spending. The Bank of Italy measured foreign overnight visitors only. Nobody has measured what Italians spent on the Jubilee. Setting €17 billion against €1.6 billion therefore compares a forecast with a measure of something narrower. The fair statement is that the forecast was never reconciled with any measured outcome.

A separate €4 billion figure belongs to public spending. AP reported about €4 billion of public funds for Rome projects. Il Foglio, using data from the commissioner's office, put the works plan at about €3.76 billion. The two €4 billion figures are unrelated, and neither is visitor spending.

What Rome's own registers show, and what the works delivered

Rome's accommodation register recorded modest growth. Arrivals rose 3.42% and nights 2.87%, according to the Ente Bilaterale del Turismo del Lazio data published by Turismo Roma on 25 January 2026. Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said on 5 January 2026, as reported by Italpress, that final tourism data were not yet available. Earlier reported totals of 22.2 million arrivals and 51.4 million nights, carried by Agenzia Nova in early January, were superseded by the published 22.9 million and 52.92 million.

Italy as a whole recorded fewer arrivals. ISTAT's provisional figures, released on 9 March 2026, show national arrivals down 0.9% in 2025 and nights up 2.3%. Italian residents' arrivals fell 3.5% while their nights were flat. Non-residents' arrivals rose 1.4% and their nights 4.3%. A record for the national arrivals count was not set in 2025, whatever the Jubilee did for Rome. Our watch on Italy's 2026 tourism totals follows whether the next year changes that.

The sharpest gap is between the border survey and the city's register. The Bank of Italy's Table 6 shows foreign nights in Lazio rising 27.8%, from 57.1 million to 73.0 million, an increase of 15.9 million. Rome's register shows total nights, Italian and foreign together, rising 2.87%, which is an increase of about 1.48 million (our calculation). The border survey therefore records roughly ten times more extra foreign nights in Lazio than the city's register records in extra nights of every kind. The sources do not explain the gap. Plausible reasons include lodging the register does not capture, such as religious houses, friends and family and unregistered rentals, the difference between Lazio and Rome, and sampling error in a survey that rests on 1,117 Jubilee interviews. None of these has been quantified. We used nights as the measure when comparing Italy and Spain on tourism nights. Here the increases in nights recorded by two sources differ by a factor of about ten.

The rest of Italy may have given up some nights to Lazio. The Bank of Italy's Table 6 shows foreign nights in the regions outside Lazio falling 2.1%, from 326.7 million to 319.7 million, while Lazio's rose 27.8%. Foreign travelers in those regions still rose 6.2% and their spending 2.1%, so any displacement shows up in nights; visitor numbers and money there still grew. The bank itself names substitution, people choosing Rome over other Italian destinations, as possible but unmeasured. It also says it cannot measure how many visitors were deterred by crowds and prices. The pattern is consistent with displacement. It does not prove it.

Early-2025 signals from Rome's lodging sector were weak. Giuseppe Roscioli of Federalberghi Roma said the year had started sottotono, subdued, for hotels, AGI reported on 30 January 2025. Panorama reported on 15 August 2025 that first-quarter occupancy of holiday homes and B&Bs fell from 81% to 72%, citing Locare and Aigab. The same article cited a Università del Sacro Cuore estimate of 5.5 million pilgrims from January to May, against about 15 million expected by the Tourism Ministry. Euronews reported on 21 June 2025 that holiday rentals fell 8 to 10% in the first quarter, citing Tecnocasa. These are early-year signals reported through outlets. No full-year 2025 hotel occupancy figure for Rome was found.

Average stay did not jump either. The register's 52.92 million nights over 22.9 million arrivals gives 2.31 nights per arrival (our calculation). Fanpage reported on 20 January 2026 that city assessor Onorato said the average stay had risen from about 2.3 days to over 4. The city's own published figures do not support that. For a single-site view of visitor numbers in Rome, see our analysis of the Trevi Fountain ticket results.

The works were the other promise of the Jubilee year. Il Foglio reported on 18 December 2025, from commissioner's-office data, a plan of 332 interventions worth about €3.76 billion. By that date 121 were complete, 36% of the total, covering about €714 million or 19% of the funds. A further 78 were partly complete, worth about €1 billion. Nine were nearing completion, 43 had not started or were still in tender, and two were to be cancelled. Of the 205 interventions classed as essential, 107 were complete and 65 partly complete, 83.9% in all. Il Foglio's categories cover 253 of the 332; the status of the rest is not given in its report. Gualtieri said that 204 of the 332 interventions were closed or partly completed and that 90% of the resources for essential and non-deferrable works had been spent, Italpress reported on 5 January 2026. ANS, on 8 January 2026, gave €1.725 billion allocated for the 332 projects, with 204 completed or well advanced. That allocation does not match the Il Foglio total; the two may cover different funding scopes and have not been reconciled.

Claims that did not hold up

The claims below circulated in the press or in our own planning. Each is set against the source that can test it. Two rows are ours. Our content plan titled this article with 33.5 million pilgrims, which presents the Vatican estimate as a headcount, and an early idea for it included a 45 million forecast that we could not find on record.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers should expect a jubilee year to bring sharp peaks around single events. The Vatican counted about 3.9 million in the weeks from Pope Francis's death to the election of Leo XIV, and 13 million Holy Door passages in the three weeks of the Jubilee of Youth. The city's register grew 3.42% across the whole year, and the average stay worked out at 2.31 nights (our calculation). The Holy Door of St Peter's closed on 6 January 2026. For planning a trip now, our Rome travel guide and our list of things to do in Rome cover the city outside the Holy Year.

Tourism businesses and investors should treat €1.615 billion as the measured, attributable figure for foreign overnight visitors, and €4.0 billion as the total that includes €2.4 billion from people who would have come anyway. Jubilee travelers spent €1,173 per trip against €889 for the average foreign visitor, and most of their money, about €959 million by our calculation, went to Lazio. The €17 billion pre-event forecast was never matched by a measure of the same scope, and early-2025 rental occupancy in Rome fell. A major religious event concentrated spending in one region, while foreign nights elsewhere fell. Anyone pricing the next jubilee year should start from the Bank of Italy figures and treat the forecasts as projections.

Journalists and analysts should not repeat 33 million visitors or tourists in Rome, 33.5 million international pilgrims, 13 million young people at the Jubilee of Youth, €4 billion spent because of the Jubilee, €1.6 billion spent by pilgrims, a 27.8% rise in Lazio arrivals, the €17 billion forecast as an outcome, 90,400 pilgrims a day beside the full-year total, or any 45 million forecast. Each headline number needs its unit: passages and attendances, foreign overnight visitors, accommodation arrivals.