53 pct more haj pilgrims in 2017, still 16.8 pct lower than 2012 pre-quota slash
*Update: Inserts domestic pilgrims as a percentage of all pilgrims for 2016
2,352,122 pilgrims attended the haj this year, a 53 percent increase from 2016, according to data from Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Statistics.
This year's attendance is still 16.77 percent lower than 2012, the last year before Saudi authorities reduced foreign pilgrim quotas by 20 percent and domestic pilgrims by half to accommodate the expansion of facilities at Al Masjid Al Haram in Mecca.
DISPROPORTIONATE INCREASE IN DOMESTIC VS FOREIGN PILGRIMS
74.49 percent of this year's cohort, or 1,752,014 pilgrims, were from outside Saudi Arabia. This is 11.98 percent lower than 2016's percentage of foreign pilgrims.
25.51 percent of this year's pilgrims were from within Saudi Arabia, equivalent to 600,108. This represents a 189.3 percent increase in domestic pilgrims from 2016.
However, this is still not as high as the proportion of domestic pilgrims in 2012 when they accounted for 37.97 percent of all pilgrims.
Domestic pilgrims made up a far lower 13.53 percent of all pilgrims in 2016.
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