This page gathers, in one place, every figure we could find that is specific to Ramadan Umrah from Morocco. It is written for journalists, researchers and anyone who wants to quote a number with its origin. Each figure keeps the name of whoever produced it, because none of them is an official census.
Two kinds of numbers belong elsewhere on the network. Saudi totals for the whole Umrah season are covered by the general Umrah guides, and prices are covered by the price observatory. Here we keep to the Moroccan pilgrims and the transport built around their Ramadan.
The date we last checked each source is printed under the source list at the bottom of the page. If you quote a figure, please quote the original source named in its row; this page is a compilation, not the origin of any number.
How many Moroccans perform Umrah in Ramadan?
The most recent figures are a little more than two years old. Ramadan Umrah drew more than 30,000 Moroccans in 2023 and about 20,000 in 2024, a drop of 30%, according to the federation, quoted by Medias241. These are the only Ramadan-specific pilgrim counts for Morocco we found in the press.
They should be read as orders of magnitude. The numbers come from a trade federation, through a press article, not from a register of departures. They do not say how they were counted, whether they include Moroccans living abroad, or whether they cover pilgrims who travelled without an agency.
That last point matters more each year. According to LesEco, in March 2025 many Moroccans were organising their Umrah themselves, without an agency, with the Nusuk app making the visa easier to get5. A figure gathered from agencies may therefore miss a growing share of pilgrims. That is our reading of the two sources together, not something either of them states.
Why did the number fall?
The federation gave three causes for the decline in Ramadan Umrah in 2024: inflation, the geopolitical situation and the informal sector, according to the federation, quoted by Medias241. The article does not weigh one cause against another.
Two of these causes are about the traveller: the cost of the trip and the climate in the region at the time. The third, the informal sector, is about the count itself. Trips sold outside licensed agencies do not appear in an agency figure, so part of the fall may be travellers leaving the count rather than staying at home. Nobody has published the split.
What the figures do not show is a trend. Two consecutive years make a comparison, not a series. Without a count for the seasons that followed, no one can say whether the second year was a low point or a new level.
What share of the year does Ramadan represent?
For Moroccan pilgrims, Ramadan has long been the Umrah month. Before the pandemic, Umrah drew more than 100,000 Moroccan pilgrims a year, nearly 60% of them during Ramadan, according to Challenge2.
That share is the figure that explains most of the pressure on families' plans. When more than half of a year's demand is aimed at one month, hotels near the two mosques and direct flights fill first, and the paperwork, which cannot be done early, becomes the last step rather than the first. Our booking timeline is built around that constraint.
The share has not been updated since. The source does not name the year it refers to, and the market changed after the pandemic, so it should not be applied to recent seasons as if it were current.
What do the flight figures tell us?
They show how the airlines prepare for the month, which is the closest thing to a measure of demand that is published every year.
For Ramadan 2023, Royal Air Maroc announced more than 61,000 seats on around a hundred flights (about 100) to Jeddah and Madinah, including 28,000 for Ramadan Umrah, from 7 cities: Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier, Oujda, Fez, Marrakech and Agadir3. The same year, the federation put the number of Moroccan Ramadan pilgrims at more than 30,000, according to the federation, quoted by Medias241. The two figures are close, but they measure different things and should not be added up or compared seat for seat.
The national airline is not the only carrier. Responding to criticism over a lack of flights for the Ramadan 2022 Umrah, Royal Air Maroc said it provided about one third of the air capacity, with the rest provided by other international airlines, including Saudi carriers, according to Royal Air Maroc, quoted by SNRTnews4. A Royal Air Maroc seat count is therefore a part of the Ramadan supply, not all of it.
Extra capacity has not ended the squeeze. In early March 2025, a direct Casablanca–Jeddah flight for the Ramadan Umrah was still hard to find despite more frequencies, with almost all airlines full on direct Morocco–Saudi flights in February 2025, according to LesEco5.
On the ground in Saudi Arabia, the peak is just as visible. During the last 10 days of Ramadan 2026, Saudi Arabia Railways raised Haramain train daily trips to more than 140, according to TradeArabia, citing SPA6. That figure covers every passenger, not only Moroccans, but it shows where in the month the crowd is largest.
For the dates that frame this coming Ramadan, from the expected first day to the last day of entry, see the 1448 season deadline table8 and Ramadan dates in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
What has not been published?
Quite a lot, and the gaps matter as much as the figures. We list them so that no one fills them by guesswork.
Not announced yet
- Recent counts. We found no published count of Moroccan Ramadan pilgrims for the seasons after the two in the table.
- A forecast for this coming Ramadan. No federation, ministry or airline has published one.
- An official figure. We found no Moroccan or Saudi official count of Moroccan pilgrims for Ramadan alone.
- Who is counted. The sources do not say whether Moroccans living abroad, or pilgrims who travel without an agency, are included.
- The airline programme for this Ramadan. Royal Air Maroc sells Casablanca–Jeddah and Casablanca–Madinah flights, but frequencies and the Ramadan 2027 schedule are not known, according to the Royal Air Maroc website9.
- Breakdowns. We found nothing on age, region of departure, length of stay or the part of the month chosen.
How is this page kept up to date?
Only figures from our facts register appear here, each with the source we read. When a new figure is published by a named source, it is added to the table with its year and its limits; an older figure is never removed, so the series stays readable. If you hold a published figure that is missing here, write to us through the contact page with the link to its source.
If you are not writing about Ramadan Umrah but planning one, start with when to book and work back from the season's dates. The button below opens a conversation with the agency that publishes this site.