VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- More than 5.9 million pilgrims and visitors joined Pope Francis for an audience, liturgy or prayer at the Vatican in 2014, the Vatican said. The Prefecture of the Papal Household, the Vatican office that coordinates the audiences and distributes the free tickets to papal audiences and liturgies, said a total of 5,916,800 people attended a papal event at the Vatican. The Vatican released the statistics Dec. 29. The 2014 total was down by about 680,000 from the 6.6 million visitors Pope Francis received in the first nine and a half months of his pontificate in 2013 -- from his March 13 election to the end of the year. For the 12 months of 2014, at least 1.19 million people attended Pope Francis' 43 weekly general audiences; more than 567,000 participated in special group audiences; more than 1.1 million participated in papal liturgies in St. Peter's Basilica or St. Peter's Square; and more than 3 million joined the pope for the Angelus or the "Regina Coeli" prayer on Sundays and major feast days in St. Peter's Square.