News

The Women’s March turnout is at 3.2 million and counting

3.2 million.

That’s the estimated number of people who participated in women’s marches in more than 300 cities and towns across the United States on Saturday, according to FiveThirtyEight, which compiled data from crowd scientists, city officials, local law enforcement, and public transportation systems.

Videos by VICE

That figure is expected to go up, as it does not yet include data from around 200 towns and cities believed to have hosted marches across the country .

Women, gender nonconformists and men took to streets across the country, one day after Donald Trump was inaugurated the 45th president of the United States, in support of women’s rights, LGBT rights, immigrant rights, civil rights, and many other things they feel are threatened by the incoming administration.

Washington, D.C., reportedly had the highest turnout, with 485,000 protesters, a number so large it overwhelmed the official march route, packed the National Mall and other avenues as the mass slowly moved from the U.S. Capitol to the White House. D.C. was followed by Los Angeles, with 450,000, and then New York, with 400,000 protesters.

Crowd scientists contacted by the New York Times estimated that more than 470,000 people were at the women’s march on or in the vicinity of the National Mall at approximately 2 p.m. Saturday. Organizers in Washington estimated that half a million had turned out, more than double the 200,000 they had anticipated, according the Associated Press.

With attendance estimates still trickling in, it isn’t yet clear whether the women’s march attendance can compete with other huge events in U.S. history. In 1982, for example, a protest against nuclear weapons drew 1 million to New York’s Central Park. In 1993, between 800,000 and 1 million people marched on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall in support of LGBT rights.

Aerial photos showed the nation’s capitals flooded by a sea of individuals topped with pink “pussy power” hats — which became the protest’s symbolic accessory through a grassroots movement of knitters, inspired by a comment Trump made in the leaked “Access Hollywood” tape in which he brags about grabbing women “by the pussy.”

The majority of marches across the United States took place in states that Democratic contender Hillary Clinton won. The organizers did not explicitly say that the marches were intended as a statement of opposition to Trump, despite the fact that they were planned for the day after inauguration and even though protesters on the day touted a strong anti-Trump message.

“If the marches were a reminder of the depth of opposition to Trump,” FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver wrote, “they also reflected Democrats’ need to expand the breadth of their coalition if they are to make a comeback in 2018 and 2020.”

However, some of the companion women’s marches took place in “red states” that Trump won. Thousands rallied at the state courthouse in Indianapolis, in downtown St. Louis, and in Topeka, Kansas.

Women’s marches were also held in cities across the world, including London, Nairobi, Sydney, Mexico City, Athens, Moscow, Tokyo, and Antarctica, to name just a few.