One Billion People Believe in Witchcraft, Including 56 Percent of Russia

A global study has found that roughly one billion people in the adult population of 95 countries examined believe in “the evil eye,” and witches that can “cast curses or spells that cause bad things to happen to someone.”

Calculated by assessing surveys of 140,000 people from 95 countries and territories, it was found that, on average, 40 percent of those asked believe in witchcraft. And, people living in countries with “weak institutions” were more likely to believe in witchcraft.

The world’s population recently surpassed eight billion and the study authors highlighted that their results likely underrepresented the full scale of witchcraft belief. Source: NewsWeek