Witchcraft on the Rise in America

“Surveys Find Witchcraft is on the Rise Across America”

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/10/s...s-america/

 Several surveys conducted by Trinity College and the Pew Research Center have found that Wicca and Pagan belief systems are growing almost exponentially in the West. Trinity’s College research in particular found that between 1990 and 2008, the last year they collected data, the number of Wiccans in the U.S. grew from 8,000 to over 340,000. There is also a rise in the number of witches who identify specifically as “feminist witches,” coupled with a rising popularity of witchcraft and Wicca-related social media. What’s behind the rise of witchcraft?

[Laird]

...and, apparently, in Australia too.

Australian witches and Druids optimistic about paganism's post-pandemic future

ABC News article of 10 April 2021 (AEST) by Nick Baker

According to the 2016 Census, 27,194 Australians identified as pagan or other affiliated "nature religions". This included 6,616 people who specifically identified as "Wiccan/witchcraft".

"We can't separate our experience from the experience of the environment. If the world is having trouble, then so are we."

Dr Venetia Robertson, a researcher at the University of Sydney who has studied paganism, says this connection to nature is one reason why it is "statistically on the rise" in Australia.

"[Paganism] has a lot of appeal to modern people who are frightened about the state of the earth and who want to reconnect with nature in a highly technological age," she says.

Pagan Awareness Network's Mr Garland says pagans have historically been marginalised in Australia.

"Witchcraft laws were only repealed in 2001 in Queensland and 2005 in Victoria," he says.

"So it's not that long ago that people could go to jail for practising witchcraft."