Editing Wicca (section)

==Demographics==
{{main|Demographics of paganism}}

Originating in Britain, Wicca then spread to North America, [[Australasia]], continental Europe, and South Africa.{{sfn|Pearson|2007|p=3}}

The actual number of Wiccans worldwide is unknown, and it has been noted that it is more difficult to establish the numbers of members of Neopagan faiths than many other religions due to their disorganised structure.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.neopagan.net/HowManyPagans.html |title=How Many "Pagans" Are There? |work=Neopagan.net |first=Isaac |last=Bonewits |year=2005 |access-date=7 April 2012}}</ref> However, Adherents.com, an independent website which specialises in collecting estimates of world religions, cites over thirty sources with estimates of numbers of Wiccans (principally from the US and the UK). From this, they developed a median estimate of 800,000 members.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.adherents.com/Na/i_w.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031002023455/http://adherents.com/Na/i_w.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=October 2, 2003 |title=Statistical summary pages: W |work=Adherents.com |access-date=7 April 2012}}</ref> As of 2016, Doyle White suggested that there were "hundreds of thousands of practising Wiccans around the globe".{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=2}} However, the [[2021 United Kingdom census]] notes that at that time, there were 13,000 people who noted "Wicca" as their religion, along with 74,000 who noted "Paganism" as their religion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021?utm_source=chatgpt.com |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=www.ons.gov.uk}}</ref> Data for Scotland and Northern Ireland are collected separately and are not included in these figures.

In 1998, the Wiccan high priestess and academic psychologist Vivianne Crowley suggested that Wicca had been less successful in propagating in countries whose populations were primarily Roman Catholic. She suggested that this might be because Wicca's emphasis on a female divinity was more novel to people raised in Protestant-dominant backgrounds.{{sfn|Crowley|1998|p=171}} On the basis of her experience, Pearson concurred that this was broadly true.{{sfnm|1a1=Pearson|1y=2002b|1p=144|2a1=Pearson|2y=2007|2pp=ix–x}}

Wicca has been described as a non-proselytizing religion.{{sfnm|1a1=Hanegraaff|1y=2002|1p=305|2a1=Pearson|2y=2002b|2p=136}} In 1998, Pearson noted that there were very few individuals who had grown up as Wiccans although increasing numbers of Wiccan adults were themselves, parents.{{sfn|Pearson|2002b|p=141}} Many Wiccan parents did not refer to their children as also being Wiccan, believing it important that the latter are allowed to make their own choices about their religious identity when they are old enough.{{sfn|Pearson|2002b|p=141}} From her fieldwork among members of the Reclaiming tradition in California during 1980-90, the anthropologist Jone Salomonsen found that many described joining the movement following "an extraordinary experience of revelation".{{sfn|Salomonsen|1998|p=144}}

Based on their analysis of internet trends, the sociologists of religion Douglas Ezzy and Helen Berger argued that, by 2009, the "phenomenal growth" that Wicca has experienced in preceding years had slowed.{{sfn|Ezzy|Berger|2009|pp=165–166}}

===Europe===

{{Quote box|width=400px|align=right|quote=[The average Wiccan is] a man in his forties, or a woman in her thirties, [[Caucasian race|Caucasian]], reasonably well educated, not earning much but probably not too concerned about material things, someone that demographers would call [[lower middle class]].|source=[[Leo Ruickbie]] (2004){{sfn|Ruickbie|2004|p=177}}}}

From her 1996 survey of British Wiccans, Pearson found that most Wiccans were aged between 25 and 45, with the average age being around 35.{{sfn|Pearson|2002b|p=142}} She noted that as the Wiccan community aged, so the proportion of older practitioners would increase.{{sfn|Pearson|2002b|p=142}} She found roughly equal proportions of men and women,{{sfn|Pearson|2002b|p=144}} and found that 62% were from Protestant backgrounds, which was consistent with the dominance of Protestantism in Britain at large.{{sfn|Pearson|2002b|pp=143–144}} Pearson's survey also found that half of British Wiccans featured had a university education and that they tended to work in "healing professions" like medicine or counselling, education, computing, and administration.{{sfn|Pearson|2002b|p=145}} She noted that there thus was "a certain homogeneity about the background" of British Wiccans.{{sfn|Pearson|2002b|p=145}}

In the United Kingdom, census figures on religion were [[United Kingdom Census 2001|first collected in 2001]]; no detailed statistics were reported outside of the six main religions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/census-2001-key-statistics/local-authorities-in-england-and-wales/local-authorities-ks07--religion.xls |title=Census 2001 Key Statistics – Local Authorities KS07 Religion |publisher=United Kingdom Office for National Statistics |year=2001}}</ref> For the [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 census]] a more detailed breakdown of responses was reported with 56,620 people identifying themselves as pagans, 11,766 as Wiccans and a further 1,276 describing their religion as "Witchcraft".<ref>Office for National Statistics, 11 December 2012, ''[http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?newquery=%2A&newoffset=25&pageSize=25&edition=tcm%3A77-286262 2011 Census, Key Statistics for Local Authorities in England and Wales]''. Accessed 12 December 2012.</ref>

===North America===

In the United States, the [[American Religious Identification Survey]] has shown significant increases in the number of self-identified Wiccans, from 8,000 in 1990, to 134,000 in 2001, and 342,000 in 2008.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://abcnews.go.com/WN/real-witches-practice-samhain-wicca-rise-us/story?id=8957950 |title=Real Witches Practice Samhain: Wicca on the Rise in U.S. |work=ABC News |first=Russell |last=Goldman |date=30 October 2009 |access-date=10 November 2013}}</ref> Wiccans have also made up significant proportions of various groups within that country; for instance, Wicca is the largest non-Christian faith practised in the [[United States Air Force]], with 1,434 airmen identifying themselves as such.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/01/airforce_religion_011610w/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120718015454/http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/01/airforce_religion_011610w/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 July 2012 |title=Respect healthy for different faiths |work=Air Force Times |first=Erik |last=Holmes |date=17 January 2010 |access-date=20 October 2010 }}</ref> In 2014, the Pew Research Center estimated 0.3% of the US population (~950,000 people) identified as Wiccan or pagan based on a sample size of 35,000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Religious Landscape Study |date=26 February 2025 |publisher=Pew Research Center |url=http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/}}</ref>

In 2018, a Pew Research Center study estimated the number of Wiccans in the United States to be at least 1.5 million.<ref>{{cite news |title=Number Of Witches Rises Dramatically Across U.S. As Millennials Reject Christianity |url=https://www.newsweek.com/witchcraft-wiccans-mysticism-astrology-witches-millennials-pagans-religion-1221019}}</ref>