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How many people were tried for witchcraft in Europe?

The figure of about 600,000 is not a current estimate of the number of people accused of witchcraft. The main wave of European trials took place not in the Middle Ages but in the early modern period, roughly 1450–1750. A widely cited scholarly estimate is that about 90,000 people were tried for witchcraft in Europe, and roughly half were executed; exact counts vary because the archives are incomplete. The illustration is AI-generated and does not depict a specific trial.

синтетична редакційна ілюстрація ранньомодерної зали суду, створена OpenAI image generation 12 жовтня 2026 року. Prompt: “Editorial historical illustration about early modern European witchcraft trials: quiet archival courtroom, judge’s bench, handwritten ledger and candlelight, no accused person, no violence, no legible text; interpretive synthetic illustration, not a specific trial or artifact.” Не документальне свідчення й не автентичний інтер’єр.

синтетична редакційна ілюстрація ранньомодерної зали суду, створена OpenAI image generation 12 жовтня 2026 року. Prompt: “Editorial historical illustration about early modern European witchcraft trials: quiet archival courtroom, judge’s bench, handwritten ledger and candlelight, no accused person, no violence, no legible text; interpretive synthetic illustration, not a specific trial or artifact.” Не документальне свідчення й не автентичний інтер’єр.