The Practice: Statistics ABOUT 15 MILLION PEOPLE are circumcised annually, thirteen million boys and two million girls. With each heartbeat, a child passes under the knife.(2) Male circumcision is practised on the five continents by about a billion Muslims, three hundred million Christians, sixteen million Jews and an unknown number of animists and atheists. Female circumcision was and continues to be practised on the five continents by Muslims, Christians, Jews, animists, and atheists, but it is especially common in twenty-eight countries, mainly African and Muslim.(3) In Egypt, currently in the foreground regarding female circumcision, 97% of women are circumcised: 99.5% in the countryside and 94% in urban areas.(4)