MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. The number of Russians who believe in God, higher forces and religious miracles has significantly grown compared with early 1990s, an opinion poll published by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) said on Thursday.

"Over the past 25 years, considerably more our fellow nationals have started relying on God in their life and their share has grown from 49% in 1991 to 67% in 2016," the poll says.

The number of those who say that they rely on higher forces has almost doubled reaching 47%, according to the survey. The number of those who think so is higher among Muslims (49 %) compared with Orthodox Christians (34%). The poll also says the number of atheists has also dropped by 7 percentage points.

Almost half of Russians (48%) are sure that a person’s life is predestined, compared with 25% in 1991. The majority of the respondents who think so are people above 60 years of age, Muslims (68%) and Orthodox Christians (54%). Among them are young people between 18 and 24 years of age (38%) and men (39%).

The number of Russians who believe in afterlife and in religious miracles has grown by 13 percentage points and 18 percentage points, respectively. Some 40% of Russians believe in hell and devil (compared with 24% and 25% in 1991).

The poll was conducted on April 23-24 among 1,600 respondents in 46 Russian regions. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%