Key findings about religious restrictions around the world in 2021
The most common kinds of government restrictions on religion in 2021 included harassment of religious groups and interference in worship.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The most common kinds of government restrictions on religion in 2021 included harassment of religious groups and interference in worship.
Around a fifth (21%) of the 198 countries evaluated banned at least one religion-related group in 2019, our analysis found.
79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied around the world (40%) had laws or policies in 2019 banning blasphemy.
Immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa tend to be more religious than U.S.-born Black adults or immigrants from the Caribbean.
The global Muslim population is more concentrated in Islam’s main population centers than the global Christian population is for Christianity.
Muslim societies have gained a reputation in recent decades for failing to adequately educate women. But a new analysis of Pew Research Center data on educational attainment and religion suggests that economics, not religion, is the key factor limiting the education of Muslim women.
Europe in 2015 saw a rise in social hostilities involving religion, particularly against the continent’s Muslims.
While many, especially in the U.S., may associate Islam with the Middle East or North Africa, nearly two-thirds of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region.
While sub-Saharan Africa had fewer religious restrictions than many other parts of the world in 2015, it experienced a larger increase than any other region.
Melina Platas, an assistant professor of political science at New York University Abu Dhabi, explains the Muslim-Christian education gap in sub-Saharan Africa.
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