This table shows all 198 countries and territories in descending order of their scores on the Pew Forum’s index of government restrictions on religion. The Pew Forum has not attached numerical rankings to the countries because there are numerous tie scores and the differences between the scores of countries that are close to each other on this table are not necessarily meaningful. This is particularly the case at the low end of the scale: The range of scores among the 43 countries in the Very High (top 5%) and High (next 15%) categories is greater than the range of scores among the 119 countries in the Low (bottom 60%) category.
View list of countries and territories with:
Very high levels of restrictions (top 5% of scores)
High levels of restrictions (next 15% of scores)
Moderate levels of restrictions (next 20% of scores)
Low levels of restrictions (bottom 60% of scores)
| Very High
Top 5% of scores
Scores from 6.7 to 8.4 |
| Saudi Arabia |
| Iran |
| Uzbekistan |
| China |
| Egypt |
| Burma (Myanmar) |
| Maldives |
| Eritrea |
| Malaysia |
| Brunei |
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| High
Next 15% of scores
Scores from 4.5 to 6.6 |
| Indonesia |
| Mauritania |
| Pakistan |
| Turkey |
| Vietnam |
| Algeria |
| Belarus |
| Russia |
| Turkmenistan |
| Libya |
| Sudan |
| Tajikistan |
| Jordan |
| Afghanistan |
| Morocco |
| Laos |
| Syria |
| India |
| Tunisia |
| Azerbaijan |
| Kuwait |
| Kazakhstan |
| Yemen |
| Iraq |
| Western Sahara |
| Bulgaria |
| Singapore |
| Moldova |
| Greece |
| Israel |
| Cuba |
| Oman |
| Somalia* |
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| Moderate
Next 20% of scores
Scores from 2.4 to 4.4 |
| Bhutan |
| Romania |
| Bangladesh |
| United Arab Emirates |
| Mexico |
| Armenia |
| Bahrain |
| Sri Lanka |
| Comoros |
| Chad |
| Qatar |
| Belgium |
| Nepal |
| Kyrgyzstan |
| Angola |
| Nigeria |
| Serbia |
| France |
| Thailand |
| Palestinian territories** |
| Venezuela |
| Germany |
| Zimbabwe |
| Cambodia |
| Kenya |
| Central African Republic |
| Georgia |
| Slovakia |
| Tanzania |
| Austria |
| Monaco |
| Ukraine |
| Ethiopia |
| Uganda |
| Denmark |
| Latvia |
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| Low
Bottom 60% of scores
Scores from 0 to 2.3 |
| Tuvalu |
| Equatorial Guinea |
| United Kingdom |
| Iceland |
| Italy |
| Colombia |
| Ivory Coast |
| Republic of Macedonia |
| Rwanda |
| Kosovo |
| Madagascar |
| Costa Rica |
| Mongolia |
| Spain |
| Togo |
| Peru |
| Tonga |
| Lithuania |
| Lebanon |
| Nauru |
| Bosnia-Herzegovina |
| Argentina |
| Congo |
| Zambia |
| United States |
| Djibouti |
| Niger |
| Swaziland |
| Nicaragua |
| Northern Cyprus |
| Cyprus |
| South Korea |
| Macau |
| Hong Kong |
| Liechtenstein |
| Montenegro |
| Seychelles |
| Albania |
| Croatia |
| Guinea |
| Gabon |
| Canada |
| Ecuador |
| Haiti |
| Mauritius |
| Philippines |
| Norway |
| Malta |
| Czech Republic |
| Belize |
| Paraguay |
| Honduras |
| Antigua and Barbuda |
| Switzerland |
| Guatemala |
| Bahamas |
| Poland |
| Ireland |
| Bolivia |
| Sweden |
| Guinea Bissau |
| Vanuatu |
| Australia |
| Mozambique |
| Mali |
| Slovenia |
| Papua New Guinea |
| Jamaica |
| Panama |
| Botswana |
| Ghana |
| Chile |
| Gambia |
| Uruguay |
| Luxembourg |
| Liberia |
| Dominica |
| Barbados |
| Finland |
| St. Lucia |
| South Africa |
| El Salvador |
| Burkina Faso |
| Trinidad and Tobago |
| Cameroon |
| Estonia |
| Guyana |
| Solomon Islands |
| Andorra |
| Portugal |
| Brazil |
| Samoa |
| Timor-Leste |
| Republic of Congo |
| Kiribati |
| St. Kitts and Nevis |
| Palau |
| Lesotho |
| Grenada |
| Taiwan |
| Dominican Republic |
| Fiji |
| Hungary |
| Senegal |
| Netherlands |
| St. Vincent and the Grenadines |
| Malawi |
| New Zealand |
| Benin |
| Sierra Leone |
| Japan |
| Burundi |
| Cape Verde |
| Namibia |
| Federated States of Micronesia |
| Sao Tome and Principe |
| Suriname |
| Marshall Islands |
| San Marino |
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| NOTE: The number of countries in each percentile range may be slightly more or less than the actual percentage because of tie scores.NORTH KOREA: The sources clearly indicate that the government of North Korea is among the most repressive in the world with respect to religion as well as other civil liberties. But because North Korean society is effectively closed to outsiders, the sources are unable to provide the kind of specific and timely information that the Pew Forum coded in this quantitative study. Therefore, the report does not include a score for North Korea on either index.* SOMALIA: The level of government restrictions in Somalia is difficult to assess due to the lack of a functioning national government; the social hostilities index may be a more reliable indicator of the situation in Somalia.** PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: The Palestinian territories’ score on government restrictions reflects the policies of the Palestinian Authority government (headed by Mahmoud Abbas and headquartered in the West Bank) rather than the actions of Hamas in Gaza (which is not recognized by most of the sources for this report as a legitimate government). |
