In 2020, properties in 102 countries and territories were targeted in incidents tied to religion
In 2020, properties in 102 of the 198 countries and territories in the study were targeted in incidents tied to religion.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
In 2020, properties in 102 of the 198 countries and territories in the study were targeted in incidents tied to religion.
Our study analyzes 198 countries and territories and is based on policies and events in 2020, the most recent year for which data is available.
79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied around the world (40%) had laws or policies in 2019 banning blasphemy.
Around a fifth (21%) of the 198 countries evaluated banned at least one religion-related group in 2019, our analysis found.
More than 18 years after the Netherlands became the world’s first country to allow same-sex marriage, Austria became the latest European nation to legalize the practice.
The Catholic Church remains closely tied to Europe. Catholics are the largest religious group in many of the continent’s most populous countries.
Germany has seen a dramatic shift away from Protestantism – one that has greatly outpaced a decline in the share of Germans who are Catholic.
While Slovakia is majority Catholic, around seven-in-ten Czechs are religiously unaffiliated – the highest share of unaffiliated adults in 34 European countries surveyed.
The global Muslim population is more concentrated in Islam’s main population centers than the global Christian population is for Christianity.
Pope Francis begins a four-day trip this weekend to the Baltic states, the first papal visit to these countries in 25 years. While the Baltic countries have a substantial Christian population, only Lithuania and Latvia have large numbers of Catholics.
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