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.
Two-thirds or more in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam say that women should decide for themselves whether to bear children.
Social hostilities around the world involving religion declined in 2019 to the lowest level in five years.
Though Christians make up nearly a third of Earth’s 7.3 billion people, the number of Christians in Europe is in decline.
By 2060, more than four-in-ten Christians and 27% of Muslims around the world will call sub-Saharan Africa home.
Thirty-eight European governments harassed religious groups in limited or widespread ways in 2015, while 24 used some type of force against religious groups.
Although Europe is struggling to manage the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere, the countries facing the biggest refugee impacts are the ones closest to the fighting.
Hundreds of thousands of mostly young refugees are fleeing into Europe, where most countries have rapidly aging (and sometimes shrinking) populations.
The Jewish population in Europe has dropped significantly over the last several decades – most dramatically in Eastern Europe and the countries that make up the former Soviet Union.
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