Religious restrictions vary significantly in the world’s most populous countries
Brazil and Japan were among countries with the lowest levels of religious restrictions in 2015, while Russia and Egypt were among countries with the highest.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Brazil and Japan were among countries with the lowest levels of religious restrictions in 2015, while Russia and Egypt were among countries with the highest.
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.
Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey had some of the highest levels of religious restrictions in 2014.
Almost all of the world’s nations have laws specifying at which age a couple can marry, and in most of these countries, those under the age of 18 are allowed to wed.
The number of UN peacekeeping forces around the world has peaked in recent months after falling off in the late 1990s, following a period of trial and error for UN interventions.
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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.
While either Christians or Muslims make up the largest religious group in nine-in-ten nations around the globe, the religiously unaffiliated rank second in size in most of the Americas and Europe, as well as in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
India is projected to have 310 million Muslims (11% of the global total), making it the country with the largest population of Muslims in the world.
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