41 countries ban religion-related groups; Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baha’is among the most commonly targeted
Around a fifth (21%) of the 198 countries evaluated banned at least one religion-related group in 2019, our analysis found.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Around a fifth (21%) of the 198 countries evaluated banned at least one religion-related group in 2019, our analysis found.
Ukraine is an overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian nation, and 46% of Orthodox Ukrainians look to the Ukrainian national church leaders as the highest Orthodoxy authority.
The global Muslim population is more concentrated in Islam’s main population centers than the global Christian population is for Christianity.
When it comes to public attitudes on religion, national identity and the place of religious minorities, Greeks, like their neighbors to the East, hold more nationalist and less accepting views than do Western Europeans.
Central and Eastern Europeans of different ages are about equally likely to say that Christianity, birthplace and ancestry are important to national identity.
In 11 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, a median of 66% say being a member of the country’s official or preferred faith is important to belong to the nationality.
Ethnic Russians are a sizable minority in several former Soviet republics, and many are more favorably inclined toward Russia than their fellow citizens are.
Many Russians say the collapse of the Soviet Union has been a bad thing for their country. Nostalgia for the Soviet past also extends to views of Josef Stalin.
Russia is widely viewed by the region’s Orthodox Christians as an important counterweight to Western influences and as a global protector of Orthodox and ethnic Russian populations.
The generation of Central and Eastern Europeans raised after the fall of the Berlin Wall differs little in its political outlook from earlier generations.
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