Harassment of religious groups around the world in 2023
Religious groups faced harassment in 192 of 198 countries and territories, matching a previous high from 2022.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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3. Median scores for government restrictions and social hostilities stay the same in 2022
In 2022, global median scores on the Center’s Government Restrictions and Social Hostilities Indexes mirrored 2021. But some regions saw change since 2021.
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4. Restrictions in the 25 most populous countries
CORRECTION (Dec. 19, 2025): Some of the text in Chapter 4 has been corrected with updated SHI figures for 2019. Germany is now described as experiencing a “modest decrease,” rather than a “large decline,” in its SHI score between 2019 and 2020. Refer to the errata page for details. More than 5 billion people – almost three-quarters of […]
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2. Global migration change, 1990-2020
Migration outpaced global population growth by 83% to 47% from 1990-2020. Buddhist and Muslim migrants more than doubled in number during this time.
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Methodology
This is the 16th time Pew Research Center has measured restrictions on religion around the globe.[13.numoffset=”13″ Refer to the Methodology of Pew Research Center’s 2009 report “Global Restrictions on Religion” for a discussion of the conceptual basis for measuring restrictions on religion.] This report, which includes data for the year ending Dec. 31, 2023, generally […]
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China’s Approach to Foreign Policy Gets Largely Negative Reviews in 24-Country Survey
A median of 76% of adults in the 24 countries surveyed say China does not take into account the interests of other countries in its foreign policy. Majorities in most countries also say China does not contribute to global peace and stability.
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Methodology
This is the 15th time Pew Research Center has measured restrictions on religion around the globe.[12. numoffset=”12″ Refer to the Methodology of Pew Research Center’s 2009 report “Global Restrictions on Religion” for a discussion of the conceptual basis for measuring restrictions on religion.] This report, which includes data for the year ending Dec. 31, 2022, […]
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3. Small changes in median scores for government restrictions, social hostilities involving religion in 2020
CORRECTION (Dec. 19, 2025): One chart and some of the text in this chapter have been revised to correct the SHI median scores for the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East-North Africa region for 2019. The median scores changed by 0.1 point for these regions in 2019. Refer to the errata page for details. Government restrictions on […]
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Methodology
This is the 14th time Pew Research Center has measured restrictions on religion around the globe.[9. numoffset=”9″ Refer to the Methodology of Pew Research Center’s 2009 report “Global Restrictions on Religion” for a discussion of the conceptual basis for measuring restrictions on religion.] This report, which includes data for the year ending Dec. 31, 2021, […]
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2. Physical harassment related to religion occurred in more than two-thirds of countries in 2020
Religious groups faced harassment by governments, social groups or individuals in 189 countries and territories in 2020. This was nearly the same as in 2019, when harassment of religious groups was reported in 190 countries and territories – the highest number since this tracking began in 2007. (These counts include all countries in which the […]