4. Spiritual and religious practices
Some activities, such as prayer, are widespread. Others, such as fasting and lighting incense or candles, vary more by country.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Some activities, such as prayer, are widespread. Others, such as fasting and lighting incense or candles, vary more by country.
Read our deep-dive on religious migration trends in Europe, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, India and the United States.
Migrants tend to move to regions where their religion is common, but some regions also see large influxes of migrants from minority religious groups.
A majority of North Americans are Christian. But Christian populations declined in the U.S. and Canada, while the unaffiliated grew, from 2010 to 2020.
In 2022, global median scores on the Center’s Government Restrictions and Social Hostilities Indexes mirrored 2021. But some regions saw change since 2021.
Muslims account for 29% of global migrants and most commonly live in the Middle-East North Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.
The religiously unaffiliated population is the world’s third-largest religious category and grew the second-fastest between 2010 and 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.
In 2022, governments and/or social actors harassed religious groups in 192 countries and territories out of the 198 analyzed – two more than 2021.
Religion in a country tends to decline in three transitional stages that unfold across generations, a new paper using Center data proposes.
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