In 2020, properties in 102 countries and territories were targeted in incidents tied to religion
In 2020, properties in 102 of the 198 countries and territories in the study were targeted in incidents tied to religion.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
In 2020, properties in 102 of the 198 countries and territories in the study were targeted in incidents tied to religion.
Social hostilities around the world involving religion declined in 2019 to the lowest level in five years.
Around a fifth (21%) of the 198 countries evaluated banned at least one religion-related group in 2019, our analysis found.
Government restrictions in 2018 were at their highest level since 2007, when Pew Research Center began tracking these trends.
The Center’s tenth report on religious restrictions around the world focuses on trends in restrictions from 2007 to 2017.
In 2016, seven nations – Turkey, Brunei, Ethiopia, France, Hungary, Niger and Tunisia – directly used emergency laws to restrict religion, according to Pew Research Center’s latest annual religious restrictions study. While a number of different religious groups were targeted, these laws imposed restrictions on Muslims more than any other group.
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