Our study analyzes 198 countries and territories and is based on policies and events in 2020, the most recent year for which data is available.

Nearly a quarter of countries used force to prevent religious gatherings during the pandemic; other government restrictions and social hostilities related to religion remained fairly stable.

For more than a decade, Pew Research Center has been tracking global patterns in restrictions on religion – both those imposed by governments and hostilities committed by individuals and social groups.

Most U.S. adults do not believe that requests for religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine are sincere.

79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied around the world (40%) had laws or policies in 2019 banning blasphemy.

As democratic nations have wrestled with economic, social and geopolitical upheaval in recent years, the future of liberal democracy has come into question. Our international surveys reveal key insights into how citizens think about democratic governance.

Around a fifth (21%) of the 198 countries evaluated banned at least one religion-related group in 2019, our analysis found.

Social hostilities around the world involving religion declined in 2019 to the lowest level in five years.

Social hostilities involving religion, including violence and harassment against religious groups by private individuals and groups, declined in 2019, according to Pew Research Center’s 12th annual study of global restrictions on religion, which examines 198 countries and territories.

The U.S. Muslim population has grown in the decades since 9/11, but views toward them have become increasingly polarized along political lines.