International Religious Freedom & Restrictions

Incidents against Jewish people in 2020 ranged from verbal and physical assaults to vandalism of cemeteries and scapegoating for the pandemic.

Religiously unaffiliated people were harassed by governments, private groups or both in 27 countries in 2020.

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.

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

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.

Indians see religious tolerance as a central part of who they are as a nation. Across the major religious groups, most people say it is very important to respect all religions to be “truly Indian.”

Women in 56 countries experienced social hostilities due to clothing that was deemed to violate religious or secular dress norms.

Government restrictions in 2018 were at their highest level since 2007, when Pew Research Center began tracking these trends.