Pew studies and analyzes issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs by conducting surveys, demographic analyses, and other research about the practice of religion and its place in American life.
Recent work includes a major portrait of Jews in America and interviews with 38,000 Muslims around the globe to provide a more complete understanding of the beliefs and political views of members of the world’s second- largest religion.
November 10, 2020MethodologyThis is the 11th time Pew Research Center has measured restrictions on religion around the globe.66 This report, which includes data for the year ending Dec. 31, 2018, generally follows the same methodology as previous reports. Pew Research Center uses two 10-point indexes – the Government Restrictions Index (GRI) and the Social Hostilities Index (SHI) – […]
November 10, 2020AcknowledgmentsThis report was produced by Pew Research Center as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world. Funding for the Global Religious Futures project comes from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation. This report is a collaborative effort based on […]
November 10, 20204. Restrictions on religion among the 25 most populous countries in 2018More than three-quarters of the world’s population lives in the 25 most populous countries. Focusing on these countries can shed light on how most people are affected by government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion – although not everyone in any particular country is equally affected by religious restrictions. Religious minorities vary from country to […]
November 10, 20203. In 2018, government restrictions rose in most regions, but social hostilities declinedGovernment restrictions by region In 2018, the global median level of government restrictions on religion reached a peak at 2.9 after remaining stable at 2.8 in 2016 and 2017. Three out of five regions in the study experienced increases (Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa), while Europe had […]
November 10, 20202. Harassment of religious groups continues to be reported in more than 90% of countriesIn 2018, this study’s sources continued to report harassment against religious groups – either by governments or social groups and individuals – in the vast majority of countries around the world (185 out of 198).29 This figure ticked down slightly from 187 the previous year, marking the first decrease since 2014 in the number of countries […]
November 10, 20201. Number of countries with ‘very high’ government restrictions on religion ticked down in 2018Countries with the most extensive government restrictions on religion Government restrictions involving religion can vary greatly depending on the country. Some countries have much higher levels of government restrictions than others, either because their governments carry out a wider variety of actions that inhibit religious freedom, or because they enforce such restrictions more severely, or […]
November 10, 2020In 2018, Government Restrictions on Religion Reach Highest Level Globally in More Than a DecadeIn 2018, the global median level of government restrictions on religion – that is, laws, policies and actions by officials that impinge on religious beliefs and practices – continued to climb, reaching an all-time high since Pew Research Center began tracking these trends in 2007.
September 10, 2020MethodologyThe analysis of adolescents in this report is based on a self-administered web survey conducted from March 29 to April 14, 2019, among a sample of 1,811 dyads, with each dyad – or pair – comprised of one U.S. adolescent ages 13 to 17 and one parent per adolescent. The margin of sampling error for […]
