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Religious freedom: who has it worldwide?

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To measure religious restrictions around the world, the Pew Research Center has
attempted to look at government policies and social hostilities. Their findings
suggest that religious hostilities are at their highest level since 2007.

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We've mapped all of their results here. Click on the drop down list to view social
factors rather than governmental ones, click on a country to see past results,
search for places and share your results on social media.
Higher scores reflect less religious freedom - you can find more detail on the
results below the map.
Mona Chalabi
theguardian.com, Tuesday 14 January 2014
18.30 GMT
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Religious freedom: who has it? | News | theguardian.com

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2014/j...

The government score is based on 20 questions about government laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices. They include
efforts by governments to ban particular faiths, prohibit conversions, limit preaching or give preferential treatment to one or more religious groups.
The social hostilities score is similarly broad as it considers private individuals, organizations or groups in society. The 13 measures in this score include
religion-related armed conflict or terrorism, mob or sectarian violence, harassment over attire for religious reasons or other religion-related intimation or
abuse.
There are some startling results. 12% of countries had experienced mob violence related to religion in 2007. By 2012, it was 25%. Sectarian violence
rose at a similarly fast rate.
Among the worlds 25 most populous countries, Egypt, Indonesia, Russia, Pakistan and Myanmar had the most restrictions on religion in 2012, when
both government restrictions and social hostilities are taken into account.

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Emjaysee
14 January 2014 6:49pm

Interesting to see our government and society hates religious groups equally.

piersquared

Emjaysee

14 January 2014 6:57pm

How did you work that one out. Social hostility appears to be the lowest in
South America compared to the rest of the world.

TotallyBlunt

14 January 2014 6:55pm

Religious freedom is also about the freedom from any religion. Atheists, who are
harassed in many countries, aren't factored in here.

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