Summary of Results
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Government Restrictions on Religion
To
assess the level of restrictions on religion by governments around the world,
the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life selected the
following 20 questions for the Government Restrictions Index (GRI). The Pew
Forum’s staff then combed through 18 published sources of information,
including reports by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and various
nongovernmental organizations, to answer the questions on a country-by-country
basis. (For more details, see the Methodology.)
This
summary shows the questions, followed by various possible answers and the
number and percentage of countries that fell into each category. For example,
on Question No. 5 – “Is public preaching by religious groups limited by any
level of government?” – the study found that for the period ending in mid-2009,
135 countries (68%) had no reported limits on preaching, 39 countries (20%) had
limits on preaching by some religious groups and 24 countries (12%) had limits
on preaching by all religious groups.
To
see how each country scored on each question, see the Results by Country.
This
summary covers two overlapping periods: July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2008,
and July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2009. The summary shows whether particular
religious restrictions occurred at any time during the periods according to the
multiple sources analyzed by the Pew Forum.
Some
differences from year to year might not be as significant as they appear due to
minor changes in coding procedures and changes in the amount of information
available between years. For example, sources for the most recent period
studied sometimes had more information on incidents in a country than sources
previously had reported. Such additional information may reflect either an
actual increase in restrictions in a country, improved reporting for that
country or both. For additional information, see the notes on individual
questions and the Methodology.
Percentages
may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Summary of Results with questions PDF (1.03 MB 21 Pages)
Social Hostilities Involving Religion
To
assess the level of social hostilities involving religion around the world, the
Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life used the following 13
questions for the Social Hostilities Index (SHI). The Pew Forum’s staff then
combed through 18 published sources of information, including reports by the
U.S. State Department, the United Nations and various nongovernmental
organizations, to answer the questions on a country-by-country basis. (For more
details, see the Methodology.)
This
summary shows the questions, followed by various possible answers and the
number and percentage of countries that fell into each category. For example,
on Question No. 12 – “Were there incidents of hostility over proselytizing?” –
the study found that for the period ending in mid-2009, 127 countries (64%) had
no reported incidents of hostility over proselytizing, 39 countries (20%) had
incidents that fell short of physical violence and 32 countries (16%) had
incidents involving violence.
To
see how each country scored on each question, see the Results by Country.
In
general, this summary covers two overlapping periods: July 1, 2006, through
June 30, 2008, and July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2009. The summary shows
whether particular religious hostilities occurred at any time during the
periods according to the multiple sources analyzed by the Pew Forum. In some
questions (SHI Q.6-13), events going back to the previous year (mid-2005 for
the period from mid-2006 to mid-2008, or mid-2006 for the period from mid-2007
to mid-2009) are also included in the findings if they were having an ongoing
impact.
Some
differences from year to year might not be as significant as they appear due to
minor changes in coding procedures and changes in the amount of information
available between years. For example, sources for the most recent period
studied sometimes had more information on incidents in a country than sources
previously had reported. Such additional information may reflect either an
actual increase in restrictions in a country, improved reporting for that
country or both. For additional information, see the notes on individual
questions and the Methodology.
Percentages
may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Summary of Results with questions PDF (1.03 MB 21 Pages)