Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Religious Hostilities Reach Six-Year High

Appendix 3: Social Hostilities Index

The following table shows all 198 countries and territories in descending order of their scores on the Pew Research Center’s index of social hostilities involving religion as of the end of 2012. Pew Research has not attached numerical rankings to the countries because there are numerous tie scores and the differences between the scores of countries that are close to each other on this table are not necessarily meaningful. This is particularly the case at the low end of the scale: The range of scores among the 65 countries in the Very High and High categories is greater than the range of scores among the 76 countries in the Low category. You can download the index as a PDF on the right under “Report Materials.”

Denotes an increase of one point or more from 2011 to 2012.

Denotes a decrease of one point or more from 2011 to 2012.

Very High
Scores 7.2 and Higher
  • Pakistan
  • Afghanistan
  • India
  • Somalia
  • Israel
  • Iraq
  • Palestinian territories
  • Syria
  • Russia
  • Indonesia
  • Nigeria
  • Yemen
  • Kenya
  • Egypt
  • Sudan
  • Lebanon
  • Sri Lanka
  • Bangladesh
  • Thailand
  • Burma (Myanmar)
High
Scores 3.6 to 7.1
  • Mali
  • Tunisia
  • Kosovo
  • Mexico
  • Greece
  • Algeria
  • France
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Uganda
  • Georgia
  • United Kingdom
  • Nepal
  • Tanzania
  • Italy
  • Vietnam
  • Germany
  • Maldives
  • Turkey
  • Iran
  • Libya
  • Bahrain
  • Ethiopia
  • Jordan
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Central African Republic
  • Guinea
  • Bulgaria
  • Kuwait
  • Bosnia-Herzegovina
  • Sweden
  • Ukraine
  • Moldova
  • Cyprus
  • Malaysia
  • Colombia
  • Ghana
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Romania
  • Tuvalu
  • Montenegro
  • Netherlands
  • China
  • Angola
Moderate
Scores 1.5 to 3.5
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Ivory Coast
  • Serbia
  • Belgium
  • South Africa
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Philippines
  • Brunei
  • Zambia
  • Samoa
  • South Sudan
  • Austria
  • Swaziland
  • Comoros
  • Australia
  • Mauritius
  • Japan
  • Brazil
  • Hungary
  • Switzerland
  • Madagascar
  • Republic of Macedonia
  • Liberia
  • Senegal
  • Spain
  • Tajikistan
  • Laos
  • Malawi
  • Chile
  • Slovenia
  • Chad
  • Croatia
  • Burkina Faso
  • Benin
  • Uzbekistan
  • Denmark
  • Kazakhstan
  • United States
  • Argentina
  • Finland
  • Ireland
  • Venezuela
  • Haiti
  • Timor-Leste
  • Niger
  • Bhutan
  • Mozambique
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Fiji
  • Lithuania
  • Zimbabwe
  • Czech Republic
  • Guinea Bissau
  • Sierra Leone
  • Paraguay
  • Morocco
Low
Scores 0.0 to 1.4
  • Canada
  • Cameroon
  • Belarus
  • Iceland
  • Hong Kong
  • Peru
  • Slovakia
  • Latvia
  • Gabon
  • New Zealand
  • Mauritania
  • Malta
  • Portugal
  • Burundi
  • Botswana
  • Oman
  • Cuba
  • Mongolia
  • Uruguay
  • Kiribati
  • Liechtenstein
  • Solomon Islands
  • Turkmenistan
  • Suriname
  • Cambodia
  • Guatemala
  • Singapore
  • Qatar
  • Djibouti
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Jamaica
  • Barbados
  • St. Lucia
  • St. Kitts and Nevis
  • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Ecuador
  • Republic of the Congo
  • Costa Rica
  • Nicaragua
  • Honduras
  • South Korea
  • Togo
  • Estonia
  • Nauru
  • Eritrea
  • Rwanda
  • Dominica
  • Western Sahara
  • Bahamas
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Seychelles
  • Monaco
  • Gambia
  • Tonga
  • Luxembourg
  • Albania
  • El Salvador
  • Bolivia
  • Belize
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Vanuatu
  • Taiwan
  • Andorra
  • Dominican Republic
  • Guyana
  • Panama
  • Macau
  • Grenada
  • Namibia
  • Palau
  • Lesotho
  • San Marino
  • Cape Verde
  • Federated States of Micronesia
  • Marshall Islands
  • Sao Tome and Principe
  • North Korea: The sources used for this study clearly indicate that the government of North Korea is among the most repressive in the world with respect to religion as well as other civil liberties. But because North Korean society is effectively closed to outsiders, the sources are unable to provide the kind of specific and timely information that Pew Research coded in this quantitative study. Therefore, the report does not include a score for North Korea on either index.
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