Rise in Social Hostilities Involving Religion Around the World

The Pew Research Center has been tracking and measuring the regulation of religion around the world for almost two decades now, and earlier this month they released their latest update.

The headline is that from 2022 to 2023 there was a sizeable increase in social hostilities involving religion around the world (notice that there is a lag in the release of their data, which is why they are reporting on 2023). The full pdf report is here, but you can read the detailed summary here.

The report shows updates to their two indices: the Social Hostilities Index and the Government Restrictions Index. According to the former, the number of countries that were classified as having a "High" or "Very High" level of social hostilities increased from 45 (out of 198 countries) in 2022 to 55 in 2023. The median classification did not change, which means that the increase in hostility happened in countries that already have been having higher-than-average levels of social hostility.

You do not need to read the full report, but definitely read the entire detailed summary linked above. This will give you a brief but good introduction to the kinds of hostilities and regulations that religious people around the world face. Then, after reading the detailed summary, you can check out the full report if you are interested.

By the time you are done reading, you should:

• Understand the difference between the Social Hostilities Index (SHI) and the Government Restrictions Indices (GRI).
• Know the trends in both indices since 2007.
• Know of the types of regulation and hostilities that have been experienced in several countries.

Later in the course you will learn much more about how religious practice is hindered around the world.