Four-in-ten countries and territories worldwide had blasphemy laws in 2019
79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied around the world (40%) had laws or policies in 2019 banning blasphemy.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sign up for our Global newsletter
Delivered twice a month
-
Ethiopia is an outlier in the Orthodox Christian world
Ethiopia has 36 million Orthodox Christians, the world’s second-largest Orthodox population after Russia. By many measures, Orthodox Ethiopians have much higher levels of religious commitment than do Orthodox Christians in the faith’s heartland of Central and Eastern Europe.
-
Despite apparent coup in Zimbabwe, armed takeovers have become less common worldwide
Since the end of World War II, there have been 225 successful coups (counting the events in Zimbabwe) in countries with populations greater than 500,000, according to the Center for Systemic Peace, which maintains extensive datasets on various forms of armed conflict and political violence. Most coups occurred during the height of the Cold War, from the 1960s through the 1980s.
-
U.S. Resettles Fewer Refugees, Even as Global Number of Displaced People Grows
In the last few years, the number of refugees annually resettled by the U.S. has not consistently grown in step with a worldwide refugee population that has expanded nearly 50% since 2013.
-
Sub-Saharan Africa experienced largest increase in religious restrictions in 2015
While sub-Saharan Africa had fewer religious restrictions than many other parts of the world in 2015, it experienced a larger increase than any other region.
-
Muslims, Jews faced social hostilities in seven-in-ten European countries in 2015
Europe in 2015 saw a rise in social hostilities involving religion, particularly against the continent’s Muslims.
-
In many countries, at least four-in-ten in the labor force are women
Women make up at least 40% of the workforce in more than 80 countries. Across all of these countries, the median female share of the workforce is 45.4%.
-
African immigrant population in U.S. steadily climbs
African immigrants make up a small share of the U.S. immigrant population, but their numbers are growing – roughly doubling every decade since 1970.
-
World’s Muslim population more widespread than you might think
While many, especially in the U.S., may associate Islam with the Middle East or North Africa, nearly two-thirds of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region.
-
About one-fifth of adults globally have no formal schooling
Lack of formal education is widespread in many countries in south Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
