{"id":11454,"date":"2018-04-12T12:06:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T17:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/5-facts-about-religion-in-saudi-arabia\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:15:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:15:39","slug":"5-facts-about-religion-in-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/04\/12\/5-facts-about-religion-in-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"5 facts about religion in Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Google<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Saudi<\/a>
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a meeting in London on March 7, 2018. (Dan Kitwood\/WPA Pool\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

Since his father became Saudi Arabia\u2019s king in 2015, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has taken dramatic steps<\/a> to change his country\u2019s political and economic life. But the 32-year-old heir to the throne also has begun to soften the kingdom\u2019s strict religious rules with a promise to return to \u201cmoderate Islam<\/a>.\u201d Among the changes he\u2019s spearheaded: granting women the right to drive<\/a>, reintroducing cinemas<\/a> and curbing the sweeping powers<\/a> of the religious police.<\/p>\n\n

Here are five facts about religion in Saudi Arabia \u2014 a country that is the birthplace of Islam and, <\/span>as such,<\/span> holds special importance for Muslims worldwide. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Saudi Arabia has a young and rapidly growing Muslim population. The kingdom has more than 30 million<\/a> inhabitants, and roughly 93% of them are Muslim, according to Pew Research Center data. The country is officially a Muslim nation<\/a> and most Saudi Muslims are Sunni. However, a Shia minority accounts for an estimated 10% to 15%<\/a> of the population. Additionally, Saudi Arabia is a young country: In 2015, about 56% of the kingdom\u2019s Muslims were under the age of 30. The number of Muslims in Saudi Arabia is projected to increase<\/a> 51% between 2015 and 2050, though their share of the global Muslim population is expected to remain small at about 2%.<\/p>\n\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Saudi Arabia is home to two of Islam\u2019s holiest cities: Mecca, where the Prophet Muhammad was born, and Medina, where he is buried. Every year, during the hajj, millions of Muslims from around the world travel to Mecca to complete the six-day pilgrimage to the Kaaba shrine. While the hajj is required once in the lifetime of every able-bodied adult Muslim who can afford it, adherents of the faith also travel to Mecca during other times of the year to complete the shorter, voluntary umrah pilgrimage.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

The Saudi Arabian government follows\u00a0an\u00a0ultraconservative\u00a0Wahhabi interpretation of the Quran<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>Wahhabism began as a social and religious reform movement in the 18th<\/sup> century and is closely associated with the founding and consolidation of the Saudi kingdom. \u00a0Wahhabism calls for the literal interpretation of the Quran and includes strict enforcement of religious codes and practices. For decades, the Wahhabi doctrine has been upheld by clerics who run the judiciary and by religious police. But, recently, Crown Prince Mohammed has been pushing back against<\/a> the clerical establishment and has even stripped the religious police of the power to make arrests.<\/p>\n\n

Government restrictions on religion are \u201cvery high\u201d in Saudi Arabia, <\/strong>according to a 2017 Pew Research Center report<\/a> that looked at religious restrictions as of 2015. The kingdom is one of 23 countries out of 198 included in the study to earn this distinction, along with countries like China, Egypt and Iran. The desert kingdom falls in this top category of restrictions because it meets many of the Center\u2019s criteria; for example, the constitution doesn\u2019t allow for religious freedom, the government interferes with worship practices, and religious symbols \u2013 such as dress \u2013 are regulated by law. Saudi Arabia also has a \u201chigh\u201d rating on our Social Hostilities Index, which measures aggression by private individuals, organizations or groups in society, such as religion-related harassment and terrorism.<\/p>\n\n

Young Saudi women are among the most educated in the Muslim world. <\/strong>Despite laws that require women to have a male guardian<\/a> \u2013 a restriction that generally hampers their social mobility and access to jobs \u2013 young Saudi women are more educated than their male counterparts. As of 2010, about a third (35%) of Saudi women ages 25 to 34 held at least postsecondary degrees, compared with 28% of men, according to a Pew Research Center report<\/a>. That\u2019s a big change from previous generations. For example, only 3% of Saudi women ages 55 to 74 had gained higher education, versus 16% of men in that age group. While this recent educational progress hasn\u2019t brought Saudi women up to the level of the U.S., for example, where 48% of women ages 25 to 34 had a postsecondary degree, Saudi Arabia is nevertheless ahead of other power brokers in the region such as Egypt (19%) and Iran (16%).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read five facts about religion in Saudi Arabia \u2014 a country that is the birthplace of Islam and, as such, holds special importance for Muslims worldwide. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":448,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"44a7ac35-cd00-42d0-8b88-3e560eaccbaf","termId":689}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[204,387,173,189,191,82,84,113,171],"bylines":[689],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[514,510],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-11454","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-comparison-of-generations","category-gender-religion","category-international-religious-freedom-restrictions","category-islam","category-muslims-around-the-world","category-non-us-governments","category-religion_government-3","category-religion-government-2","category-religion-government-1","bylines-dalia-fahmy","formats-short-read","regions-countries-international","regions-countries-middle-east-north-africa","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":675,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2018\/04\/12\/5-facts-about-religion-in-saudi-arabia\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":22206,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":22206,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":22206,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":22206,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":22206,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":22206,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/04\/FT_18.04.11_SaudiReligion_feature-jpg.webp?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"5 facts about religion in Saudi Arabia","description":"Read five facts about religion in Saudi Arabia \u2014 a country that is the birthplace of Islam and, as such, holds special importance for Muslims worldwide.","og_title":"5 facts about religion in Saudi Arabia","og_description":"Read five facts about religion in Saudi Arabia \u2014 a country that is the birthplace of Islam and, as such, holds special importance for Muslims worldwide. ","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":22206,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"44a7ac35-cd00-42d0-8b88-3e560eaccbaf","termId":689}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/11454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/448"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11454"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/11454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102266,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/11454\/revisions\/102266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=11454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}