World Religion
This is data on the prevalence of different religions by country as of 2012, along with 2019 data on government and social hostility toward religions from the Pew Research Center.
This data is available in CSV and GeoJSON formats.
Polygons
Natural Earth. 2022. Admin 0 - Countries, version 5.0.0. Accessed 5 February 2022. https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/.
Identifiers
- Name: Country name from the Natural Earth polygon data above with abbreviations expanded
- ISO3: Standardized three-letter country codes. https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html
The Global Religious Landscape
This data is old, but as of this writing is the most comprehensive authoritative data on religious practice by country.
Pew Research Center. 2012. The Global Religious Landscape. Accessed 14 January 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/
- Population 2010
- Percent Christian
- Percent Muslim
- Percent Unaffiliated
- Percent Hindu
- Percent Buddhist
- Percent Folk Religion
- Percent Other
- Percent Jewish
Government and Social Restrictions on Religion
"The Government Restrictions Index (GRI) is based on 20 indicators of ways that national and local governments restrict religion, including through coercion and force."
The GRI is on a scale of 0 (low restrictions) to 10 (high restrictions)
"The Social Hostilities Index (SHI) is based on 13 indicators of ways in which private individuals and social groups infringe upon religious beliefs and practices, including religiously biased crimes, mob violence and efforts to stop particular religious groups from growing or operating. The study also counted the number and types of documented incidents of religion-related violence, including terrorism and armed conflict."
The SHI is on a scale of 0 (low impediments) to 10 (high impediments).
Majumdar, Samirah and Virginia Villa. 2021. In 2019, decline in number of countries with ‘very high’ government restrictions, social hostilities involving religion. Accessed 14 January 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/09/30/in-2019-decline-in-number-of-countries-with-very-high-government-restrictions-social-hostilities-involving-religion/
- Govt Restrictions Index 2007
- Social Hostilities Index 2007
- Govt Restrictions Index 2018
- Social Hostilities Index 2018
- Govt Restrictions Index 2019
- Social Hostilities Index 2019
Appendix: Python Code to Create the GeoJSON File from CSV
import geopandas
import pandas
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
csv = pandas.read_csv("2012-world-religion.csv")
countries = geopandas.read_file("https://michaelminn.net/tutorials/data/2023-natural-earth-countries.geojson")
countries = countries[["ISO_A3", "geometry"]]
countries = countries.rename(columns={"ISO_A3": "ISO3"})
countries = countries.merge(csv, how="left")
countries.to_file("2012-world-religion.geojson")
simplified = countries.copy()
simplified.geometry = simplified.geometry.simplify(0.05)
simplified.to_file("2012-world-religion-simplified.geojson")
axis = simplified.plot("Percent Christian", scheme="quantiles", cmap="coolwarm_r",
legend=True, legend_kwds={"bbox_to_anchor":(0.3, 0.3)})
axis.set_axis_off()
plt.show()