Govt Restrictions on Religion Stayed at Peak Levels Globally in 2022

Since 2007, Pew Research Center has analyzed religious restrictions in nearly 200 countries and territories around the world with two measures that are related but that also are very different: the Government Restrictions Index (GRI) and the Social Hostilities Index (SHI).

The GRI measures restrictions by governments that can target people for their religious beliefs, as well as incidents in which governments use religious justifications to harass, intimidate or restrict people. The SHI, on the other hand, looks at religion-related hostilities by nongovernmental actors (i.e., private individuals and social groups).