The highest overall levels of restrictions are found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, where both the government and society at large impose numerous limits on religious beliefs and practices.
Sierra Leone is regarded as one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world. Muslims and Christians collaborate and interact with each other peacefully. Religious violence is very rare in the country. Even during the Sierra Leonean Civil War people were never targeted because of their religion.
Jainism. Jainism practices non-violence and has strict rules for the protection of all life.
The 2018 World Watch List has the following countries as its top ten: North Korea, and Eritrea, whose Christian and Muslim religions are controlled by the state, and Afghanistan, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, India and Iran, which are all predominantly non-Christian.
Although formally banned in 1612 and today critically portrayed as a foreign "religion of colonialism", Christianity has played a role in the shaping of the relationship between religion and the Japanese state for more than four centuries.
Russian law technically recognizes Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the four “traditional” religions. But, only the Russian Orthodox Church is elevated to the role of representing the ideals and faith of Russia, passed down across untold generations .
All of India's most widely practiced religions have dietary laws and traditions. For example, Hindu texts often praise vegetarianism, and Hindus may also avoid eating beef because cows are traditionally viewed as sacred. Muslim teachings, meanwhile, prohibit pork.
One of the most distinctive food practices in both Judaism and Islam is the avoidance of pork products. In Judaism, the prohibition has been a way of showing Jewish identity and of challenging it.
Imprisonment. Christian Solidarity Worldwide says that there are numerous reports of people being sent to prison camps and subjected to torture and inhuman treatment because of their faith. The family members of reported Christians are also said to be targeted, including children.
Turkey. Turkey is considered by many as being the exemplary country of the Muslim world where a satisfactory compromise is made between the values of Islamic, Western and Russian civilisations.
Of the global atheist and non-religious population, 76% reside in Asia and the Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (12%), North America (5%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (2%) and the Middle East and North Africa (less than 1%).
According to a study from 2015, Christians hold the largest amount of wealth (55% of the total world wealth), followed by Muslims (5.8%), Hindus (3.3%), and Jews (1.1%).
The Constitution of the Republic of China provides for freedom of religion, and the authorities generally respect this right in practice. Authorities at all levels protect this right in full, and do not tolerate its abuse, either by official or private actors. There is no state religion.
The only dietary restrictions specified for Christians in the New Testament are to "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals" (Acts 15:29), teachings that the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, preached for believers to follow.
In the Word of Wisdom, the Lord commands Mormons to abstain from harmful substances. Mormons are taught not to drink any kind of alcohol (see D&C 89:5–7).
Muslims do not eat pork or other haram (forbidden) animals. Insofar as meat products go, animals such as cows, veal, lamb, goats, turkeys, chickens, ducks, game birds, bison, and venison are acceptable for consumption, so long as they are slaughtered according to Islamic law.
In Jewish tradition, the prohibition on mixing dairy and meat products has been interpreted in several different ways. Some see it as an implementation of the same principle of separating animals authorised for consumption from those that are forbidden.
Some Hindus do not eat ghee, milk, onions, eggs, coconut, garlic, domestic fowl or salted pork. Alcohol is generally avoided.
As of 2022, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), 85% of Ukrainians identified as Christians. 72% identified themselves with Eastern Orthodoxy, 9% to the Catholic Church (8% Eastern-rite, 1% Latin-rite) and 4% adherents of a Protestant Church or other Christian movement.
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government of Russia generally respected this right in practice. However, it seems that in some cases the authorities imposed restrictions on certain groups, most often through the registration process.
Over the past four decades, Christianity has grown faster in China than anywhere else in the world. Daryl Ireland, a Boston University School of Theology research assistant professor of mission, estimates that the Christian community there has grown from 1 million to 100 million.