NEW YORK — The number of countries who impose heavy government restrictions on religious freedom peaked in 2022, according to a new study released on Wednesday.

While the global median score on the Government Restrictions Index (based on several factors) held steady in 2022 at 3.0 out of 10, the number of countries with “high” or “very high” levels of government restrictions on religion rose to 59, which accounts for 30% of the 198 countries and territories Pew Research Center studied.

That’s up from 55 countries in 2021 and marks the highest number since the Pew study began in 2007.

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Religious freedom is defined as the right to practice and express beliefs, based on faith and spirituality, without government interference.

Most nations (139, equal to 70% of the overall survey) had what Pew called “low” or “moderate” levels of government restrictions on religion in 2022, the last year data was available.

Also in 2022, the global median score on the Social Hostilities Index (a 10-point scale composed of 13 indicators) remained at 1.6 – the same as in 2021. Meanwhile, the number of countries with “high” or “very high” levels of social hostilities increased slightly to 45 (or 23%) — up from 43 countries the previous year.

Overall, Christians and Muslims are the largest religious groups in the world and “targets of harassment — either physical or verbal — in a greater number of countries in 2022 than any other groups” analyzed by Pew, the report found.

“This has been the case in all previous years of the study,” the report added. “As previously noted, however, these measures do not reflect the severity of harassment or persecution and thus cannot determine which religious groups face the most persecution.”

Here are a few key data points from the report:

— Killings tied to religion occurred in 49 countries. Governments were the perpetrators of such slaying in 27 countries.

— Harassment by governments — something Pew defines as  “a broad measure that captures both verbal and physical pressure by authorities on religious groups” — was one of the most prevalent types of restrictions. It was reported in 186 of the 198 countries and territories in the study (94%).

— Seven countries moved from the “high” to the “very high” category, including Iraq, Israel, Mauritania, Morocco, Turkey, Vietnam and Western Sahara.

— Religion-related property damage — taking into account such things as raids and vandalism — occurred in 120 countries. The Middle East-North Africa region had the highest share of countries with property damage targeting religious groups (85% of the 20 countries and territories in the region).

The report also cited several specific cases. For example, Nigeria was one of the seven countries with “very high” levels of social hostilities.

The U.S. State Department reported that “general insecurity was prevalent throughout the country,” with multiple reports of religion-related mob violence, kidnappings and mass killings of Muslims and Christians. Terror groups such as Boko Haram were cited by the study as having committed atrocities.

Also in Africa, Sierra Leone’s score went up due to multiple reports of hostilities between groups.

Foreign preachers from Pakistan — part of the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary movement — attacked an Ahmadi Muslim missionary from Pakistan for “listening to a different version of the Quran on his cell phone,” the U.S. State Department reported.

In another incident, a Pentecostal church in Sierra Leone was attacked by Muslims during a graduation ceremony. The attackers damaged furniture and threw stones at those gathered.

At the same time, Iran also saw an increase that was partly driven by an attack on a Shiite shrine by ISIS in October 2022 that killed at least 15 people and wounded 19 others.

In addition, reports of religious-related killings were made in 45% of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, the highest of any geographic region.

In 2022, the Saudi government conducted the largest mass execution in its history, putting to death 81 people — including 41 Shiite Muslims — on what they called terrorism charges.

The report also found Christians “were harassed by governments or social actors” in 166 countries — an increase from 160 the previous year. At the same time, Pew said Muslims “were harassed” in 148 countries — up from 141 in 2021.

Jews. meanwhile, were harassed in 90 countries in 2022 – down from 91 in 2021. As in past years, Jews were the religious group that “faced harassment in the third-highest number of countries” — even though they make up a very small share (just 0.2%) of the world’s population.  

Clemente Lisi is the executive editor of Religion Unplugged. He previously served as deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and a longtime reporter at The New York Post. Follow him on X @ClementeLisi.