Christian persecution statistics measure several different experiences, from harassment and discrimination to killings, imprisonment, attacks on churches, and forced displacement. The latest figures from Open Doors’ World Watch List 2026 and Pew Research Center’s 2023 global analysis show both the scale of the problem and why different sources should not be treated as interchangeable.
Table of contents
- Global scale of Christian persecution
- Christians killed for their faith
- Attacks on churches and Christian property
- Detention, abduction, and sexual violence
- Forced displacement and regional concentration
- Country rankings and pressure indicators
Global scale of Christian persecution
Open Doors listed 50 countries where Christians faced the most extreme persecution in World Watch List 2026. Its estimate was that 388 million Christians faced high levels of persecution or discrimination for their faith during the WWL 2026 reporting period. Fifteen of those 50 countries were recorded as having extreme levels of Christian persecution. These figures come from the WWL 2026 Compilation of main documents and Open Doors International.
The Open Doors estimate uses the organization’s World Watch List methodology. It describes people facing high levels of persecution or discrimination, rather than counting one standardized incident for every person. The reporting period is an annual World Watch List window, not necessarily a calendar year.
Pew Research Center measures a different question: whether Christians were harassed by governments or nongovernmental actors in a country during a calendar year. Pew reported Christian harassment in 165 countries in 2023, compared with 166 countries in 2022. In 2023, it recorded government physical harassment of religious groups in 110 countries and nongovernmental physical harassment of religious groups in 115 countries.
Pew also found religion-related harassment of at least one religious group in 192 of 198 countries and territories in 2023. That broad result does not mean Christians were the most harassed group in each place. Pew’s measure records whether at least one reported incident occurred; it does not rank severity or identify which religious group experienced the greatest pressure. See Harassment of religious groups around the world in 2023 for the calendar-year analysis.
Christians killed for their faith
Open Doors recorded 4,849 Christians killed for faith-related reasons in the WWL 2026 reporting period. The same source recorded 4,476 in WWL 2025, 4,998 in WWL 2024, 5,621 in WWL 2023, 5,898 in WWL 2022, 4,761 in WWL 2021, 2,983 in WWL 2020, 4,305 in WWL 2019, and 3,066 in WWL 2018.
| World Watch List reporting period | Christians killed for faith-related reasons |
|---|---|
| WWL 2026 | 4,849 |
| WWL 2025 | 4,476 |
| WWL 2024 | 4,998 |
| WWL 2023 | 5,621 |
| WWL 2022 | 5,898 |
| WWL 2021 | 4,761 |
| WWL 2020 | 2,983 |
| WWL 2019 | 4,305 |
| WWL 2018 | 3,066 |
These are minimum counts based on reported or directly counted cases. Open Doors warns that actual numbers may be higher, so the figures should not be read as a complete global death toll. The counts also cover annual reporting windows rather than identical January-to-December periods. All figures in this section are from the WWL 2026 Compilation of main documents.
For WWL 2026, Open Doors reported that 4,491 of the 4,849 faith-related Christian killings occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. That was 93% of the global total recorded by Open Doors for that reporting period, according to World Watch List: Trends. The regional concentration is important: a global number can conceal where the recorded violence is occurring.
Attacks on churches and Christian property
Open Doors recorded 3,632 attacks on churches or public Christian properties in WWL 2026. Earlier reporting windows recorded 7,679 attacks in WWL 2025, 14,766 in WWL 2024, 2,110 in WWL 2023, 5,110 in WWL 2022, 4,488 in WWL 2021, 9,488 in WWL 2020, 1,847 in WWL 2019, and 793 in WWL 2018.
The series varies sharply from one reporting period to another. The recorded high in this set was 14,766 attacks in WWL 2024, while the recorded low was 793 in WWL 2018. That variation should not be interpreted as a simple worldwide trend without considering reporting coverage and the definitions used in each annual period. As with the killings data, these are reported or directly counted minimum figures, and the reporting windows are not calendar years.
The attacks category concerns churches or public Christian properties. It is not a count of every incident affecting an individual Christian, and it should not be added to killings, detention, abduction, or sexual-violence totals. One incident may involve more than one type of harm, while the source presents each category separately. The figures are reported in the WWL 2026 Compilation of main documents.
Detention, abduction, and sexual violence
In WWL 2026, Open Doors recorded 4,712 Christians detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned for faith-related reasons. The corresponding counts were 4,744 in WWL 2025, 4,125 in WWL 2024, 4,542 in WWL 2023, 6,175 in WWL 2022, 4,277 in WWL 2021, 4,811 in WWL 2020, 3,150 in WWL 2019, and 1,905 in WWL 2018.
Open Doors also recorded 3,302 Christians abducted in WWL 2026. The abduction counts were 3,775 in WWL 2025, 3,906 in WWL 2024, 5,259 in WWL 2023, 3,829 in WWL 2022, and 1,710 in WWL 2021. The source does not provide the same abduction series here for every earlier reporting period, so the available years should not be presented as a complete uninterrupted trend.
For sexual violence and forced marriage, Open Doors recorded 5,202 Christians raped, sexually harassed, or forced to marry non-Christians in WWL 2026. It recorded 3,944 in WWL 2025, 3,231 in WWL 2024, and 2,843 in WWL 2023. These categories combine experiences that are distinct in nature, but they are grouped this way in the source’s reported indicator.
The detention, abduction, and sexual-violence figures are from the WWL 2026 Compilation of main documents. They are minimum counts based on reported or directly counted cases. They should be read as separate indicators, not summed into one total, because the source does not establish that each recorded person appears in only one category.
Forced displacement and regional concentration
Open Doors recorded 224,129 Christians forced from home, into hiding in-country, or out of the country because of violent persecution in WWL 2026. The comparable WWL 2025 figure was 209,771. Open Doors also reported 16 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa forcibly displaced because of violence in WWL 2025. The broader displacement figure and the regional figure describe different scopes and reporting contexts, so they should not be combined.
The 14 sub-Saharan African countries appearing on World Watch List 2026 together had more than 721 million people. Nearly half of the population across those countries identified as Christian in WWL 2026. Open Doors also reported that one in eight Christians worldwide lived in those 14 countries. These figures help explain why regional conditions matter when interpreting global Christian persecution statistics.
The concentration of killings is especially pronounced in the WWL 2026 data: 4,491 of the 4,849 recorded faith-related Christian killings occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. The regional result is a share of Open Doors’ recorded minimum count, not an estimate of every killing in the region. The relevant regional figures are reported in World Watch List: Trends.
Country rankings and pressure indicators
North Korea ranked first on World Watch List 2026 among the countries where Christians faced the most extreme persecution. Sudan ranked fourth, with a persecution score of 92 out of 100, while Chad ranked 48th with a score of 66 out of 100. These rankings and scores come from WWL 2026 Compilation of main documents and Open Doors International.
Syria rose from 18th on World Watch List 2025 to 6th on World Watch List 2026. Open Doors’ trend report also stated that 47 churches had shut down in Algeria and that more than 75% of Christians had lost connection to fellowship during the 2025–2026 World Watch List trend period. In June 2025, a church attack in Damascus killed 22 people and wounded 63, according to the same trend report.
Bangladesh’s violence score fell by 20% on World Watch List 2026 after the previous year’s unrest. This is a change in an Open Doors score, not a count of 20% fewer Christian victims or incidents. The country-level details are documented in World Watch List: Trends.
Pew provides a separate country-level context for China. Its 2023 Government Restrictions Index score for China was 9.1, while its Social Hostilities Index score was 0.1. These are overall religious-restrictions measures, not Christian-only scores. They should therefore be used as contextual indicators rather than direct measurements of Christian persecution. Pew explains the measures in Religious restrictions in the 25 most populous countries in 2023.
Together, the sources show why Christian persecution statistics need careful labels. Open Doors’ World Watch List focuses on high persecution and discrimination, country rankings, and recorded harm during annual reporting windows. Pew’s global figures record whether harassment of religious groups was reported in a country during a calendar year. The results are useful side by side, but they answer different questions and should not be treated as one combined estimate.