11 Most Religiously Tolerant Countries in the World

Our list of 11 most religiously tolerant countries in the world might be very helpful for people who are living as a minority in their respective countries, and they are being bothered in one way or another. Unfortunately, the world that we live in doesn’t present a pretty picture when it comes to being tolerant towards the minorities. Minorities include people belonging to different culture, race, religion, etc. Despite all our advancement in technology and science, there are some aspects of our civilization that can still be compared with those of Stone Age. The world has seen many massacres purely based on religious conflicts – Things have changed now, but religious intolerance still haunts our society in many ways.

Countries included in this list are based on facts and figures. What we have done is that we have selected 3 criteria that point towards the countries’ tolerance of different religions. These criteria are “restriction imposed by the government towards religious freedom” “Social hostility” and last but not the least “Ethnic fractionalization”.

Most countries in the world impose some type of restriction when it comes to religious freedom, especially for the people living as a minority but then there are countries that provide complete freedom. We have used the stats and data from Pew Research Center (which can be found here) for the countries that impose the least restriction on religious freedom.

Then we have gathered the list of countries with the very low level of social hostilities that include religion. Our source for this is again, Pew Research Center’s report on “Countries with the most extensive religious hostilities”.

Our third category is Ethnic Fractionalization, which is actually a list of countries that are most ethnically diverse. The ethnic fractionalization index is a probability of two randomly picked individuals of a country that don’t belong to the same ethnic group.

To create our unique ranking of 11 most religiously tolerant countries in the world, we have averaged out the ranking of countries in each category and have come up with our unique list. You may want to compare it with our another list of Most tolerant countries in the world, to see if being religiously tolerant is the same as being tolerant in general. Check out if some country on this list, could be found there.

Now, before any further ado, let’s quickly find out about the country at number 11.

11. Lesotho

Average Ranking – 19.5

Lesotho is an African country, known for its high mountains and beautiful sights. The country is amongst the top 25 in the world when it comes to lenient government’s policy towards religious freedom and countries with lowest religious hostilities.

10. Malawi

Average Ranking – 19

Malawi is a landlocked country in Africa not known for its advancement in technology because of its ethnic diversity.

9. Ivory Coast

Average Ranking – 18

A country known for its rainforest is also amongst the top 20 countries with least restriction on religion and amongst countries with lowest religious hostilities.

8. Papua New Guinea

Average Ranking – 15

Papua New Guinea is number 1 most ethnically diverse state in the world and thus stands at number 8 on our list of most religiously tolerant countries in the world.

7. Marshall Islands

Average Ranking – 14

Marshall Islands is amongst the top 5 states in the world with least government restriction on religious practices.

6. Guinea Bissau

Average Ranking – 13.6

Another African country in our list known for its wildlife and parks, Guinea Bissau, might not be famous for technological advancement, but the country is number 1 when it comes to the lowest level of religious hostilities.

5. San Marino

Average Ranking – 13

San Marino is a historic island surrounded by Italy. It is known for its rich culture and historic places. The reason why it is at number 5 on our list of is because it is amongst the top 20 states with least government restrictions on religion and also among states with the lowest religious hostilities.

4. Palau

Average Ranking – 12.5

Consisting of small 500 islands, Palau is heaven on earth for scuba divers. It is also the 4^th state with least government restriction on religious practices.

3. Gabon

Average Ranking – 11.5

Gabon is the 11^th most ethnically diversified state in the world.

2. Botswana

Average Ranking – 10.5

Botswana is a landlocked country in Africa and the 3^rd top state with lowest religious hostility.

1. The Republic of Congo

Average Ranking – 7.6

At number 1 on our list of 11 most religiously tolerant countries in the world is the Republic of Congo. The reason? It is amongst the top 15 in all our 3 categories.