Religious Diversity Highest in Asia

Pew researchers report that six of the world’s 12 nations with a “very high degree” of religious diversity can be found in the Asia-Pacific region—Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, China and Hong Kong; five are in sub-Saharan Africa—Guinea-Bissau, Togo, Ivory Coast, Benin and Mozambique; and one is in Latin America and the Caribbean—Suriname. No countries in Europe, North America or the Middle East-North Africa region have as high a degree of religious diversity, according to the study’s index. Of the 232 countries in the study, Singapore has the highest diversity score. The United States has a moderate level of religious diversity, ranking 68th among the 232 countries and territories included in the study. Christians constituted a sizable majority of the U.S. population (78 percent) in 2010. Of the seven other major religious groups, only the religiously unaffiliated claim a substantial share of the U.S. population, at 16 percent.