BREAKING New World Watch List 2026 Reveals Top 50 Dangerous Countries for Christians with Statistics of Over 388 Million Persecuted Christians

The Open Doors World Persecution Index (WVI) has been published annually since 1993. It shows the persecution and discrimination against Christians in the 50 countries where it is most dangerous for them to live and profess their faith. Christians are killed or imprisoned, harassed by authorities and systematically disadvantaged, beaten, kidnapped, sexually abused, forced into marriage or forced to flee their homes and countries.

In the 30 years that Open Doors has compiled the World Persecution Index, the global spread of persecution of Christians has increased at an alarming rate.

224,129 forced from home - More Christians were forced to leave their homes, go into hiding in-country or leave the country entirely, because of violent persecution. This number grew from 209,771 in last year’s World Watch List. Christians from Nigeria continue to flee their homes and ancestral lands because of Islamic extremist violence in the North, Syrian Christians departed the country in large numbers and our brothers and sisters in Myanmar have faced displacement due to worsening violence against them.

1. More than 388 million Christians face high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. In Open Doors’ World Watch List top 50 countries alone, 315 million Christians face very high or extreme levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.

2. Of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide during the World Watch List 2026 reporting period because of their Christian identity, 3,490 of them were in Nigeria, an increase from 3,100 in the previous year. Militant violence in sub-Saharan Africa has led to the deaths of thousands of Christians and has displaced many more. This extreme violence is enabled by a lack of capacity by national governments to protect their own citizens, whether in the context of civil war or against armed militants.

TOP 50 COUNTRIES of CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION: 1. North Korea 2. Somalia 3. Yemen 4. Sudan 5. Eritrea 6. Syria 7. Nigeria 8. Pakistan 9. Libya 10. Iran 11. Afghanistan 12. India 13. Saudi Arabia 14. Myanmar 15. Mali 16. Burkina Faso 17. China 18. Iraq 19. Maldives 20. Algeria 21. Mauritania 22. CAR 23. Morocco 24. Cuba 25. Uzbekistan 26. Niger 27. Tajikistan 28. Laos 29. Congo DR (DRC) 30. Mexico 31. Tunisia 32. Nicaragua 33. Bangladesh 34. Bhutan 35. Turkmenistan 36. Ethiopia 37. Cameroon 38. Oman 39. Mozambique 40. Kyrgyzstan 41. Türkiye 42. Egypt 43. Comoros 44. Qatar 45. Kazakhstan 46. Nepal 47. Colombia 48. Chad 49. Jordan 50. Brunei

3. Attacks on Christian leaders have been reported in many countries. In this report, we focus on cases from Latin America. Despite many Latin American countries being majority Christian, Christian leaders can be targeted, either by an authoritarian state such as Nicaragua seeking to silence dissent, or by armed groups seeking control, as in Colombia.
4. Again, a repeated theme has been the targeting of recent converts. Families, communities and local and national authorities place particular pressure on Christian converts in order to force them back into their original faith. Female converts, for example, can suffer domestic abuse or imprisonment, while local and national governments sometimes prohibit conversion. An example in our report is given from India.
5. In some contexts, Christians are targeted through attacks on their ability to meet together, as governments simply shut down local Christian gatherings. This year’s World Watch List continues to report on the impact of such closures in Algeria and in other parts of North Africa, as well as China. Such actions drive Christians into isolation.
6. Several countries in which Christians suffer high or extreme levels of persecution lie within conflict zones or in areas of great strategic significance. Our regional focus of East Africa, bordering the Red Sea, is a key example. The region contains three of the countries in the top ten. This highlights the importance of understanding challenges to Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) as governments and multilateral institutions alike seek to address global trouble spots.
7. In some regions of the world, the longstanding presence of the Christian church leaves it dangerously exposed. Syria is a key example as it has climbed back into the top ten due to an increase in violence. The Christian population is concentrated in big cities and other locations that have been battlegrounds for strategic control of the country. Their churches are well known and despite a much-diminished population, Christian communities are large enough to be visible and are therefore targeted.

Source: https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/