Report: More than 388 million Christians worldwide face 'high levels' of persecution

(OSV News) -- More than 388 million Christians -- or 1 in 7 believers worldwide -- face "high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith," according to a new report.

Open Doors International, a global advocacy organization for persecuted Christians, released the figure as part of its "World Watch List 2026" report, an annual overview that measures the severity of Christian persecution in some 50 countries.

For the 24th consecutive year, North Korea remains the harshest country in which to practice the Christian faith, due to a national policy that bans worship of any other entity beside the ruling Kim regime, said the report.

If found to be one of the 400,000 estimated Christians in North Korea, "you and your family could be immediately executed or sent to a terrible labor camp -- forever," said Open Doors, pointing to that nation's 2020 "anti-reactionary thought law," which has "made it even clearer that being a Christian and owning a Bible is a serious crime."

Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Libya and Iran also have "extreme" levels of Christian persecution, said Open Doors, which traces its origins to one man's postwar efforts to smuggle Bibles into the former Soviet Union.

In Nigeria, close to 3,500 Christians were killed over the past year, according to the report. Among those slain have been several priests, with abductions of Christians also escalating in that nation.

Most of the countries topping Open Doors' 2026 list are located on the African continent and in Southeast Asia, with a handful in Central and South America.

Measuring Christian persecution -- which Open Doors defines as "any hostility experienced as a result of one's identification with Christ" -- is a "complex task," since the phenomenon is "multidimensional" and can encompass other factors such as gender and ethnicity,
the organization notes on its website.

The organization relies on a "longstanding underground network" as well as its "commitment to working with local Christians" to ensure its information sources "are almost always based on direct eyewitness accounts" from contacts, explained Open Doors on its website. In addition, the organization draws on in-country news reports as well as news services.

Because it has "developed personal relationships" with churches and pastors it serves, Open Doors remains "careful to protect the identity of persecuted Christians," and as a result often "cannot disclose the nature or location of the assistance we are providing in full detail."

Specifically, Open Doors focuses on collecting data on Christian persecution in six key areas: restrictions or dangers on practicing faith in private, family, community, national and church life, as well as the levels of violence -- mental, physical and sexual -- Christians face in the 150 nations Open Doors monitors.

Each area is scored, with each country then receiving an overall score out of 100 for the severity of Christian persecution, with scores of 81-100 designated as "extreme," 61-80 "very high" and 41-60 "high."

Open Doors' research and results are independently audited by the International Institute for Religious Freedom, a global organization that promotes religious freedom for all faiths through academic research and policy development.

Christian persecution "happens for a wide variety of reasons," Open Doors said in its report.

Conflict, chaos and anarchy are key drivers, creating "lawless zones where criminal gangs and religious extremists can attack Christians secure in the knowledge that they will not face any consequences," the report said.

Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Myanmar are all marred by such breakdowns in the rule of lawful state authority, the report noted -- with Syria as "the most striking example" over the past year, where the fall of the long-running Assad regime "has resulted in a surge of violence" that saw the country move up by 12 spots on Open Doors' list.

Other nations, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, "have a kind of split personality," with regions of both persecution and "relative tranquility" for Christians, said the report.

Nigeria, the locus of Africa's Christian population, is a prime example, with mega-churches in the south while thousands of Christians have been killed and millions displaced in the country's north.

Under dictatorships and authoritarian regimes -- as in North Korea, Nicaragua, Cuba and China -- "persecution operates within a wider suffocation of rights, reinforced by media censorship, weak courts and oppressive surveillance," Open Doors noted in its report.

In other countries, "persecution sometimes comes down to some very basic things: greed, corruption and crime," said Open Doors, citing organized crime in Central and South America as "one of the biggest drivers" of persecution there.

In Mexico, warring gangs and cartels often target church leaders and groups who attempt to mediate conflicts or provide aid, the report said.

Open Doors said that such persecution can "be allied with poverty, food scarcity or competition for land driven by climate change" -- but "whatever the motivation ... Christians make easy targets."

Nationalism and religiously-driven hatred also fuel persecution, especially as "the world is becoming more partisan, more divided," and as "more countries are deciding that religion is part of their national identity," said Open Doors.

In the Maldives, "it is assumed that all citizens are Muslim," while a merging of Indian nationality with Hinduism "has led to a number of states imposing anti-conversion laws," the report found.

Yet "perhaps the most potent and powerful reason for persecution is the faith of the church itself," said Open Doors in its report, adding that in all of the countries it surveyed, "the church is still present and alive," and "even growing" in some places.

Along with data, the Open Doors report included numerous testimonies from individuals living their faith in the face of persecution and possible death.

In North Korea -- where most Christians are "too afraid to speak of their faith openly, even to their children," according to one Open Doors ministry coordinator -- the nation's estimated 400,000 Christians live their beliefs silently, secretly and steadily.

The report quoted one North Korea escapee, who said, "If you could see what God is doing
in my country, you would never have any doubts again. The Holy Spirit is at work, thanks to your prayers."