Rabat – Morocco ranks among the world’s least religiously diverse countries, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.
The report, which analyzed the religious makeup of 201 countries and territories as of 2020, affirms that Morocco’s population is overwhelmingly Muslim, a pattern shared by many nations in the Middle East and North Africa.
The study uses a “Religious Diversity Index” (RDI) to measure how evenly different religious groups are represented in a country. Scores range from 0, for countries dominated by a single religion, to 10, for countries with a perfectly even mix of seven major religious groups. These include Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, people of other religions, and the religiously unaffiliated.
Morocco, including its provinces in the Western Sahara along with Yemen, Iraq, and Tunisia, fall in the “very low” diversity category, reflecting its largely Muslim population. Morocco has a score of 0.08.
Singapore is the most religiously diverse country, with Buddhists making up 31% of the population, followed by religiously unaffiliated people (20%), Christians (19%), Muslims (16%), Hindus (5%), and smaller groups from other faiths. Suriname ranks second, while most of the other highly diverse countries are in Asia-Pacific or sub-Saharan Africa.
When focusing on the world’s largest countries, the United States comes out as the most religiously diverse. About 64% of Americans identify as Christian, roughly 30% are unaffiliated with any religion, and the remaining 6% belong to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, or other religions.
Nigeria follows closely, with nearly equal shares of Christians and Muslims. In contrast, Pakistan, where 97% of the population is Muslim, ranks lowest among the 10 most populous nations.
The Pew study also highlights that most people worldwide live in countries with moderate levels of religious diversity. Christians are the most widely spread group, while Muslims tend to live in countries with very low or moderate diversity.
The Asia-Pacific region is the most religiously diverse overall, with no single group holding a majority, while the Middle East and North Africa have the lowest diversity scores.
Global religious diversity remained mostly stable between 2010 and 2020, though some changes occurred due to shifts in religious affiliation. In countries like the US and Ireland, growing numbers of people identifying as unaffiliated have slightly increased diversity levels, while in other places, such as the Netherlands, changes in the religious makeup have lowered diversity scores.
