And every day, 12 Christians are unjustly arrested or imprisoned, and another 5 are abducted.
So reports the 2021 World Watch List (WWL), the latest annual accounting from Open Doors of the top 50 countries where Christians are the most persecuted for following Jesus. “You might think the [list] is all about oppression. … But the [list] is really all about resilience,” stated David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, introducing the report released today.
“The numbers of God’s people who are suffering should mean the Church is dying—that Christians are keeping quiet, losing their faith, and turning away from one another,” he stated. “But that’s not what’s happening. Instead, in living colour, we see the words of God recorded in the prophet Isaiah: ‘I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert’” (Isa. 43:19, ESV).
The listed nations contain 309 million Christians living in places with very high or extreme levels of persecution, up from 260 million in last year’s list.
Another 31 million could be added from the 24 nations that fall just outside the top 50—such as Cuba, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—for a ratio of 1 in 8 Christians worldwide facing persecution. This includes 1 in 6 believers in Africa and 2 out of 5 in Asia.
Last year, 45 nations scored high enough to register “very high” persecution levels on Open Doors’s 84-question matrix. This year, for the first time in 29 years of tracking, all 50 qualified—as did 4 more nations that fell just outside the cutoff.
Open Doors identified three main trends driving last year’s increase:
Open Doors has monitored Christian persecution worldwide since 1992. North Korea has ranked No. 1 for 20 years, since 2002 when the watch list began.The 2021 version tracks the time period from November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020, and is compiled from grassroots reports by Open Doors workers in more than 60 countries.
“We are not just talking to religious leaders,” said Curry, at the live stream launch of this year’s list. “We’re hearing firsthand from those experiencing persecution, and we only report what we can document.”

Where are Christians most persecuted today?

This year the top 10 worst persecutors are relatively unchanged. After North Korea is Afghanistan, followed by Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran, Nigeria, and India.
Nigeria entered the top 10 for the first time, after maxing out Open Doors’s metric for violence. The nation, with Africa’s largest Christian population, ranks No. 9 overall but is second behind only Pakistan in terms of violence, and ranks No. 1 in the number of Christians killed for reasons related to their faith.
Sudan left the top 10 for the first time in six years, after abolishing the death penalty for apostasy and guaranteeing—on paper at least—freedom of religion in its new constitution after three decades of Islamic law. Yet it remains No. 13 on the list, as Open Doors researchers noted Christians from Muslim backgrounds still face attacks, ostracization, and discrimination from their families and communities, while Christian women face sexual violence.

Where It’s Hardest to Follow Jesus:

1. North Korea 2. Afghanistan 3. Somalia 4. Libya 5. Pakistan 6. Eritrea 7. Yemen 8. Iran 9. Nigeria 10. India
India remains in the top 10 for the third year in a row because it “continues to see an increase in violence against religious minorities due to government-sanctioned Hindu extremism.” Meanwhile, China joined the top 20 for the first time in a decade, due to “ongoing and increasing surveillance and censorship of Christians and other religious minorities.”
Of the top 50 nations:
The 2021 list added four new countries: Mexico (No. 37), Democratic Republic of Congo (No. 40), Mozambique (No. 45), and Comoros (No. 50).
Mozambique rose 21 spots (up from No. 66) “due to extremist Islamic violence in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.” The Democratic Republic of Congo rose 17 spots (up from No. 57) “mainly due to attacks on Christians by the Islamist group ADF.” Mexico rose 15 spots (up from No. 52) due to rising violence and discrimination against Christians from drug traffickers, gangs, and indigenous communities.
Four countries dropped off the list: Sri Lanka (formerly No. 30), Russia (formerly No. 46), United Arab Emirates (formerly No. 47), and Niger (formerly No. 50).

How are Christians persecuted in these countries?

Open Doors tracks persecution across six categories—including both social and governmental pressure on individuals, families, and congregations—and has a special focus on women.
But when violence is isolated as a category, the top 10 persecutors shift dramatically—only Pakistan, Nigeria, and India remain. In fact, 20 nations are now deadlier for Christians than North Korea.
Worldwide registered martyrdoms rose to 4,761 in the 2021 report, up 60 percent from the 2,983 tallied the year before and surpassing the 4,305 deaths noted in the 2019 report. (Open Doors is known for favouring a more conservative estimate than other groups, who often tally martyrdoms at 100,000 a year.)

Where Christians Were Martyred Most:

Nine in 10 Christians killed for their faith were in Africa, the rest in Asia. Nigeria led the world with 3,530 martyrs confirmed by Open Doors for its 2021 list. During the launch event, Curry interviewed Afordia, a Nigerian Christian health care worker whose husband was executed by Boko Haram. After cutting off communication networks in the couple’s village, the extremists rounded up the men and asked each one if they were a Muslim or an infidel.“‘No, I am not an infidel or a Muslim, I am a Christian,’ my husband told them,” she said. “Then he knelt down on the side of the road, and prayed.”
Abduction of Christians rose to 1,710, up 63 percent from the 1,052 tallied the year before, the first time the category was tracked by Open Doors. Nigeria tops the list, with 990. Pakistan led the world in forced marriages, a new category tracked last year, with about 1,000 Christians married to non-Christians against their will. Asia accounted for 72 percent of the forced marriages tallied by Open Doors, with Africa—led by Nigeria—the remaining 28 percent.

Why are Christians persecuted in these countries?

The main motivation varies by country, and better understanding the differences can help Christians in other nations pray and advocate more effectively for their beleaguered brothers and sisters in Christ.
For example, though Afghanistan is the world’s No. 2 worst persecutor and an officially Muslim nation, the main motivation of persecution there—according to Open Doors research—is not Islamic extremism but ethnic antagonism, or what the report calls “clan oppression.”
Open Doors categorizes the primary sources of Christian persecution into eight groups:
Islamic oppression (29 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in more than half of the watchlist countries, including 5 of the 12 where Christian face “extreme” levels: Libya (No. 4), Pakistan (No. 5), Yemen (No. 7), Iran (No. 8), and Syria (No. 12). Most of the 29 are officially Muslim nations or have Muslim majorities; however, 7 actually have Christian majorities: Nigeria (No. 9), Central African Republic (No. 35), Ethiopia (No. 36), Democratic Republic of Congo (No. 40), Cameroon (No. 42), Mozambique (No. 45), and Kenya (No. 49).
Clan oppression (6 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in Afghanistan (No. 2), Somalia (No. 3), Laos (No. 22), Qatar (No 29), Nepal (No. 34), and Oman (No. 44).
Dictatorial paranoia (5 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in five countries, mostly in Central Asia with Muslim majorities: Uzbekistan (No. 21), Turkmenistan (No. 23), Tajikistan (No. 33), Brunei (No. 39), and Kazakhstan (No. 41).
Religious nationalism (3 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in three Asian nations. Christians are primarily targeted by Hindu nationalists in India (No. 10), and by Buddhist nationalists in Myanmar (No. 18) and Bhutan (No. 43).
Communist and post-communist oppression (3 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in three countries, all in Asia: North Korea (No. 1), China (No. 17), and Vietnam (No. 19).
Christian denominational protectionism (2 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in Eritrea (No. 6) and Ethiopia (No. 36).Organized crime and corruption (2 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in Colombia (No. 30) and Mexico (No. 37). Secular intolerance (0 countries): Open Doors tracks this source of persecution faced by Christians, but it is not the main source in any of the 50 countries studied.