In a religiously diverse Asia, Pakistan one of the least diverse: Report

Pakistan ranks among the least religiously diverse countries in a religiously diverse Asian region according to the Religious Diversity Index published by the Pew Research Center on Friday. The 10-point index, which ranks each country by its level of religious diversity, is divided into four ranges, “very high”, “high”, “moderate”, and “low”. Pakistan ranked among the 136 “low diversity” countries, the largest range on the index indicating that most countries in the world are not religion diverse. The 12-nation top range of “very high” diversity countries comprised of six from Asia-Pacific – Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, China, and Hong Kong – and five from sub-Saharan Africa – Mozambique, Benin, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo. Of the 232 countries in the study, Singapore with a population of more than 5 million had the highest score on the Religious Diversity Index. About a third of Singapore’s population is Buddhist (34%), while 18% are Christian, 16% are religiously unaffiliated, 14% are Muslim, 5% are Hindu and less than 1% are Jewish. According to the data, Pakistan had the 23rd largest proportional Muslim population at 96.4%, smaller than immediate neighbours Afghanistan and Iran, but larger than Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Pakistan had a Religious Diversity Index score of 0.8 ranking 185 out of 232 countries included in the study. It featured an overwhelming Muslim population of 96.4%. Hindus constituted largest religious minority with 1.9% of the population with Christians a close second comprising 1.6% of the population. Buddhists, Jews, and those belonging to ‘folk religions’ all comprised 0.1% of the population each. Among Muslim majority nations, Pakistan ranked 26th in terms of religious diversity, with Malaysia topping the list and Morocco being the least diverse. Interestingly, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are more diverse than Pakistan, and so are all Arabian Gulf countries, except Yemen. Turkey and immediate neighbours Afghanistan and Iran ranked lower than Pakistan in religious diversity. Interestingly, the United States and the United Kingdom did not rank very high on the overall index with both countries falling in the “moderate” diversity range, below “high” diversity countries like North Korea, Bahrain, Qatar and Cuba. Australia and Canada also ranked within the “high” diversity range. Czech Republic, North Korea, Estonia, Japan, Hong Kong, and China topped the list of proportional population that was “religiously unaffiliated”, those who say they are atheists, agnostics or nothing in particular. The Pew Research Center, a research group that does empirical social science research, developed the Religious Diversity Index which looks at the percentage of each country’s population that belongs to eight major religious groups – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. The closer a country comes to having equal shares of the eight groups, the higher its score on the index.