It’s clear: in the past year, the world has become a less tolerant and less safe place for hundreds of millions of Christians around the world. That’s one of the findings of the latest World Watch List, Open Doors’ annual research into the 50 most dangerous nations to practice one’s faith as a Christian. 

The 2020 World Watch List (WWL) was released at a live event in Toronto on January 16. It ranks the difficulty faced by Christians in countries around the world, and is the only instrument that measures the persecution of Christians, annually. In the top 50 countries alone, a conservative estimate identifies that 260 million Christians face a level of persecution measured as extreme, very high or high. In total, one in eight Christians worldwide face persecution measured as extreme, very high or high– a six per cent increase from 2019. Across the top 50, pressure is rising. In 2020, 34 countries registered a “very high” level of persecution. Last year, the number was 29.

North Korea remains the most dangerous place for Christians, having been number one since the inception of the list in 2002. Something as simple as owning a Bible can mean a person is arrested and taken to one of the country’s infamous labour camps, never to return.

Eleven countries have been ranked as having an “extreme” level of persecution:

RANK      COUNTRY         PERSECUTION SCORE out of 100

 1            North Korea                         94

 2            Afghanistan                         93

 3            Somalia                              92

 4            Libya                                  90

 5            Pakistan                             88

 6            Eritrea                                87

 7            Sudan                                85

 8            Yemen                               85

 9            Iran                                    85

10           India                                   83

11           Syria                                  82