Two-thirds of humanity — more than 5.4 billion people — is now living in countries without full religious freedom, according to a new report by the international pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

The biennial report “Religious Freedom in the World 2025” offers a global overview of the state of this fundamental right and warns of a worrying decline.

The report analyses the situation in 196 countries and documents serious violations of this right in 62 of them. Of these, 24 are classified as countries of “persecution” and 38 as “discrimination”. Only two nations, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka, showed improvements compared with the previous edition.

The report identifies authoritarianism as the principal driver of religious repression. In 19 of the 24 countries in the persecution category, and in 33 of the 38 countries with discrimination, governments apply systematic strategies to control or silence religious life. In China, Iran, Eritrea and Nicaragua, the authorities employ mass surveillance technologies, digital censorship, restrictive legislation and arbitrary detentions to suppress independent religious communities.

“The control of faith has become a tool of political power”, states the executive summary, which denounces an increasingly sophisticated “bureaucratisation of religious repression.”