Christian persecution has reached unprecedented levels in 15 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, according to an annual global ranking of the 50 most dangerous nations for Christ-followers.
Open Doors International, which has been ranking countries since 1993 based on reports of violence against Christians, released its 2026 World Watch List on Jan. 14.
Open Doors CEO Ryan Brown said that 388 million Christians live in regions of the world where they are highly susceptible to persecution for their faith. “It’s because the Church is advancing,” Brown said. “The enemy is seeking to attack that which is advancing. … As those numbers increase, it shows that the enemy is working even harder to try to squelch the Church.”
Syria suffered the largest single-year increase in reports of Christian persecution, while moving up 12 spots in the rankings to sixth on the list of most dangerous nations for Christians.
“What we have seen is that things have gotten very bad for Christians in Syria, not necessarily at the hand of the government, but more so by the inability of the government to have adequate rule of law,” Brown said.
The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024 and rise of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham into power, Brown said, “has created all sorts of vacuums of power throughout the country.”
In Nigeria—which was reclassified by the U.S. State Department in October as a “Country of Particular Concern”—the persecution score increased a single point as the most populous African nation maintained its spot as the seventh most dangerous place for Christians, and the deadliest among all nations studied.
“The country is beset by a severe combination of ethno-religious hostility, Islamist militancy, weak governance and organized crime,” Open Doors said in its analysis of persecution in Nigeria.
Open Doors reports that during their most recent analysis, more Christians were killed for their faith in Nigeria than all other nations combined: 3,490 deaths in Nigeria among a global tally of 4,849. The numbers are up from the 2025 report, which counted 3,100 deaths in Nigeria among a global count of 4,476.
Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), Fulani ethnic militia and Lakurawa are active militants targeting primarily Christians in Nigeria, as well as the emergence in 2025 of a new group, Mahmuda.
Open Doors’ extensive base of on-the-ground researchers monitor violence and how Christians’ lives are impacted privately, within the family, within communities, within churches, and in the national sphere.
North Korea maintains its top spot on the list for the 24th year, with a persecution score of 97; followed by Somalia, with a persecution score of 94; Yemen, third at 93; Sudan, fourth at 92; Eritrea, fifth at 90; Syria, sixth at 90; Nigeria, seventh at 89; Pakistan, eighth at 87; Libya, ninth at 87, and Iran, 10th at 87.
“Our founder Brother Andrew (Andrew van der Biji) used to say our prayers can go where we cannot,” Brown said. “And I have heard from our brothers and sisters over and over again that those words are true, because they’ve said it as they’ve sat in prison cells, as they’ve endured experiences that many of us would have difficulty comprehending. The simple fact that they know brothers and sisters around the globe are lifting them up in prayer, they draw comfort and encouragement from that.”
