Countries with either very low or very high religious diversity tend to be more peaceful

Relationships between countries have become more peaceful since the rules-based order was established

Our World in Data monitors bilateral relationships on a spectrum from open rivalry to "positive peace"—deep cooperation and mutual protection. In 1945, no countries had highly cooperative security relationships. Today, nearly a fifth do.

The world's most peaceful countries

Global Peace Index presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to date on trends in peace, including the most and least peaceful countries in the world.

Data indicates a strong concentration of religious people live in the American South

The Northeast and West Coast tend to be less religious. Mississippi is the most religious state, with 50% of adults classified as highly religious. Vermont is the least religious at 13%.

Explore the state of religious freedom around the world

This interactive tool visualizes government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion across countries worldwide. It enables users to compare nations and monitor changes over time.

Many religions have core majorities in certain countries

Though most religions have members across the world, they also have major concentrated populations in specific nations. For example, 95% of Hindus live in India, while 85% of the world's Jews live in Israel and the US.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Marriage rates are declining, especially in the richest countries

89% of the world’s population now live in countries with falling rates. Increasing costs of living, the financial burden of starting a family, and the rise of secularism are some of the key factors reducing marriage rates among the less affluent.

How to bridge political divides

Can people who believe in opposing ultimate views of the world really live in peace together? That's a core requirement of individuals living in pluralistic societies. Law professor Samar Ali and public affairs strategist Clint Brewer don't agree on much, but they're great friends. In this TED Talk, the two share why political polarization in the US isn’t as intractable as we might think. Learn some tips for getting along in the free world here.

Ramadan tends to reduce Gulf productivity, but increases reported happiness

Economists have documented a measurable dip in productivity and output in Muslim-majority countries during Ramadan. But surveys consistently show the opposite on subjective well-being, with people reporting they feel better and more connected.

Murder rates spiked in the US after COVID-19, and then declined in 2023

Criminologist and former investigator Jillian Peterson says whether a murder is solved in the US is nearly up to the flip of a coin, with the clearance rate for murder cases being about 50%. The US, which has more guns than citizens, has about roughly five gun homicides per 100,000 residents, resulting in the 28th-highest rate of deaths from gun violence compared to the rest of the world.

The 3.5% rule – how 3.5% of the population can drive change in the world

Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.

As of 2022, Congress was more ideologically polarized than at any point in 50 years

Research from the Pew Research Center indicates that Democrat and Republican lawmakers have become more ideologically unified internally while moving further apart overall—with Republicans shifting to the right faster than Democrats have shifted to the left.

An interactive map of race and ethnicity across the US

This map by CNN shows race and ethnicity across the United States. America is more diverse and has more people than ever before. According to the 2020 census, much of its growth is occurring in and around metropolitan areas. By plotting the US...

Governments around the world are struggling to measure loneliness

Funding for policy resources often hinges on measuring the scale of a problem and then being able to measure the effectiveness of interventions, requiring data. Yet defining and measuring loneliness at a country-scale remains challenging. Typically, the University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale is sometimes used worldwide or adapted to measure loneliness.

The benefits of extreme pain rituals, explained

We naturally avoid pain and see it as a negative experience. But many traditional cultures incorporate extremely painful rituals into their religious ceremonies, claiming they, in fact, provide ample benefits. Researchers were able to observe boosts in happiness and a sense of belonging in a tribe of Mauritians after they undertook a rigorously painful religious ritual. Read about the study here.

See comparisons of different countries' taxation strategies

Taxes are a major revenue source for most countries, and how each government taxes citizens often reflects the country's economy. Developed countries tax at much higher rates than developing ones, and as a country grows its GDP, it also typically grows the proportional percentage of taxes it gains from its citizens.

The Sunni-Shia divide has fueled conflict and rivalry throughout the Middle East for centuries

Islam's ancient sectarian split, rooted in a seventh-century dispute over succession following the Prophet Mohammed's death, has shaped modern geopolitics—most visibly in the proxy rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, whose competition for regional dominance has inflamed conflicts across Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen.

France has a strict and explicit separation of church and state

France's principle of laïcité—strict separation of church and state—prohibits religious expression in public institutions, including the wearing of religious clothing and symbols in public schools and by government employees.

Drug trafficking, violence, and politics in Northern Mali

Drug trafficking in northern Mali is fueling unparalleled regional violence and instability. In Mali, smuggling narcotics is not only a way armed groups gain funds, but also a source of conflict in itself. According to the International Crisis Group...

Countries that celebrate Easter

Easter is observed as a national holiday in more than 95 countries, with traditions varying wildly—from water fights in Hungary to crime novel reading in Norway—reflecting how thoroughly Christian practice has mixed with local culture.

Medieval Europe was a patchwork of hundreds of competing states

In the Middle Ages, Europe was divided into hundreds of kingdoms, duchies, and territories, bearing little resemblance to modern borders. This map captures the political landscape in 1444, as the Ottoman Empire was in the midst of its rise.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

10 controversial World Cup moments

If you're expecting a staid back-and-forth, then you'll be surprised by the World Cup, which is often filled with high drama and even higher tensions. This list highlights how controversy has been a constant on soccer's biggest stage, influencing outcomes, sparking debates, and sometimes leading to rule changes.

Microbial research suggests shifts in diverse populations may help an invasive species establish itself

In 1958, English ecologist Charles Elton suggested that diverse ecosystems should be more resistant to invasive species because gaining a foothold would be more challenging when resources are more thinly spread. However, in lab-grown microbial ecosystems with greater biodiversity, population volatility opened more ecological roles that invasive species could easily fill.

Immigration enforcement shows how federalism plays out on the ground

In recent years, federalism has shifted from allowing policy diversity across states to open conflict, with states and the federal government increasingly trying to impose their preferences on one another over issues like abortion, voting, immigration, and public health.

There is a nature preserve in Korea's DMZ

In almost every way, the Demilitarized Zone is a depressing place, a testament to humans' inability to make peace. There is one surprising upside: Keeping people away has allowed nature to thrive. Recently released images offer a 360-degree view of some of the hundreds of endangered species making a comeback in the DMZ, including white-naped cranes, mountain goats, musk deer, and golden eagles.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Polio is currently circulating in only two countries but it remains difficult to eradicate

Wild polio virus is only endemic in two places. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last two countries with naturally occurring polio cases. Vaccination campaigns have been plagued by misinformation, Taliban bans on vaccines, distrust of public health workers, and violence, including the killing of vaccinators.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Three Ebola species are responsible for most large outbreaks of the disease, yet the only approved Ebola vaccine is known to work against just one of them.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—microorganisms that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.