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Panama is situated on the isthmus connecting Central America and South America. The country obtained its independence from Spain in 1821 and from Colombia in 1903. Panama is a unitary state and a presidential representative democratic republic. It has an elected two-chamber Congress and an elected president acting as head […]

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America by area, but its population density is relatively low. Nicaragua was first settled by the Spanish in 1522; it gained independence in 1838. It is majority Catholic (approximately 58.5%), however there is a growing evangelical Protestant population, representing 22.6% of the population […]

Mexico, a federal republic with a population of 126 million inhabitants, is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. According to the 2020 census, approximately 78% of the population identify as Roman Catholic, a further 11% as Protestant or Evangelical Christian, and 0.2% as belonging to other religions, including Judaism, […]

The Republic of Honduras, historical home to Mesoamerican cultures including the Maya, was conquered by Spain in the sixteenth century who imported Roman Catholicism which has been predominant culturally ever since. Honduras’ multi-party system has been turbulent and wracked with controversy. A long history of military rule, corruption and crime has […]

Guatemala, with Mexico on its Northern boundary, is in a pivotal position in Central America. It was the scene of a 36-year guerrilla war until 1996, a peace agreement was signed by the government that finally put an end to the internal conflict. Guatemala is a predominantly Christian – primarily […]

El Salvador – officially the Republic of El Salvador – is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. Between 1980-1992, the military-led government and left-wing guerillas waged a civil war that resulted in the deaths or disappearances of at least 75,000 citizens.1Amelia Hoover Green and Patrick […]

The Republic of Costa Rica borders Nicaragua and Panama. A former Spanish colony, Roman Catholicism is the state religion of Costa Rica. Lauded as one of the most stable democracies in the region, rule of law is generally upheld.1“Costa Rica”, Britannica, accessed 10 December 2024, https://www.britannica.com/place/Costa-Rica; “Costa Rica” chapter in […]

Located in the Caribbean, Belize is a former colony, which became independent from Britain in 1981. It is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. It recognizes Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, who is represented in the country by the position of the Governor-General.1http://www.caribbeanelections.com/bz/education/government_structure.asp According to a national census conducted by the […]

Located in the Caribbean, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago – comprising the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as several small islands – is a parliamentary democracy that declared its independence from Britain in 1962. It is one of the wealthiest in the Caribbean, due to its large […]

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is an island in the Lesser Antilles Island arc. The territory of the island consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the two-thirds of the Grenadines, which are a chain of smaller islands. SVG is a member of the Commonwealth. Its ceremonial […]

Saint Lucia is an island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea which maintains a multi-party parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy. A former French and, subsequently, British colony, Saint Lucia remains a member of the Commonwealth, and a member state of the Organization of American States. Just over 90% of […]

Saint Kitts and Nevis, also known as The Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is a two-island nation in the Caribbean which maintains a multi-party parliamentary democracy political system under a constitutional monarchy. According to the most recently available census (2011), 83% of the 47,000 population identified as Christian, the […]

Jamaica is a small island nation in the Caribbean of around 2.8 million people. Where once 98% of the population ascribed to a Christian denomination, this figure has now reduced to 60% of the population is Christian. There are significant populations of religious minorities, most notably Rastafarians.1https://www.visitjamaica.com/feel-the-vibe/people/faith/ Those who identify […]

A multi-party, semi-presidential republic, the island of Haiti gained independence in 1804, making it the first modern independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean. Haiti is predominantly a Christian country, with the largest denomination being Roman Catholicism. Many Haitians (regardless of religious affiliation) also hold spiritual beliefs deriving from […]

Grenada is a country consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. After centuries of colonial rule under France and subsequently Britain, Grenada became a fully independent state in February 1974. Grenada is now a parliamentary democracy […]

A former Spanish colony, the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, a former French colony. Discrimination against Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian migrants is a significant problem in the country.1“Dominican Republic: IACHR urges the State to Eradicate Statelessness”, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 29 September 2023, […]

Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is a parliamentary democracy located in the Caribbean. Dominica is the sole republic within the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).1https://www.oecs.org/en/who-we-are/member-states It gained independence from Britain in 1978, however many of its laws and institutions still remain under British colonial influence today. According to […]

The largest island country in the Caribbean, Cuba has a population of approximately 11 million. The Republic of Cuba is one of the world’s last remaining Communist states. There is no official state religion, however a majority of the population are Christian (58.9%). The nonreligious make up the next largest […]

A sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles, Barbados is a parliamentary democracy with an estimated population of 269,809 at the end of 2021. According to the Barbados Statistical Service, the population is shrinking with the death rate continuously exceeding the birth rate since 2016.1https://stats.gov.bb/subjects/social-demographic-statistics/population-demography-statistics/ The population is predominantly Christian […]

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is an island country consisting of more than 700 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean. The Bahamas became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1973. It is a constitutional parliamentary democracy. The population is estimated to be 389,482 according to 2019 World Bank estimates.1https://datacommons.org/place/country/BHS?utm_medium=explore&mprop=count&popt=Person&hl=en […]

Antigua and Barbuda is a multiparty, parliamentary democracy, and a member of the Commonwealth. As such, the British monarch – and head of the Church of England – is its head of state. In September 2022, the nation’s prime minister announced their intention to call a referendum on becoming a […]

Bordering Ghana and Benin, Togo is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. Of its 8 million population, the majority are estimated to be Christian (43%), with a large proportion following traditional animist religions (35%), and a further 14% Sunni Muslims. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion among […]

Predominantly Sunni Muslim (77%), with an influential Christian minority (22%), Sierra Leone’s religious practices tend to be syncretic and mixed with traditional belief.1https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/sierra-leone/ Constitution and government The Constitution2https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Sierra_Leone_2008 and other laws and policies protect freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly and association. Article 24(1) […]

A constitutionally secular state, Senegal gained independence from France in 1960. French remains the official language. The population of 16 million is estimated to be 96% Muslim, located mostly in the North of the country. The majority of Muslims are Sunni but belong to different Sufi brotherhoods, some of which […]

Located on the west coast of Africa, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is characterized by its diverse ethnic groups. According to last available estimates (2015), approximately half of the population are Muslims, about 48% are Christians, and approximately 2% do not belong to a religious group. Many individuals are reported […]

Niger, is a landlocked country found in West Africa, which became independent from France in 1960. It is a unitary semi presidential republic. It provides minimal government services, and is often debilitated by droughts. Niger has now ranked 189 out of 189 countries for the third time consecutively in the […]

Mauritania bridges the Arab Maghreb and western sub-Saharan Africa. Mauritanian society is rigidly caste-based. The Beidane, who are of Arab-Berber origin, are politically and socially dominant, while the Haratine remain the most economically and politically marginalized group1https://www.upr-info.org/sites/default/files/document/mauritania/session_23_-_november_2015/unpo_upr23_mrt_e_main.pdf. Many Haratine in Mauritania are enslaved, and those who are free face discrimination […]

The Republic of Mali is a large landlocked state in west Africa with a population of approximately 22.4 million.1Institut National de la Statistique, accessed January 2025 https://www.instat-mali.org/laravel-filemanager/files/shares/rgph/rapport-resultats-globaux-rgph5_rgph.pdf  According to the latest estimations, 94.8% of the population are Muslim (nearly all Sunni), 2.4% Christian and 2% Animistic. 0.45% of the population declare […]

Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is located on the West African coast, most of the country is covered by dense tropical forests. Liberia was the only colony founded by the United States of America, and the Liberian flag is influenced by this inheritance. A military coup in 1980 led […]

Guinea-Bissau is a former Portuguese colony in West Africa which has a multi-party presidential republic.1https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/guinea-bissau/ The population is estimated to be 1.9 million as of 2020.2https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/guinea-bissau/ The country has been experiencing political instability in the last decade,3https://freedomhouse.org/country/guinea-bissau/freedom-world/2021; https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/guinea-bissau/ but civil liberties have gradually improved since the military coup in 2012.4https://freedomhouse.org/country/guinea-bissau/freedom-world/2021 […]

Guinea is a former French colony in Western Africa, today it is a multi-party presidential republic following years of one-party control and military coups. It is ruled by President Alpha Condé, contentiously re-elected for a third mandate in 2020. An estimated 85% of the country’s 12.5 million population is estimated to […]

Ghana is a West-African parliamentary democracy with a multi-party political system that is largely dominated by two parties — the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Ghana gained independence from Britain in 1957.1https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ghana/#government According to the latest census data (collected in 2010), approximately 71% of the […]

Surrounded by Senegal, apart from a short strip of Atlantic coastline at its western end, Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa. As of July 2021, Gambia’s population encompasses about 2.2 million people, while according to 2013 data, 95.7% of this population identifies as Muslim, with 4.2% identifying as […]

The former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde (or Cabo Verde) comprises nine main islands off the west coast of Africa. Poor in natural resources, the Cape Verde islands have nevertheless won a reputation for achieving political and economic stability. According to the most recent census data (2010),1https://ine.cv/en/quadros/rgph-2010-cabo-verde-em-numeros/ the majority of […]

Renamed in 1984 to Burkina Faso (“land of the upright/honest people”), the country gained independence from France in 1960. It is completely landlocked, surrounded by Mali and Niger to the North and Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire to the south. President Blaise Compaoré ruled the country from 1987 and was ousted […]

Benin, despite being underdeveloped has been a stable democracy until democratic institutions were weakened in 2016, the country ranks 158 out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index scale for 2021.1http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/BEN Political freedom and judicial independence have faced major setbacks after Patrice Talon came to power in 2016.2https://freedomhouse.org/country/benin/freedom-world/2021 Opposition […]

The Kingdom of Eswatini (previously known as Swaziland)1https://www.dw.com/en/from-swaziland-to-eswatini-whats-in-a-name-change/a-45372631 is a landlocked country surrounded – with the exception of Mozambique to its East – by South Africa; it is the last remaining absolute monarchy in Africa.2https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43821512 The population of Eswatini is estimated by the World Bank to be 1,160,1643https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=SZ and the […]

Officially known as the Republic of South Africa (RSA), this multiethnic country is situated at the southernmost tip of Africa. South Africa is a secular democracy which encompasses a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions, the majority-religion being Christianity. Race remains a huge source of social tension in post-Apartheid […]

The Republic of Namibia is a democratic and secular sovereign state with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Approximately 80% are reportedly Christian, with the remaining 10-20% holding traditional indigenous beliefs while a small minority of around 1-3% are said to be Muslim.1https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wa.html The country gained independence from South Africa […]

Completely enclosed within South Africa, but separated from it by its mountain ranges, the Kingdom of Lesotho is a small democracy, with a population of around 2 million.1https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/lesotho-population/ Since gaining independence from Great Britain in 1966, Lesotho has seen decades of poverty, economic crises and unstable politics.2https://www.britannica.com/place/Lesotho/Religion The majority of the […]

With an estimated population of 2.3 million, the Republic of Botswana is a landlocked country in southern Africa.1https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=BW Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, the country became the Republic of Botswana after independence in 1966 and remains a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. It has a reputation as a stable […]

Tunisia has a population of 11.8 Million, of which approximately 99% are Sunni Muslims. The remaining 1% comprises of small Christian, Jewish, Shiite and Baha’i communities. In 2011, Tunisia set in motion the transnational pro-democracy uprising known as the ‘Arab Spring’ when a young vegetable vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself […]

Sudan, once the largest country in Africa, has long suffered from severe ethnic strife and been plagued by internal conflict. The country became independent of British-Egyptian rule in 1956 but wars between the predominantly Christian and Animist south against the predominantly Muslim north eventually led to independence for South Sudan […]

Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country with over 33 million inhabitants, of which 99% are identified as Sunni Muslims, with a small number of Christians, Jews, Shiites, and Baha’is. Judaism is privileged over other religious minorities. Morocco is separated by only 14 km from its northern neighbour, […]

Libya is a North African country of an estimated 6.9 million inhabitants, of which 90-95% are Sunni Muslims.1https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-report-on-international-religious-freedom/libya/ The Amazigh ethnic minority counts some Ibadi Muslims and there are small Christian communities among sub-Saharan African and Egyptian migrants. Libya is the fourth largest African country by area and holds the […]

A nation of 107.8 million as of mid-2022. The religious affiliation breakdown is reported to be approximately 90 percent Sunni Muslim and 10 percent Christian. There is limited reliable data on the number of atheists in Egypt. In 2020, some local media outlets quoted estimates from a former Minister of […]

As declared in the constitution, Algeria is a Sunni Islamic State. Non-religious groups meet in secret to avoid state persecution and social approbation. Algeria is a member of the League of Arab States (LAS), as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Constitution and government The current constitution was […]

In the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa, the nation is a former Portuguese colony comprising two islands and several islets, which gained independence in 1975. There are around 220,372 inhabitants of São Tomé and Príncipe. It is estimated that 56% are Catholics, 12% are […]

The Gabonese Republic is a presidential republic, with a population of around 1.5 million people. It gained independence from France in 1960, and has had only three presidents in the intervening years. However, a multi-party system under a democratic Constitution is now in place. Being petroleum-rich with a low population […]

Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, Equatorial Guinea is the only African country where Spanish is an official language. The discovery of oil has made the country the second richest in Africa in per capita income.1”African countries with the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in 2022″, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1121014/gdp-per-capita-of-african-countries/ […]