The number of Christians facing persecution around the world will reach a record 388 million in 2025

According to an annual report by the non-governmental organization Portes Ouvertes (Open Doors), more than 388 million Christians around the world will face serious persecution or discrimination because of their faith in 2025. According to Orthodoxtimes.com, citing the ANA-MPA, this number represents an increase of eight million from 2024, which Portes Ouvertes’ director for France and Belgium, David Hamerlin, called a “record level.”

The Protestant NGO clarified that the figure does not mean that 388 million Christians are directly persecuted, but that they live in regions where serious persecution occurs. A similar estimate was presented in November by the Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need (Aide à l’Église en Détresse – AED), which estimated that 413 million Christians live in countries where religious freedom is not respected and 280 million are directly persecuted.

According to Portes Ouvertes, between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025, at least 4,849 Christians were killed, 4,712 were imprisoned, and 3,632 churches were attacked. The report also documented 22,702 cases of Christians being forced to flee their countries due to persecution and 4,055 cases of sexual violence.

North Korea remains at the top of the persecution rankings, where “belief in God is considered treason against the regime,” followed by Somalia, where the survival of converts to Christianity “depends on complete anonymity,” and Yemen. Guillaume Gennek, one of the NGO’s directors, noted that since 2015, sub-Saharan Africa has been the leading region in the world for the number of Christians killed because of their faith, with 4,491 deaths recorded. He added that the region also has the largest Christian population in the world.

Nigeria and China each had 1,000 churches attacked, with China increasing policies to “domesticate” Christianity. India has the highest number of imprisoned Christians (2,192), mainly due to the enforcement of laws against conversion. Meanwhile, Syria rose sharply in the rankings, moving from 18th to 6th place.

Based on 84 criteria and input from 5,000 sources, Portes Ouvertes has published its World Watch List every year since 1993, documenting forms of persecution ranging from social exclusion to extreme violence.

Some of the organization’s data was cited last year by American conservatives and Donald Trump, who threatened military intervention in Nigeria over alleged persecution of Christians – a claim that has been rejected by Nigerian authorities and several researchers. Addressing the complexity of the issue, where religious, political and economic motives can intertwine, Portes Ouvertes defended its methodology, emphasizing that it only takes into account cases where Christians have been persecuted specifically because of their faith. “If the violence is not related to their faith, or if Christians suffer the same as the rest of the population, we do not consider it persecution,” the organization stressed.– We reject the political instrumentalization of our research, but our data is public and we defend it,” Hamerlin concluded.

Recall, in the Nigerian state of Nigeria there was a mass kidnapping: on November 22, 2025, an armed group attacked St. Mary’s Catholic School, taking 303 students and 12 teachers hostage. Although 50 children managed to escape, the fate of 253 students and 12 teachers remains unknown, which has caused serious concern both domestically and internationally.