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Racial Equality Rankings

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Most Racist Countries 2024

Snapshot

  • Racism is difficult to measure accurately due to the lack of systematic tracking and reliance on personal surveys for data collection.

  • The Best Countries Report 2020 and other studies indicate varying levels of racism in countries, with some showing high intolerance based on race.

  • India, Lebanon, and Bahrain emerged as significantly racist in some studies, possibly influenced by low levels of ethnic diversity and integration.

Some countries are very accepting and welcoming of people of different races, ethnicities, and nationalities. Others are less so. Racism is a challenging variable to measure. Many countries lack centralized systems for tracking incidents of racism. In fact, a surprising number of countries don't even track the race and ethnicity of their citizens, which makes it nigh impossible to track racist activities against them. As a result, researchers typically turn to more grass-roots methods, such as personal surveys—and although racism may not seem like a very complex trait, it can be quite challenging to determine if a person is racist or not based on a simple questionnaire. All of which is to say: Determining the most racist countries in the world is a daunting task, and the results might be inconsistent from one study to the next.

Study One: Best Countries Report 2020

The annual Best Countries Report, a 78-country survey carried out by the U.S. News and World Report, BAV Group, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, added questions about racial equality in 2020. This is relevant because racism is a root cause of poor racial equality. Here are the final rankings.

Worst Countries for Racial Equality:

It's relevant to note that many of these countries have a large percentage of native-born residents and relatively few immigrants and international residents. The next section will explain why this is an important factor.

Study Two: Washington Post (2013) and Business Tech (2016) studies

Two different and independent racism studies conducted in recent years surveyed a combined 85,000 people from 61 countries and achieved results that were different from the BCR2020, but parallel to one another. The first was a Washington Post survey from 2013. The main question posed to each participant was whether they would be comfortable living near neighbors of a different race. The second project was a 2016 survey by Business Tech, which questioned if people had ever witnessed or personally experienced racism. Though neither study is generally considered definitive on its own—especially given a relatively small sampling of only 61 of the globe's 200+ countries—when merged, they can give a better impression of the prevalence of racism. In this format, India emerged as the most racist country surveyed, followed by Lebanon, Bahrain, Libya, and Egypt.

Most Racist Countries in the World (WaPo and BT results combined)*:

India ranks as the most racist of the countries included in the study. Located in southern Asia, India is the second-most-populous country on Earth, with roughly 1.3 billion people. According to the surveys, the country's residents display considerable intolerance for people with darker skin, whether they are of foreign descent (particularly African) or simply darker-skinned Indians. India has little immigration and few international residents. As a result, most of its people are of Indian descent themselves. This detail is considered to be a major contributing factor to racism in India. When one is unaccustomed to seeing or interacting with people of different races, it is often more difficult to integrate with someone of a different nationality or ethnicity. This notion is borne out in the survey results. Approximately 43.6% of all Indians who took the survey said that they would not be comfortable with neighbors who were of a different culture, ethnicity, or race. 64.3% of Indian participants also reported that they were either discriminated against or had witnessed discrimination unfold in their home country.

Although its population is split nearly fifty-fifty between Christians and Muslims, Lebanon is another country comprised primarily of people who share a similar ethnic background. This low level of diversity means Lebanon's citizens are typically opposed to mingling with people of other races for the sole reason that they are not used to doing so in a day-by-day setting. Third on the list of most racist countries is Bahrain, a country in the Persian Gulf and just off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Nearly 50% of people in Bahrain are of Bahraini descent, and Indians make up the highest percentile of immigrants. Bahrain scored 31.1% and 85.7% as part of the studies in discussion.

Libya follows Bahrain in fourth place. The majority of people in Libya are Arabic. Other ethnic groups included in Libya's population are Tunisians, Egyptians, Dawada, Italians, Maltese, Greeks, Pakistanis, Turks, and Indians. The study found that 54% of people in Libya's group would not be okay with living next door to people of another race, whereas 39.7% of the population said that they've either been the victim or witness discriminatory behavior in Libya. Egypt comes in at five. People born and raised in Egypt account for 91% of its population, with the remaining 9% made up of Bedouins, Abazas, Turks, and Greeks. The studies' findings for Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, and Lebanon are in alignment with the ones regarding India.

Download Table Data

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Country
Racial Equality Rankings
% Prefer No Foreign Neighbors
% Witnessed Racism
Serbia87
Qatar86
Saudi Arabia85
Iran84
Israel83
Myanmar82
United Arab Emirates81
Russia8017%38.5%
El Salvador79
Sri Lanka78
Belarus77
Guatemala76
Bangladesh75
Uruguay74
United States73
Lebanon7236.3%64.4%
Uzbekistan71
Bahrain7031.1%85.7%
Cyprus6926.7%26.1%
Kazakhstan68
Honduras67
India6643.6%64.3%
Vietnam65
Azerbaijan64
Czech Republic63
Croatia62
Philippines6130.6%49.1%
South Korea6029.6%36.5%
Algeria5919.8%41%
Cambodia58
China57
Ecuador5634.5%32%
Turkey5533.8%19.1%
Colombia54
Latvia53
Panama52
Chile51
Romania50
Ukraine49
Malaysia4831.3%34.4%
Zimbabwe47
Slovakia46
Egypt45 39.7%
Jordan44
Peru43
Estonia42
Lithuania41
Japan4022.3%29.7%
Thailand3939.8%19%
Morocco3813.8%35.6%
Indonesia37
Dominican Republic36
Oman35
Hungary34
Ghana33
Kenya32
Tunisia31
Cameroon30
Bulgaria29
Costa Rica28
Mexico27
Slovenia26
Poland25 19%
Greece24
South Africa2319.6%61.8%
Argentina22
Spain21 24%
Brazil20
Singapore19
Germany18 65%
Italy17 33%
United Kingdom16
France15 29%
Luxembourg14 44%
Portugal13 17%
Australia12
Austria11 67%
Ireland10 44%
Finland9 57%
Belgium8 44%
Denmark7 47%
Switzerland6
Norway5
Sweden4 21%
Netherlands3
Canada2
New Zealand1
Pakistan14.5%48.8%
Nigeria21%42.5%
Iraq27.7%37.8%
Yemen34%31.2%
Hong Kong18.8%40.4%
Libya54%33.5%
Kyrgyzstan28.1%35.9%
Palestine44%32%
Kuwait28.1%37.9%
showing: 96 rows

Which country is considered the most racist?

One 2020 study considers Qatar the most racist country. A different study considers India the most racist country.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources