Christian Persecution Report Today: Conditions Worsened in 55% of Countries, None Improved

One million Christians have been forced from their homes in Nigeria alone. That one number, read out at a report launch in London, is hard to sit with, because behind it are a million separate journeys away from home, and each one started with a decision no family should have to make.

Aid to the Church in Need, known as ACN, launched its report, Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2024-26, on Tuesday, 27 October 2026.

The report gives global and regional analysis of 18 countries of key concern, from Nicaragua in Latin America to Burma, also called Myanmar, in South-East Asia. It covers August 2024 to June 2026, and the launch itself is what makes the findings fresh this week.

According to ACN figures, 413 million Christians live in countries where serious violations of religious freedom occur. About 220 million Christians worldwide are directly exposed to persecution, according to the same figures, and both numbers belong to ACN, not to this article.

Christian Persecution Report 2026: Conditions Worsened in 55% of Countries

Conditions for Christians failed to improve in any country assessed, while conditions deteriorated in 10 of the 18. Those 10 include China, Nigeria and Pakistan, and the share that got worse works out at 55 percent, almost 56 percent, of the countries examined. No country improved, and that flat result is the headline the launch refused to soften.

The report highlights six countries in particular: Burkina Faso, China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. Sub-Saharan Africa emerged as one of the most dangerous regions in the world to be a Christian, and six of the 10 highest-ranked countries in the 2026 Global Terrorism Index are in Africa. The wider picture of pressure on believers is also visible in the 2026 report that found more than 500 million Christians face Bible access restrictions, a seperate measure of how hard daily faith can be.

Pew Research Center data cited in the reporting indicates anti-Christian harassment occurred in 165 countries in 2023, up from 160 in 2021. That rise shows the pressure spreading wider even where it is not making headlines.

What will it take for the world to act?

That question was asked by John Pontifex, ACN UK head of press and public affairs, at the launch in Portcullis House, London. He put it plainly, and the room had just heard the numbers that make the question so hard to answer.

The report states that millions of Christians are part of a mass exodus of those displaced in conflict zones, some of it religiously motivated. For christain families caught in that movement, the word exodus stands for journeys that were rarely chosen freely. Extremist violence and authoritarian control are driving millions from their homes, above all in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report.

Nigeria and Burkina Faso: Christians Forced From Their Homes

In Nigeria, at least 1 million Christians have been forced from their homes, according to the report. That figure stands on its own in the findings, and it gives a scale to the displacement that shorter news reports can only hint at. Readers who want the human shape of that toll can read the report claiming 7,500 Christians were killed across Africa in 2026, which sets the Nigerian numbers in a continental frame.

The Nigerian picture in recent reporting has been one of repeated attacks on villages and congregations, and the cost is counted in burials as well as in departures. The same pattern of loss runs through the account of a Nigerian pastor who buried four congregants after a midnight attack, where a father and his three sons were among the dead. Those stories and this report are not the same source, but they point at the same hard reality for families on the ground.

In Burkina Faso, militant Islamist groups have seized at least 40 percent of the landmass, sparking a mass migration of Christians, according to the report. In one diocese alone, 2,000 people had fled within 12 months, amid reports cited in the findings, and that single-diocese figure shows how fast a community can empty. A diocese is not a vague area on a map, and 2,000 people leaving it in a year is a community coming apart street by street.

RedWednesday Campaign: 10th Anniversary on 18 November

ACN said it will mark the 10th anniversary of its RedWednesday campaign, which raises awareness about the persecution of Christians worldwide, on 18 November. The campaign date gives the report a next step beyond the launch, and it will test whether the attention gathered in London lasts past launch week.

The findings will now be read against fresh reporting from the countries the report names, including the Ethiopian Orthodox Church account of Christians killed in Oromia attacks, which arrived in the same week as the launch. The ACN report covers a period that ended in June 2026, so the months since then will show whether the direction it found has held or worsened.

John Pontifex asked what it will take for the world to act, and that question is still hanging in the air after the launch. The RedWednesday anniversary on 18 November will be the first clear moment to see who answers it, and the families who have already left their homes in Nigeria and Burkina Faso will be watching for more than words. What happens in the countries where conditions got worse, and whether any of them can be the first to get better, is the part of this story the next report will have to tell.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.