About and sources
News about Christians, persecution and religious freedom, organized by country.
From source to map
Vigil checks the sources below automatically. News that meets the relevance criteria can be published, subject to reuse permissions and editorial exclusions.
Each point groups news associated with a country and opens the reports with links to their sources. Its position is approximate and does not identify an attack's location.
What the figures describe
The homepage figures describe news from the past 12 months, using each source's publication date. One report may mention several countries, and several reports may cover the same event.
These totals describe the available archive, without estimating victims or countries experiencing persecution. Documented deaths and published surveys appear separately.
Versions, corrections and the incident record
The separate incident record requires specific evidence. A reported incident has support from a named source; confirmation requires reviewed independent origins. Republications of one origin are insufficient. A victim's Christian identity alone does not establish a religious motive.
Changes to source text preserve earlier versions and trigger a new automatic analysis. Old associations are not inherited by the new version. Editorial country decisions take precedence over automatic classification of the same version.
The incident and death record
The documented-death record retains reviews identifying Christian victims, including cases where a religious motive was not established. Incidents and minimum death counts require their own evidence. These totals are not added to the news map.
Browse the death record by countryLimits of this record
News without an identified country remains available in Reports. Coverage is partial: no news about a country does not mean no persecution.
Feeds pulled
The list below shows the sources checked and the collection frequency. The available material may cover only part of each archive.
Geography and credits
Country names are supplied by the Countries dataset; globe boundaries use Natural Earth through world-atlas 2.0.2. Geographic boundaries do not express a position on territorial claims.
The geographic catalogue is unavailable in this response.
Published surveys
The surveys below have their own definitions and reporting periods. Their figures remain separate from news, the incident record and the map markers.
View published figures and periods
Send a correction
Identify the report and the source supporting your correction. Submissions enter a review queue and do not change the figures automatically.
Report a correction
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Copies in this browser
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Built and maintained by one person. Sources, reporting periods and limits accompany the records.