ABSTRACT
This article has two goals. First, clusters of restrictions on religious freedom (or religious restraint) are defined and characterized worldwide, based on religious, cultural, political, economic, social and demographic factors. Second, three explanatory models of religious restraint are developed, based on these factors. The analysis is based on the Pew Research Center, both in terms of government restrictions and social hostilities, and in its four groups (low, moderate, high and very high). The main explanatory factor of religious restraint is the percentage of unorthodox Christians, the most important in all three models, plus the population size, freedom, religious fractionation and Muslim minority, whose importance varies by model.
religious restraint; world; clusters; factors