Cross-National Comparison Of Religion As A Predictor Of COVID-19 Vaccination Rate

Abstract We examined the effects of religiosity on COVID-19 vaccination rate using a cross-national comparison while controlling for socio-economic factors and culture. Our analysis, conducted on data from 90 countries representing 86% of the world population showed that the proportion of Christians was negatively related with vaccination, while there was no relation with the proportion of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and nonbelievers. The importance of religion, freedom of expression and belief, sex ratio, median age, and almost all cultural factors were not related to vaccination, whereas Human Development Index was. The influence of different religions on vaccination rate has also been described.