Cross-National Comparison of Religion as a Predictor of COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

Abstract

We examined the effects of religiosity on COVID-19 vaccination rates 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 Christianity was negatively related to vaccination, while there was no relation with Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and nonbelief. 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 rates has also been described.