This map highlights the relations between the countries by religion. To a considerable degree, people with the same religion have similar values. With a few exceptions. For example, the Protestant countries in Africa have values closer to their Muslim neighbors than European Protestants. Another exception are Protestants in the former Soviet Union, who had values closer to other post-Soviet countries than to democratic Protestant countries. However, Estonia has begun to move in direction of the democratic Protestant countries, whereas Latvia is moving a lot slower in the same direction.

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The categorization of religion has not been without difficulties. In most countries, there is a majority of a specific religion. But in quite a few countries, there is no religious majority. We have therefore designated the country according to the religion with most followers. However, since Christianity is divided between Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox, we have designated a country as one of them if they together have more followers than any other religion. There is also a problem in more secular countries with declaring religious identity. Many people with Protestant parents, declare themselves as non-religious. This is primarily problematic in countries with Protestant and Catholic populations. Since most people from a Catholic background declare themselves as Catholics, whereas people with Protestant background declare themselves as non-religious, rather than Protestant. If religion is seen as a matter of relation to God, this gives a correct result. But if religion is viewed as cultural identity, it can give a somewhat distorted picture. The sources used for religious belonging has primarily been national censuses, PEW Research Center and the CIA World Factbook.

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SCRS have analyzed the Russian data in great detail and have published a report on the results of the latest wave (SCRS Report 2018:08, Recent Trends of Values in Russia). In the report, we focus on value differences concerning geography, gender, age, political leaning and several other factors within Russia.