Huge rise in Christian persecution worldwide revealed in 2021 World Watch List Huge rise in Christian persecution worldwide revealed in 2021 World Watch List 15 Jan 2021 opendoorsuk.org More than 340 million Christians worldwide experienced high levels of persecution in 2020, with 4,761 killed for their faith, a new report has revealed. The annual World Watch List produced by Christian charity Open Doors showed this is a huge increase on previous years; the 2019 figure was around 260 million. For the first time, the charity categorised all of the 50 worst countries in the world as exhibiting “very high” or “extreme” levels of persecution towards Christians – affecting 309 million people.