A/HRC/37/49 communications). By comparison, 14 per cent were sent to the 102 States that do not identify with any particular religion (91 communications). Communications sent by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief to States Members of the United Nations, 2004–2017 Number of Member States Number of communications sent 81 412 States that do not identify with a religion 102 91 States with a negative view of religion 10 157 193 660 States with official or favoured religions Total 17. Similarly, a global study of religious restrictions and social hostility motivated by religion or belief illustrated a strong correlation between the degree to which a Government is entangled with religion and its propensity for protecting or violating freedom of religion or belief and/or combating religious intolerance.8 Some 24 (58.5 per cent) of the 41 States with an official State religion in that study imposed “very high” or “high” levels of restrictions on religious practices, while 11 (27.5 per cent) of the 40 States with favoured religion(s), imposed such restrictions in the period 2014–2015. Moreover, only 5 (4.9 per cent) of the 102 States that did not identify with religion engaged in these levels of interference with the prerogatives of religious communities, while all 10 of the States that had a negative view of the role of religion in public life in these studies imposed “high” or “very high” restrictions. 18. Social hostilities were the lowest in States with a negative view of religion in public life, with only one State having reportedly experienced a “high level” of social hostility motivated by religion, while 44 per cent of those States with an official religion were recorded as having experienced “very high” or “high levels” of social hostilities. In total, 22 per cent of States with preferred religion(s) and those that did not identify with religion experienced similar levels of social hostility. 1. States with official or favoured religion(s) 19. States that either officially identify with religion or favour one or more religions are grouped together in the above analysis due to common factors among them. Namely, their identification with religion(s) and the preferential treatment/support these States confer unto said religion(s). The differences among these States invariably lie, however, in the extent to which States with official or favoured religions are entangled with the institutions of their preferred religion. For the present discussion, therefore, these States are viewed as occupying a spectrum, with those States having nearly indiscernible demarcations between government and religious affairs (“religious States”) at one end, and those that identify with or favour a religion, but maintain distinct boundaries between religion and State (“secularlike States”), at the other. 20. The constitution or other founding documents of States with an official religion may declare a particular religion or a particular denomination of a religion to be the official or established religion of the State. The law may or may not provide further details about what such a privilege may entail, but typically the official religion of these States enjoys certain political, legal and financial privileges. 8 6 Pew Research Center, “Global Restrictions on Religion Rise Modestly in 2015, Reversing Downward Trend” (Washington, D.C., April 2017).