Determining the most racist countries in the world can be difficult, and the results might not be consistent from one study to the next. The problem with racism is that it is a hard variable to measure. Although there is no complexity within the trait of racism, it can be quite difficult to determine if someone is racist or not based on a questionnaire, which is how the majority of research into racism is conducted.

Two different articles published about three years apart by separate entities showed common finds in regard to the most racist countries in the world. In 2013, an article written by was posted on the official Washington Post website. In discussing the racism factor around the world, the article dubbed India as being the most racist country in the world. Three years later, a 2016 article on the topic of most racist countries in the world was released by Business Tech.

Though the articles were independently written and not produced under a collaborative effort between the two news sources, both articles discussed similar approaches to determining if the participants in the studies were or were not racist. This procedure is a way of highlighting why it is difficult to definitively say that a country is racist overall. The main question posed to each of the participants of every country was asking if said participants would be comfortable being neighbors with people of a race that was not the same as the participants’ race.

While the answer that someone provides when presented with this question can allude to potential racism, it is not a bulletproof way of identifying racist people. Not even the act of hooking people up to lie detectors and directly asking them if they are racist can pinpoint racist people without fail. And yet this example is far more likely to produce more accurate results than just asking people how they feel about the race of their neighbors.

The subjective nature of racism was highlighted and considered when designing the study. Another question was asked alongside the question regarding the nature of the skin color of neighbors. Participants were asked to share whether or not they have ever witnessed racist behavior being extended by someone in their country or if they were ever victims of racism.

Though there are a few faults to be found within this research-based systematic procedure, we will use the results of the study that made use of a question-and-answer system to figure out which countries were most racist. According to the findings of this research-based inquiry, the most racist country on Earth is India, followed by Lebanon, Bahrain, Libya, and Egypt.

As part of the study, the countries were placed into respective groups according to the percentage of people who answered in a racist manner when met with the two questions. The breakdown of categories involved seven different groups that a country could potentially fall into based on the majority of the answers collected from participants…

0% - 4.9%

5% - 9.9%

10% - 14.9%

15% - 19.9%

20% - 29.9%

30% - 39.9%

40% or greater

India

India ranks as number one for the most racist country of all countries that were included in the study. Located in Southern Asia, India has a population size of roughly 1.3 billion people. The most prevalent ethnicities in India are people of Tamil, Nepali, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Malayalam, and Kashmiri descent. These ethnic groups are all ones that originate in India, meaning that most of the people who live in India are Indian themselves.

Unlike countries like the United States that are founded on the basic principle of cultural differences and a mixing pot, if you will, India is home to people originally from the country -- as opposed to having a population comprised of immigrants who moved to the country from elsewhere later on in their lives. This detail is a huge contributing factor as to why India has been named the most racist country over the years. Approximately 43.6% of all Indian people who took the survey said that they would not be comfortable with neighbors who were of different cultures, ethnicities, or races than themselves. A heightened percentage of 64.3% of the participants from India also reported that they were either discriminated against or witnessed discrimination unfold in their home country.

India is a country with a population with little diversity in terms of nationality. Most people identify as Indian, though their ethnicities can definitely differ depending upon the area of India in which they reside or were born. Either way, if you are not used to seeing or interacting with people of different races, then it might be a bit of a cultural shock to suddenly be asked to envision yourself being neighbors with someone of different nationality than yours.

Lebanon

The demographic of Lebanon is primarily Arab people. Again, just like India, Lebanon is a country comprised of people who share a similar ethnic background. The population is split nearly fifty-fifty between Christians and Muslims, with about 40.5% of Lebanese people identifying as Christian, roughly 54% following Muslim doctrine, and the other 5.5% of the population believing in other religions.

The point to be made here is that Lebanon does not have a high level of diversity within the country's borders, meaning the people are well-acquainted with people of similar races and therefore would be averse to mingling with other races for the sole reason that they are not used to doing so in a day-by-day setting.

Bahrain

Third on the list of most racist countries is Bahrain, which is a country in the Persian Gulf and just off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Bahrain has a population that is predominately Middle Eastern individuals, but the country is home to a decent percentage of South Asian people as well. A little under 50% of people in Bahrain are Bahrainis, too. Of the people who live in Bahrain without having been born in the country, Indians make up the highest percentile of immigrants. Bahrain scored a 31.1% and 85.7% as part of the study in discussion.

Libya

The majority of people in Libya are Arabic. Other ethnic groups included in Libya's population are Tunisians, Egyptians, Dawada, Italians, Maltese, Greeks, Pakistanis, Turks, and Indians. As part of the study, it was found that about 54% of people in Libya's group would not be fine with living next door to people of another race, whereas 39.7% of the population said that they've either been the victim or the witness of discriminatory behavior in Libya.

Egypt

Egypt’s population is comprised of mostly Egyptians, born and raised in Egypt. They account for 91% of the population, with the remaining 9% made up of Bedouin Arabs, Abazas, Turks, and Greeks. As you can see, the concluding remarks regarding the findings of this study for Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, and Lebanon are very much in alignment with the ones regarding India. It is difficult to determine whether someone is racist or not on the basis of the two questions posed by the researchers.