10 of the Most Conservative Countries in the World, According to Global Values Research
“Conservative” may sound like a familiar political label, but it changes dramatically once it crosses an international border. In the United States, conservatism often refers to Republican politics, lower taxes, limited government and traditional social positions. Around the world, researchers are more likely to measure conservatism through attitudes toward religion, family authority, gender roles, national identity and individual freedom.
One of the broadest attempts to map those differences comes from the World Values Survey, a long-running research project examining beliefs across societies. Its 2023 cultural map uses surveys from the joint World Values Survey and European Values Study round conducted between 2017 and 2022, with earlier information used for some countries. Altogether, 111 countries and societies appear on the map.
What does conservative mean?
The World Values Survey does not publish a simple table declaring one nation the world’s most conservative. Instead, it places countries on two major scales: traditional versus secular-rational values, and survival versus self-expression values.
Traditional values emphasize religion, family loyalty, respect for authority, national pride and conventional ideas about marriage. They are also associated with stronger opposition to divorce, abortion, euthanasia and suicide. Survival values place security, social order and economic stability ahead of personal autonomy and individual expression.
For this article, the countries were selected from those positioned deepest in the map’s traditional and survival-values area. It is better to view them as a cluster than as an ironclad one-through-ten ranking.
Their placement describes average survey responses, not every citizen. A young professional in Doha, a rural family in Ghana, and a university student in Bangladesh may hold completely different beliefs despite living inside the same national borders.
Qatar sits at the map’s deepest traditional edge
Qatar appears at the lowest point on the traditional versus secular-rational axis of the 2023 map. It also remains on the survival-values side, placing it farther into the traditional-survival corner than any other society displayed.
That position does not mean Qataris reject technology, international business or modern infrastructure. The country is wealthy, highly urbanized and internationally connected. Instead, the result suggests that rapid material development can coexist with strong religious beliefs, family expectations, and respect for established social authority.
Qatar’s placement reveals one of the most interesting lessons in the research. Modern skyscrapers and high incomes do not automatically produce secular attitudes. Cultural values may shift more slowly than a country’s economy, especially when religion, family institutions and national traditions remain deeply influential.
Ghana and Tanzania reveal Africa’s traditional core
Ghana and Tanzania are also positioned near the bottom of the map. Both combine strong traditional values with relatively low self-expression scores, although Ghana sits farther toward the survival side.
In practical terms, their survey responses indicate societies where religious faith, family duty, community expectations and respect for authority remain powerful. Individual decisions may therefore be judged not only as personal choices but also by how they affect relatives, religious communities and wider social networks.
This helps explain why Western political labels can become misleading. A person may support government economic assistance, public investment or state ownership while holding deeply conservative views about family life and morality.
Social conservatism does not always come packaged with free-market economics. In many countries, traditional cultural attitudes coexist with political and economic positions that Americans might consider left-leaning.
Libya carries the weight of tradition and insecurity
Libya appears deep inside the African-Islamic cluster, with strong traditional values and a clear emphasis on survival rather than self-expression. Its location reflects public attitudes captured through the research, not a direct score of the country’s government or legal system.
That distinction matters. The World Values Survey measures what people prioritize, including religion, security, family authority and personal autonomy. It does not simply count restrictive laws or examine which party controls the state.
Research associated with the cultural map argues that insecurity can push populations toward survival values. When people experience economic instability, violence or weak institutions, immediate safety and social order may take priority over experimentation, individual expression or rapid cultural change. Libya demonstrates why conservatism can be about more than inherited belief. It can also become a protective response to uncertainty.
Jordan, Bangladesh and Pakistan form a powerful traditional belt
Jordan, Bangladesh and Pakistan sit close together in the map’s lower-left region. Each shows a combination of traditional beliefs and survival-oriented priorities, although their precise positions differ.
The World Values Survey has specifically identified Bangladesh and Jordan as examples of societies with high traditional and survival scores. Earlier analysis also described several predominantly Muslim societies, including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Jordan, as forming a relatively compact cultural group in the southwest section of the map.
Religion is only part of that story. Extended families, community reputation, expectations surrounding marriage and respect for elders can shape everyday decisions just as strongly.
These cultural systems can provide belonging, support and continuity. However, they may also create intense pressure on people whose lives do not fit established expectations, particularly women, religious minorities and younger adults seeking greater independence.
Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria complete the cluster
Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria also appear strongly traditional and survival-oriented. Saudi Arabia sits slightly farther toward self-expression than Yemen or Nigeria, but all three remain in the map’s lower half.
Their inclusion shows that traditional values are not limited to one region. Yemen and Saudi Arabia share historical and religious connections in the Arabian Peninsula, while Nigeria contains enormous ethnic, regional and religious diversity.
Nigeria is especially important because a national average can hide major internal differences. Attitudes in Lagos may differ sharply from attitudes in smaller communities, just as perspectives may vary between the country’s northern and southern regions.
Separate international polling also illustrates how strongly conservative social attitudes can appear in Nigeria. In a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, just 1% of Nigerian respondents said homosexuality should be accepted by society. Yet even that single statistic cannot fully describe a country of hundreds of communities and competing cultural traditions.
Economic security can quietly reshape moral priorities
The cultural map is not arguing that poverty automatically creates conservative people. Its theory is more subtle: when survival feels uncertain, communities often place greater value on order, trusted institutions and familiar social rules.
As countries become wealthier, safer, better educated and less dependent on agriculture, younger generations often move toward secular and self-expression values. That movement can include stronger support for personal choice, gender equality, political participation and tolerance of lifestyles that once faced widespread rejection.
The change is neither immediate nor guaranteed. Religious traditions, colonial history, war, migration and political institutions can continue shaping values long after economic conditions improve.
Gender attitudes also remain deeply rooted worldwide. The United Nations Development Program’s 2023 Gender Social Norms Index found that nearly nine out of ten people covered by the study held at least one fundamental bias against women. Conservatism surrounding gender roles is therefore not confined to the countries at the bottom of one cultural map.
The countries missing from the list matter too
Readers may wonder why Afghanistan, North Korea or other frequently described conservative states do not dominate the findings. The answer is simple: reliable international comparisons require credible, nationally representative survey data.
Countries affected by war, extreme repression or limited access can be difficult or impossible to survey consistently. A nation’s absence from the map should never be interpreted as evidence that it is more liberal than the countries included.
The 2023 map also combines the latest joint survey round with earlier information for countries that were not recently surveyed. That means the countries were not all measured in precisely the same year. The ongoing eighth World Values Survey wave, launched for 2024 through 2026, is examining attitudes toward family, religion, gender, tolerance, authoritarianism, migration and other changing issues.
Future results may move some countries in surprising directions. Generational change, internet access, urbanization and migration are already exposing millions of people to ideas that previous generations rarely encountered.
This is a map of values, not a verdict on people
Calling a country conservative can easily become an insult when the term is stripped of context. The research does not say that traditional societies are culturally inferior or that secular societies have solved every social problem.
Traditional communities may offer strong family bonds, shared moral expectations and reliable networks of support. More individualistic societies may provide greater personal freedom but also struggle with isolation, weaker community ties and declining trust.
The real value of the research is not the opportunity to crown one country the “most conservative.” It is the reminder that people define freedom, duty, family and morality through vastly different historical experiences.
Qatar, Ghana, Libya, Tanzania, Jordan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria stand among the societies closest to the traditional-survival end of the latest global map. But the map is a snapshot, not a permanent identity. Values can move slowly for decades, then change rapidly when a new generation decides that the old rules no longer answer the world it has inherited.
