Which countries are the most "racist"?

Marine Le Pen leads the Rassemblement National, a French far-right party, and she leads the polls for next spring's Presidential election in France. Last Sunday on 60 MINUTES - the CBS news show - she said France is "the least racist" country in the world, suffering no discrimination.

This topic is personal to me. So I wondered if there is a rigorous way to establish a ranking of countries by level of "racism" or "discrimination".

As always, let's get the data. First, there is no unified metric, and none covers every country. 4 sources measure 4 different things on 4 sets of countries. But still there IS data. It's summarized in the three charts below.

1. What majorities say: Would you want a neighbour of a different race?

1% of Brazilians and 2% of Britons say no. The US, Argentina, France, Germany, Australia and Canada 3 to 4%. Japan, Russia, South Korea, Nigeria, Egypt and China 14 to 18%. India and Pakistan 25%; Turkey 41%, Vietnam 62%, Myanmar 70%. Of course this is what people ADMIT to, not necessarily what they think.

2. What Black minorities report (EU only): The EU Fundamental Rights Agency asked people of African descent whether they faced racial discrimination in the past year:

Poland 19%, Spain 23%, France 27%, Italy 33%, Germany 64%, average 34%.

3. What employers do (9 Western countries where white people are the majority of population): the test is to submit identical CVs but with different names, and then count the callbacks.

Across 97 studies, France has the widest gap between white and non-white applicants, 43% wider than the US. Germany the narrowest. White applicants get 65 to 100% more callbacks in France, 20 to 40% in Germany and the US. It's the hardest available evidence, but unfortunately I haven't found similar studies in other regions.

4. How strong the law is (23 countries): MIPEX scores anti-discrimination law 0 to 100.

Canada 100, US 97, UK 94, Argentina 88, Brazil 85, France 79, Germany 70, South Korea 51, Russia 22, China 19, Japan 16, India 9. Of course law is not all.

Bottom line:

France "Least racist in the world"? Sorry Mrs Le Pen, but "No discrimination" is contradicted by France's own tests, and by the French: 82% told Pew in 2021 that racial discrimination is a serious problem, top of 17 advanced economies, with Italy. This doesn't necessarily invalidate the policies she promotes, but I personally like claims backed by data.

What about the United States? Tolerant in words, one of the strongest laws, a large hiring gap but still among the narrowest measured. So I guess not that bad, relatively.

And China? 18% would not want a neighbour of a different race, six times the US. An anti-discrimination score of 19 out of 100. No minority survey, no field experiment. Where racism is probably highest, it is also the least measured.

Analysis: NeuronVentures