Covering

 

Yes. The key is to distinguish religious groups from geographical populations. There is no single worldwide survey asking every woman in every continent whether she covers her head, so a precise global ranking would be misleading.


The best comparable figures I found are:


Population Approx. % of women who cover their head/hair What the figure represents


🇮🇳 Indian women overall 61% Indian women who cover their heads outside the home

🇮🇳 Indian Muslim women 89% Cover their heads outside the home

🇮🇳 Indian Hindu women 59% Cover their heads outside the home

✡️ Israeli Jewish women 19% Wear a wig, snood, scarf or hat in public

✡️ Israeli married Jewish women 25% Any traditional head covering

✡️ Israeli Haredi women ~93% Any head covering (the survey categories total about 93%)

✡️ Married Haredi women 99% Any head covering

✡️ Israeli Dati women 62% Any head covering

☪️ U.S. Muslim women 43% Always or most of the time wearing hijab

🌍 African women overall No reliable continental % Africa is too religiously/culturally diverse for a defensible single figure

🇪🇺 European women overall No reliable continental % No comparable Europe-wide head-covering survey



The Indian figure is particularly strong because Pew interviewed 15,405 women across India in its nationally representative 2019–20 survey. It found that 61% of Indian women cover their heads outside the home, including 89% of Muslim women and 59% of Hindu women. 


Jewish vs. Muslim women


This is where the difference becomes especially interesting.


Among Israeli Jewish women, only about 19% reported wearing a head covering in public. But this rises dramatically according to religious observance: virtually all married Haredi women (99%) and 71% of married Dati women cover their heads. 


For Muslim women, the percentage varies enormously by country. For example, in India it is 89%, whereas among American Muslim women, Pew found 43% wear hijab always or most of the time. 


So, if we make a cautious comparison


Highest documented figures:


Married Haredi Jewish women — 99%

⬇

Indian Muslim women — 89%

⬇

Indian women overall — 61%

Israeli Dati women — ~62%

⬇

Israeli Jewish women overall — 19%

U.S. Muslim women — ~43%


But these aren't perfectly apples-to-apples because the surveys ask slightly different questions and cover different populations.


Africa and Europe


I would not give you an invented percentage for “African women” or “European women.” Africa contains Muslim-majority, Christian-majority and traditional societies, while Europe ranges from predominantly secular populations to substantial Muslim populations. Even within Muslim Africa, attitudes toward veiling differ substantially between countries. Pew's multinational research, for example, found major differences across Sub-Saharan African countries in attitudes toward women's veiling. 


One especially interesting finding: India is unusual because head covering isn't exclusively an Islamic practice. 59% of Hindu women also reported covering their heads outside the home, with particularly high levels in northern and central India—around 82–84% in some regions. 


If you want, I can take this one step further and , produce a **world map-style ranking of 20 countries with the highest percentage of women covering their heads**.separating **Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Christian and traditional-cultural head covering** where data exist




If you're asking Jewish women compared with Arab women in terms of head/hair covering, the clearest apples-to-apples data are for Israel, where both populations were surveyed.


Group Women covering head/hair in public


✡️ Israeli Jewish women ~19%

☪️ Israeli Arab women No directly comparable percentage in the Pew survey

✡️ Married Haredi Jewish women 99%

✡️ Married Dati Jewish women 71%



Pew found that 81% of Israeli Jewish women overall did not wear a traditional head covering, leaving about 19% who did. Among married Jewish women the figure was 25%. 


For Haredi Jewish women, the practice is dramatically more prevalent: 99% of married Haredi women reported some form of head covering. 


For Arab women, we need to be careful: the same Pew Israel survey did not publish an equivalent percentage for Arab women's everyday head covering, so I wouldn't invent a number. Arab women include Muslims, Christians and Druze, and Muslim Arab women themselves vary considerably by age, religiosity and location.


Bottom line: Jewish women overall in Israel have a relatively low rate of head covering (~19%), while Orthodox Jewish women—especially Haredi women—have extremely high rates. For Arab women, a reliable percentage requires a survey specifically measuring Arab women's head-covering practices.

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