What percent of the American population is Buddhist?

Answer 1

One view

Historians have done extensive research and found that before 1600s, nearly 100% of the Chinese population was Buddhist. This was due to minimal contact to the outside world. However, in the late 1800s and the early 1900s immigrants flock to China and Japan.Within the immigrants, millions were either Christian or Catholic. Therefore, in the early 1900s, the Buddhist population fell from nearly 100% to 75%." Its seems like this is going to continue until less than 20% of the Chinese population is Buddhist."Says American historian,Jeffery Liggerman.

Another viewFrom the time of the Axial Age until the twentieth century, the Chinese people were divided among the major religions of Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, with smaller numbers adhering simply to the pre-Axial-Age beliefs. Many Chinese people respect two or more of these religions and so could not be regarded as purely Buddhist or purely Daoist, for example.

Since the introduction of communism, an unknown number of Chinese people have moved away from religion and can now be regarded as atheists, a similar story to what happened in parts of Eastern Europe. Confucianism is declining because of government disapproval of ancestor worship. An unknown number of Chinese people have also adopted Christianity. The visible evidence is that attendance at Christian churches is very small, but there may be somewhat greater numbers who worship privately in "house churches". Islam has a quite significant number of adherents, especially in the west of China. The fastest growing religion in China is said to be Falun Gong, an off-shoot of Buddhism, but this religion is banned and no meaningful information is available as to its numbers.

Among those who retain traditional religious affiliations, Daoism is stronger in rural areas and Buddhism is stronger in the cities. Allowing for dual association, the majority of Chinese people are Buddhist, followed by Daoism.

Answer 2

Christianity has a significant number of followers and is certainly growing in China, but reliable figures are hard to obtain. Christian commentators seem to overstate the number of Christians in China, while the existence of some underground churches, in addition to the normal churches, means that not all Christians are officially counted.

Recently, I attempted to get an idea of the number of Christians in China from anecdotal evidence. I visited a city of around two million people in eastern China and confirmed that it had two official churches - one Catholic and one Protestant. The Catholic church could seat several hundred people, said to be 500 but perhaps around 700 if necessary, and holds three Masses each Sunday, but was far from full on the day that I visited it. The Protestant church was much smaller, but its numbers overflowed, with believers listening to the service outside on loudpseakers or in assembly rooms on television screens. Overall, I estimated that around three thousand Christians regularly attend Sunday services in this city. I then considered the issue of the underground churches. Naturally, I was unable to visit one, but I assumed that in order to grow, they would have to approach young people likely to consider the new religion. On enquiry, I elicited surprise that underground churches even existed, suggesting that the presence was small or that no serious attempt was being made to win converts.

In another medium-sized city, I visited the major public cemetery, where I could identify the graves of those interred within the last twenty years and the last ten years, as new areas are opened up. Of the several hundred gravestones I looked at, I found only three that were identifiably Christian. My assumption was that the dead no longer have anything to fear from the authorities and that their living relatives would want them to be identified as Christians if that were the case.

This was not a very scientific poll and did not address the possibility of greater penetration in, say, the south of China or among the poorly educated rural population. Neverthless, it tended to confirm my existing belief that the percentage of Christians in China is still fairly low.

Answer 3

An accurate count of Buddhists in America as some people self identify as Buddhist but are not formally aligned with Buddhist organization, others follow Buddhist precepts without identifying themselves as Buddhist and others are officially Buddhist.

Estimates indicate that between 2 and 10 million Americans are Buddhist. This would put Buddhists at between 1% to 4% of the population. This would make Buddhism about the fourth most popular religion after after Christianity (78.4%), no religion (10.3%) and Judaism (1.7%).

Answer 4

According to the CIA Fact book of the 1,338,612,968 Chinese citizens, appx. 95% are Taoist or Buddhist; with the remainder being Christians 3-4% and Muslims 1-2%.

Wikipedia cites recent surveys placing the total number of Chinese Buddhists between 50% and 80%.

Answer 5

=China, liberal estimate (80.00%)==1,070,019,251==China, conservative estimate (50.00%)==668,762,032=

Answer 6

Ther are estimated between 350 million and 400 million buddhists in the world.

The world Popualtion is estimated at about 6,770,000,000

Which comes out to about 6%

Answer 7

it is spread large range 20-70%

Answer 8

Of coures 69%

Answer 9

93.2 % of Thai are Buddhist