Buddhism by country

Percentage of Buddhists by country, according to the Pew Research Center.

Buddhism is practiced by an estimated 488 million in the world,^[1] 495 million,^[2] or 535 million^[3] people as of the 2010s, representing 7% to 8% of the world's total population.

China is the country with the largest population of Buddhists, approximately 244 million or 18.2% of its total population.^[1] They are mostly followers of Chinese schools of Mahayana, making this the largest body of Buddhist traditions. Mahayana, also practiced in broader East Asia, is followed by over half of world Buddhists.^[1]

The second largest body of Buddhist schools is Theravada, mostly followed in Southeast Asia.^[1] The third and smallest body of schools, Vajrayana, is followed mostly in Tibet, the Himalayan region, Mongolia and parts of Russia,^[1] but has been disseminated throughout the world.

According to a demographic analysis reported by Peter Harvey (2013):^[3]

• Eastern Buddhism (Mahayana) has 360 million adherents;
• Southern Buddhism (Theravada) has 150 million adherents; and
• Northern Buddhism (Vajrayana) has 18.2 million adherents.
• Seven million additional Buddhists are found outside Asia.

List of countries with largest Buddhist majority

There are 10 countries with the highest Buddhist percentage:

Buddhism by percentange as of 2010^[1]

Country[4]	Estimated Buddhist population	% of total Buddhist in country
Cambodia	13,701,660	96.90 %
Thailand	64,419,840	93.20 %
Myanmar	38,415,960	80.10 %
Bhutan	563,000	74.70 %
Sri Lanka	14,222,844	70.2 % [5]
Laos	4,092,000	66.00 %
Mongolia	1,520,760	55.10 %
Japan	84,653,000 or 45,807,480	67% or 36.2%[6]
Singapore	1,725,510	33.90 %
Taiwan	8,000,000 or 4,945,600	35% or 21.1%[7]
Nepal	1000000	10% or 12%

By country

Buddhism by country

Country/Territory	Population (2013)[8]	% Buddhist: 1. Pew, 2. ARDA.	Number of Buddhists
Afghanistan	24,108,077		0
Algeria	38,087,812
American Samoa	26,719
Angola	18,565,269
Argentina	42,610,981
Aruba	109,153
Australia	22,262,501		528,977
Austria	221,646
Bahamas	319,031
Bahrain	1,281,332
Bangladesh	159,654,860
Barbados	288,725
Belarus	9,625,888
Belgium	10,444,268
Belize	297
Bermuda	69,467
Bhutan	725,296
Bolivia	10,461,053
Botswana	2,127,825
Brazil	201,009,622
Brunei	415,717
Bulgaria	6,981,642
Burkina Faso	17,812,961
Burma (Myanmar)	55,167,330
Cambodia	15,205,539
Cameroon	20,549,221
Canada	34,568,211
Chad	11,193,452
Chile	17,216,945
China	1,349,585,838
Christmas Island	1,513
Colombia	45,745,783
Democratic Republic of the Congo	75,507,308
Republic of the Congo	4,492,689
Costa Rica	4,695,942
Côte d'Ivoire	22,400,835
Croatia	4,475,611
Cuba	11,394,043
Curaçao	146,836
Cyprus	1,155,403
Czech Republic	10,162,921
Denmark	5,556,452
Dominica	73,286
Dominican Republic	10,219,630
East Timor	1,172,390
Ecuador	15,439,429
Egypt	85,294,388
El Salvador	6,108,590
Estonia	1,266,375
Ethiopia	93,877,025
Falkland Islands	3,140
Federated States of Micronesia	106,104
Fiji	896,758
Finland	5,266,114
France	65,951,611
French Guiana	239,450
French Polynesia	277,293
Germany	81,147,265
Ghana	22,931,299
Greece	10,772,967
Guam	160,378
Guatemala	14,373,472
Guinea	11,176,026
Guyana	739,903
Haiti	9,893,934
Honduras	8,448,465
Hong Kong	7,182,724
Hungary	9,939,470
Iceland	315,281
India	1,220,800,359
Indonesia	251,160,124
Iran	79,853,900
Iraq	31,858,481
Ireland	4,775,982
Israel	7,707,042
Italy	61,482,297
Jamaica	2,909,714
Japan	127,253,075
Jordan	6,482,081
Kazakhstan	17,736,896
Kenya	44,037,656
North Korea	24,720,407
South Korea	48,955,203
Kuwait	2,695,316
Kyrgyzstan	5,548,042
Laos	6,695,166
Latvia	2,178,443
Lebanon	4,131,583
Lesotho	1,936,181
Liberia	3,989,703
Libya	6,002,347
Liechtenstein	37,009
Lithuania	3,515,858
Luxembourg	514,862
Macau	583,003
Macedonia	2,087,171
Madagascar	22,599,098
Malawi	16,777,547
Malaysia	29,628,392
Maldives	393,988
Mali	15,968,882
Malta	411,277
Martinique	403,795
Mauritius	1,322,238
Mexico	116,220,947
Mongolia	3,226,516
Montenegro	653,474
Morocco	32,649,130
Mozambique	24,096,669
Namibia	2,182,852
Nauru	9,434
Nepal	30,430,267
Netherlands	16,805,037
New Caledonia	264,022
New Zealand	4,365,113
Nicaragua	5,788,531
Nigeria	174,507,539
Northern Mariana Islands	51,170
Norway	4,722,701
Oman	3,154,134
Pakistan	193,238,868
Palau	21,108
Palestine	4,293,313
Panama	3,559,408
Papua New Guinea	6,431,902
Paraguay	6,623,252
Peru	29,849,303
Philippines	98,215,000	1,964,300[9]
Poland	38,383,809
Portugal	10,799,270
Puerto Rico	3,674,209
Qatar	2,042,444
Réunion	839,500
Romania	21,790,479
Russia	142,500,482
Saudi Arabia	26,939,583
Senegal	12,521,851
Serbia	10,150,265
Seychelles	90,846
Sierra Leone	5,612,685
Singapore	5,460,302
Slovakia	5,488,339
Slovenia	1,992,690
Solomon Islands	597,248
South Africa	48,601,098
Spain	47,370,542
Sri Lanka	21,675,648
Sudan	34,847,910
Suriname	566,846
Swaziland	1,403,362
Sweden	9,119,423
Switzerland	7,996,026
Taiwan	23,299,716
Tajikistan	7,910,041
Tanzania	48,261,942
Thailand	67,448,120
Togo	7,154,237
Tonga	106,322
Tunisia	10,835,873
Trinidad and Tobago	1,225,225
Turkey	80,694,485
Turkmenistan	5,113,040
Tuvalu	10,698
Uganda	34,758,809
Ukraine	44,573,205
United Arab Emirates	5,473,972
United Kingdom	63,395,574
United States	316,668,567		1,200,000
Uruguay	3,324,460
US Virgin Islands	104,737
Uzbekistan	28,661,637
Vanuatu	261,565
Venezuela	28,459,085
Vietnam	92,477,857
Yemen	25,408,288
Zambia	14,222,233
Zimbabwe	13,182,908
TOTAL	7,095,217,980	Pew: 7.1%	Pew: 487,540,000

By region

Buddhism by region in 2010^[1]

Region	Estimated total population	Estimated Buddhist population	%
Asia-Pacific	4,054,990,000	481,290,000	11.9%
North America	344,530,000	3,860,000	1.1%
Europe	742,550,000	1,330,000	0.2%
Middle East-North Africa	341,020,000	500,000	0.1%
Latin America-Caribbean	590,080,000	410,000	<0.1%
Total	6,895,890,000	487,540,000	7.1%

Ten countries with the largest Buddhist populations

Countries with the largest Buddhist populations as of 2010^[1]

Country	Estimated Buddhist population	% of the total population of the country	% of world Buddhist population
China	244,130,000	18.2%	46.4%
Thailand	64,420,000	93.2%	12.2%
Japan[10]	45,820,000[1]	36.2%[1]	9.4%
Myanmar	38,410,000	80.1%	7.3%
Sri Lanka	14,450,000	69.3%	2.8%
Vietnam	14,380,000	16.4%	2.7%
Cambodia	13,690,000	96.9%	2.9%
South Korea	11,050,000	22.9%	2.1%
India	9,250,000	0.8%	1.8%
Malaysia	5,010,000	17.7%	1%
Subtotal for the ten countries	499,465,520	18.1%	94.9%
Subtotal for the rest of the world	26,920,000	0.7%	5.1%
World total	526,373,000	7.3%	100%

note : Exact number of followers when calculating Buddhists varies because Buddhism is often mixed with the native East Asian religions in their respective countries for example in Japan the number of Buddhists when calculating including the Shintoists would ramp the percentage of Buddhists in Japan from 67% to >98%.

See also

• Neo-Confucianism
• East Asian Buddhism
• Buddhism and Eastern religions

Other religions:

• Hinduism by country
• Islam by country
• Judaism by country
• Christianity by country
• Sikhism by country
• Bahá'í statistics

General:

• List of religious populations
• Religions by country

External links

• The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2010
• CIA FactBook
• adherents.com

References

1. Pew Research Center, Global Religious Landscape: Buddhists.
2. Johnson, Todd M.; Grim, Brian J. (2013). The World's Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography (PDF). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 34–37. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
3. Harvey, Peter (2013). An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 5. ISBN 9780521676748. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
4. Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life (December 2012), The Global Religious Landscape: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010 (PDF), Pew Research Center, retrieved 9 October 2013
5. Department of Census and Statistics,The Census of Population and Housing of Sri Lanka-2011
8. CIA's The World Factbook: Populations as of July 2013
9. http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/countries/philippines/religious_demography#/?affiliations_religion_id=0&affiliations_year=2010