Buddhism by country

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

Buddhism is a religion 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	48,415,960	87.90%
Bhutan	563,000	74.70%
Sri Lanka	14,222,844	70.2% [5]
Laos	6,092,000	95.00%
South Korea	11,050,000	22%
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]
Vietnam	14,380,000	16.4%

By country

Population country

Country/Territory	Population (2013)[8]	% Buddhist: 1. Pew, 2. ARDA.	Number of Buddhists
Afghanistan	24,108,077	< 0.1%[1]
Algeria	38,087,812	< 0.1%[1]
American Samoa	26,719	0.3%[1]
Angola	25,789,024	< 0.1%[1]
Argentina	42,610,981	< 0.1%[1]
Aruba	109,153	0.1%[1]
Australia	22,262,501	2.7%[1]	528,977
Austria	8,629,519	0.2%[1]
Bahamas	319,031	< 0.1%[1]
Bahrain	1,281,332	2.5%[1]
Bangladesh	159,654,860	0.5%[1]
Barbados	288,725	< 0.1%[1]
Belarus	9,625,888	< 0.1%[1]
Belgium	10,444,268	0.2%[1]
Belize	324,528	0.5%[1]
Bermuda	69,467	0.5%[1]
Bhutan	725,296	74.7%[1]	563,000[1]
Bolivia	10,461,053	< 0.1%[1]
Botswana	2,127,825	< 0.1%[1]
Brazil	201,009,622	0.1%[1]
Brunei	415,717	8.6%[1]
Bulgaria	6,981,642	< 0.1%[1]
Burkina Faso	17,812,961	< 0.1%[1]
Burma (Myanmar)	55,167,330	87.90%[1]	48,415,960[1]
Cambodia	15,205,539	96.9%[1]	13,701,660[1]
Cameroon	20,549,221	< 0.1%[1]
Canada	34,568,211	0.8%[1]
Chad	11,193,452	< 0.1%[1]
Chile	17,216,945	< 0.1%[1]
China	1,349,585,838	18.2%[1]	244,130,000[1]
Christmas Island	1,513	< 0.1%[1]
Colombia	45,745,783	< 0.1%[1]
Democratic Republic of the Congo	75,507,308	< 0.1%[1]
Republic of the Congo	4,492,689	< 0.1%[1]
Costa Rica	4,695,942	< 0.1%[1]
Côte d'Ivoire	22,400,835	< 0.1%[1]
Croatia	4,475,611	< 0.1%[1]
Cuba	11,394,043	< 0.1%[1]
Curaçao	146,836
Cyprus	1,155,403	0.2%[1]
Czech Republic	10,162,921	< 0.1%[1]
Denmark	5,556,452	0.2%[1]
Dominica	73,286	0.1%[1]
Dominican Republic	10,219,630	< 0.1%[1]
East Timor	1,172,390
Ecuador	15,439,429	< 0.1%[1]
Egypt	85,294,388	< 0.1%[1]
El Salvador	6,108,590	< 0.1%[1]
Estonia	1,266,375	< 0.1%[1]
Ethiopia	93,877,025	< 0.1%[1]
Falkland Islands	3,140	< 0.1%[1]
Federated States of Micronesia	106,104	0.4%[1]
Fiji	896,758	< 0.1%[1]
Finland	5,266,114	< 0.1%[1]
France	65,951,611	0.5%[1]
French Guiana	239,450	< 0.1%[1]
French Polynesia	277,293	< 0.1%[1]
Germany	81,147,265	0.3%[1]
Ghana	22,931,299	< 0.1%[1]
Greece	10,772,967	< 0.1%[1]
Guam	160,378	1.1%[1]
Guatemala	14,373,472	< 0.1%[1]
Guinea	11,176,026	< 0.1%[1]
Guyana	739,903	< 0.1%[1]
Haiti	9,893,934	< 0.1%[1]
Honduras	8,448,465	0.1%[1]
Hong Kong	7,182,724	13.2%[1]
Hungary	9,939,470	< 0.1%[1]
Iceland	315,281	0.4%[1]
India	1,220,800,359	0.8%[1]	9,250,000
Indonesia	251,160,124
Iran	79,853,900	< 0.1%[1]
Iraq	31,858,481	< 0.1%[1]
Ireland	4,775,982
Israel	7,707,042	0.2%[1]
Italy	61,482,297	0.2%[1]
Jamaica	2,909,714	< 0.1%[1]
Japan	127,253,075	36.2%[1]	45,820,000[1]
Jordan	6,482,081	0.4%[1]
Kazakhstan	17,736,896	0.2%[1]
Kenya	44,037,656	< 0.1%[1]
North Korea	24,720,407	1.5%[1]
South Korea	48,955,203	22.9%[1]	11,050,000
Kuwait	2,695,316	2.8%[1]
Kyrgyzstan	5,548,042	< 0.1%[1]
Laos	6,695,166	66.1%[1]	4,092,000
Latvia	2,178,443	< 0.1%[1]
Lebanon	4,131,583	0.2%[1]
Lesotho	1,936,181	< 0.1%[1]
Liberia	3,989,703	< 0.1%[1]
Libya	6,002,347	0.3%[1]
Liechtenstein	37,009	< 0.1%[1]
Lithuania	3,515,858	< 0.1%[1]
Luxembourg	514,862	< 0.1%[1]
Macau	583,003	17.3%[1]
Macedonia	2,087,171	< 0.1%[1]
Madagascar	22,599,098	< 0.1%[1]
Malawi	16,777,547	< 0.1%[1]
Malaysia	29,628,392	17.7%[1]
Maldives	393,988	0.6%[1]
Mali	15,968,882	< 0.1%[1]
Malta	411,277	< 0.1%[1]
Martinique	403,795	< 0.1%[1]
Mauritius	1,322,238	< 0.1%[1]
Mexico	116,220,947	< 0.1%[1]
Mongolia	3,226,516	55.1%[1]	1,520,760
Montenegro	653,474	< 0.1%[1]
Morocco	32,649,130	< 0.1%[1]
Mozambique	24,096,669	< 0.1%[1]
Namibia	2,182,852	< 0.1%[1]
Nauru	9,434	1.1%[1]
Nepal	30,430,267	10.3%[1]
Netherlands	16,805,037	0.2%[1]
New Caledonia	264,022	0.6%[1]
New Zealand	4,365,113	1.6%[1]
Nicaragua	5,788,531	< 0.1%[1]
Nigeria	174,507,539	< 0.1%[1]
Northern Mariana Islands	51,170	10.6%[1]
Norway	4,722,701	0.6%[1]
Oman	3,154,134	0.8%[1]
Pakistan	193,238,868	< 0.1%[1]
Palau	21,108	0.8%[1]
Palestine	4,293,313	< 0.1%[1]
Panama	3,559,408	0.2%[1]
Papua New Guinea	6,431,902	< 0.1%[1]
Paraguay	6,623,252	< 0.1%[1]
Peru	29,849,303	0.2%[1]
Philippines	98,215,000	2 %	1,964,300[9]
Poland	38,383,809	< 0.1%[1]
Portugal	10,799,270	0.6%[1]
Puerto Rico	3,674,209	0.3%[1]
Qatar	2,042,444	3.1%[1]
Réunion	839,500	0.2%[1]
Romania	21,790,479	< 0.1%[1]
Russia	142,500,482	0.1%[1]
Saudi Arabia	26,939,583
Senegal	12,521,851	0.3%[1]
Serbia	10,150,265	< 0.1%[1]
Seychelles	90,846	< 0.1%[1]
Sierra Leone	5,612,685
Singapore	5,460,302	33.9%[1]
Slovakia	5,488,339	< 0.1%[1]
Slovenia	1,992,690	< 0.1%[1]
Solomon Islands	597,248	0.3%[1]
South Africa	48,601,098	0.2%[1]	1+
Spain	47,370,542	< 0.1%[1]
Sri Lanka	21,675,648	69.3%[1]	14,222,844
Sudan	34,847,910	< 0.1%[1]
Suriname	566,846	0.6%[1]
Swaziland	1,403,362	< 0.1%[1]
Sweden	9,119,423	0.4%[1]
Switzerland	7,996,026	0.4%[1]
Taiwan	23,299,716	21.3%[1]
Tajikistan	7,910,041	< 0.1%[1]
Tanzania	48,261,942	< 0.1%[1]
Thailand	67,448,120	93.2%[1]	64,420,000
Togo	7,154,237	< 0.1%[1]
Tonga	106,322
Tunisia	10,835,873	< 0.1%[1]
Trinidad and Tobago	1,225,225	0.3%[1]
Turkey	80,694,485	< 0.1%[1]
Turkmenistan	5,113,040	< 0.1%[1]
Tuvalu	10,698	< 0.1%[1]
Uganda	34,758,809	< 0.1%[1]
Ukraine	44,573,205	< 0.1%[1]
United Arab Emirates	5,473,972	2.0%[1]
United Kingdom	63,395,574	0.4%[1]
United States	316,668,567	1.2%[1]	1,200,000
Uruguay	3,324,460	< 0.1%[1]
US Virgin Islands	104,737	< 0.1%[1]
Uzbekistan	28,661,637	< 0.1%[1]
Vanuatu	261,565	< 0.1%[1]
Venezuela	28,459,085	< 0.1%[1]
Vietnam	92,477,857	16.4%[1]	14,380,000
Yemen	25,408,288	< 0.1%[1]
Zambia	14,222,233	< 0.1%[1]
Zimbabwe	13,182,908	< 0.1%[1]
TOTAL	7,095,217,980	Pew: 7.1%[1]	Pew: 487,540,000[1]

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[6][1]	45,820,000	36.2%	9.4%
Myanmar	38,410,000	87.90%	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
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 June 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-06.
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