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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Statistical Decline of Buddhism?





From Flower Ornament Depository (one of the better Buddhist blogs out there)

In June of 2011 Ven. Dhammika on his blog reported that statistics in Singapore show over ten years from 2000 to 2010 the number of Buddhists dropped from 42.5% to 33.3%. He also noted that similar trends are to be found in Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I think the same thing can be said for Japan. While nominally people might identify as Buddhist, or even as a Shinto adherent, most people only walk into temples when someone has died or they're out visiting a historical site as a tourist.

It has been suggested that as Buddhism is transmitted into the western world a kind of "Western Buddhism"  might very well become a major component of the global Buddhist population. There is of course good reason for this given the statistics available which clearly have shown an interest in Buddhism in the English speaking world....


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