Buddhism

As of October 4, 2007,* Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world. It is lead only by Christianity, Muslim, and Hinduism. Of approximately 6.6 billion inhabitants in the world, there are about 375.4 million adherents of Buddhism or 5.69% of the population.** Comparatively, the world consists of approximately 2.1 billion Christians or 31.91% of the population.** Of those, 369.8 million are Protestant or 5.60% of the population.** Approximately 98.39% of those who follow Buddhism can be found in Asia, which is about 369.4 million Buddhists. This number is a little less than the amount of Protestants worldwide. North America is a distant second to Asia containing only about 0.82% of the Buddhist population, or about 3.1 million adherents. Therefore, it can be clearly speculated that Asia is much more concentrated with Buddhism than anywhere else in the world.

Similarly, one would come more closely to running into one of the Buddhist faith in Cambodia than anywhere else in the world, because Cambodia contains the highest concentration of Buddhist. According to “The Joshua Project,” the Central Intelligence Agency, and The World Almanac & Book of Facts, about 95.0% of the population of Cambodia, 94.6% of the population of Thailand, 89% of the population of Burma, 84% of the population of Japan, and 80% of the population of China are of the Buddhist faith. Amazingly, Japan leads the world in the number of Buddhist adherents with about 107.0 million inhabitants, and Cambodia does not make the top five. After Japan we find the following: China with 102.0 million, Thailand with 61.6 million, Burma with 42.2 million, and North Korea with 15.0 million. Buddhists also inhabit, but are not limited to, Nepal, Vietnam, Australia, and the United States. In the United States, only about 2% of the Buddhist population can be found, which is about 6.0 million citizens. The United States also contains about 228.9 million Christians, which is 76% of the nation; and of those about 156.5 million are Protestant.

*All statistics were gathered from “The Joshua Project,” the World Fact Book, and the World Almanac & Book of Facts; all of which were updated in 2007, the most recent updated October 4, 2007.

**There are discrepancies between the percentage figures that the World Fact Book, “The Joshua Project,” and the World Almanac & Book of Facts, offer. In the World Fact Book, it is stated there are: Buddhists – 5.89%, Christians – 33.03%, and Protestants – 5.80%. However, it is interesting to see that the other figures offered are the same.

Bibliography

Buddhanet.net. 2007. <http: e-learning="e-learning" history="history" statistics.htm="statistics.htm" www.buddhanet.net="www.buddhanet.net">. 10 Oct 2007.

“The Joshua Project.” Gospelcom.net. 1 Oct 2007. <http: countries.php="countries.php" rog3="NP" www.joshuaproject.net="www.joshuaproject.net">. 10 Oct 2007. “Religion.” World Almanac & Book of Facts. 2007. p:711-722.

World Fact Book. Central Intellignece Agency. 4 Oct 2007. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/xx.html>. 10 Oct 2007.