[Buddha-l] Speaking of statistics

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Richard Hayes schreef:
> A while back we had fun speculating about what percentage of the population of 
> the PRC would identify themselves as Buddhist. In the same vein of 
> recreational pseudo-demographics, I offer the following link:
>
> http://www.uua.org/news/011205.html
>
> For those lacking the time to read the whole article, it says that more than 
> 16% of Unitarians identify themselves as Buddhist, compared to the 13% of 
> Unitarians who identify themselves as Christian. The survey of Unitarians 
> offered them twenty labels; respondents could apply as many as they fit their 
> beliefs and practices. when Unitarians were asked only one of the labels, 
> 9.5% chose Christian, and a smaller percentage chose Buddhist as a unique 
> label. 
>
> I wonder what percentage of Buddhists, given a list of 20 labels and asked to 
> choose only one to describe themselves, would choose the Buddhist label. My 
> completely unscientific guess is that the percentage would be very low, 
> perhaps barely above zero.
>
>   
So what are your conclusions, or maybe I should ask: what's your bias here?

To put it in perspective: how many Indian Buddhists would call 
themselves Hindu as well? How many Japannese Buddhists would call 
themselves also Shinto, how many Chinese Buddhists Confucian? I never 
saw any statistics, but I reckon these percentages would be well above zero.

-- 


Erik


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