[Buddha-l] legitimizing unwed mothers in S Korea

[Dan Lusthaus]

Figures vary according to who is tabulating, and the criteria of 
tabulation -- hence my caveat.

Some alternate figures:

"About half the population of Korea is Buddhist. Most Koreans, even though 
they may not call themselves Buddhists, maintain a Buddhist view of life and 
the afterworld."
http://www.buddhismtoday.com/english/world/country/027-korea.htm


The figures you quote are from the PEW forum
http://pewforum.org/world-affairs/countries/?CountryID=194

We've debated the veracity of those figures on this list before (check the 
list archives)

Some understand the 23% figure to represent "self-proclaimed" Buddhists 
(hence, notice the additional caveat in the Buddhismtoday statement).

Some indeed consider Buddhism virtually an eclipsed religion in Korea today: 
A blog, speaking of the celebration of Buddha's b'day, states:

"With only 20% of the Korean population being Buddhists, sometimes this 
celebration goes unnoticed by the wider population."
http://www.transparent.com/korean/tag/buddhist-birthday/

Some put the number of Buddhists at 40%
http://www.fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Korean_Buddhism

The website of the Jogye Order (formerly Choegye) more optimistically 
announces:

"According to 2003 statistics released by the government, 53.9 percent of 
the Korean population claimed religious affiliation, with Buddhism, 
Protestantism or Catholicism accounting for 97.5 percent of believers. Of 
these, about 12 million, or about 47 percent were Buddhist. Currently there 
are 25 Buddhist orders belonging to the Association of Korean Buddhist 
Orders, among which the Jogye Order is the largest."
http://www.koreanbuddhism.net/jokb/content_view.asp?cat_seq=27&content_seq=197&page=1

Deciphered that would mean that 47% of the 53.9% of the population who 
profess religious belief are Buddhist, or roughly a quarter of the 
population as a whole.

Not being a census taker myself, I have no way to adjudicate the 
disparities. So let's be vague and say that somewhere between a fifth to 
half of the Korean population is Buddhist, give or take a few percentage 
points. How's that?

Dan


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Bovee/www.daypoems.net" <tbovee at gmail.com>
To: "Buddhist discussion forum" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 3:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] legitimizing unwed mothers in S Korea


> On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 11:51 AM, Dan Lusthaus 
> <vasubandhu at earthlink.net>wrote:
>> ... simply by the fact that the majority of S. Koreans are Buddhists, at
> least nominally ...
>
> The CIA World Fact Book puts the religious breakdown of South Korea as
> follows:
>
> "Christian 26.3% (Protestant 19.7%, Roman Catholic 6.6%), Buddhist 23.2%,
> other or unknown 1.3%, none 49.3% (1995 census)"
>
> Not nit-picking. Just curious about your source.
> -- 
> Tim Bovee, DayPoems.net
> tbovee at gmail.com | Portland, OR 97213
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