Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Religion and Spirituality in East Asian Societies
Many in East Asia who no longer identify with religion were raised Buddhist
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- Religion and Spirituality in East Asian Societies
- Religious disaffiliation in East Asia and Vietnam compared with select countries
- Few East Asians consider religion very important in their lives, but many make offerings to ancestors and believe in god or unseen beings
- The most common religion in Hong Kong, South Korea and Vietnam is ‘no religion’
- 53% of adults in Hong Kong and South Korea have changed their religious identity since childhood
- Many in East Asia who no longer identify with religion were raised Buddhist
- Buddhism has lost adherents to ‘religious switching’ in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea
- Rates of religious switching in East Asia higher than elsewhere in the world
- Religious disaffiliation rates in East Asia are among the world’s highest
- People in the region are more likely to engage with the spiritual world than to say religion is very important in their lives
- At least half of religiously unaffiliated adults in the places surveyed report recently offering food or drink to care for their ancestors
- In East Asia, most Buddhist-to-unaffiliated switchers and lifelong religiously unaffiliated adults have recently burned incense