Thailand has been recognized by the Pew Research Center as the country with the world's largest Buddhist population, home to approximately 68 million Buddhists who represent an overwhelming 94% of the nation's total population as of 2020.
While China ranks second globally with 53 million Buddhists, these practitioners account for only 4% of China's massive population, demonstrating that sheer numbers alone don't reflect Buddhism's cultural dominance within a society as powerfully as Thailand's near-universal adherence to the faith.
The research revealed that Buddhists form majorities in seven countries worldwide—Cambodia at 97%, Thailand at 94%, Myanmar at 89%, Bhutan at 75%, Sri Lanka at 70%, Laos at 64%, and Mongolia at 51%—with the top ten Buddhist-majority nations collectively housing 91% of the global Buddhist population estimated at 324 million people.
Pew Research Center data indicated that Buddhism stands as the only major religion to experience numerical decline between 2010 and 2020, losing approximately 18.6 million adherents primarily due to low birth rates in predominantly Buddhist countries combined with an aging demographic, as Buddhists maintain the highest average age at nearly 40 years among all major religious groups worldwide.
Nearly 98% of the world's Buddhists continue residing in the Asia-Pacific region where the religion originated, with Thailand's deeply embedded Buddhist traditions shaping daily life from monks receiving morning alms to nationwide participation in major festivals, solidifying the kingdom's position as the global center of Theravada Buddhism and the faith's most populous national stronghold.
