Countries With the Most Buddhists 2020

What this chart shows. The 25 countries with the most Buddhists in 2020, in millions of people. Thailand had the most, 67.6 million, 94.4% of its population, ahead of China with 53.4 million and Myanmar with 47.2 million. Japan was a close fourth with 47.0 million.

How the data is collected. The figures are from the dataset behind Pew Research Center's 2025 report "How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020", which gives estimates for both years. Pew publishes rounded and unrounded counts; this chart uses the rounded ones, which are given to the nearest 10,000.

Background. Buddhists were the only one of Pew's seven groups to shrink between 2010 and 2020, from 342.8 million to 324.2 million, a fall of 5.4%. China's count dropped 29.9%, from 76.1 million to 53.4 million, which put Thailand in first place. Japan (-12.3%) and South Korea (-21.0%) also had fewer Buddhists than in 2010.

Limits. The chart counts people who identify as Buddhists. Pew puts folk and traditional religions in a separate "other religions" category and people with no religion in another, so these counts do not include them. Wikipedia's table of Buddhism by country repeats these same Pew figures, so it is not an independent check. Cambodia had the highest Buddhist share among the 25, 97.1%.