S. KOREA: Religious Demographic Profile

According to the most recent Korean Census that includes data on religion,¹ 49.3% of the population has no religion, 26.3% is Christian and 23.2% is Buddhist.

Of the Christian groups, Protestants account for 19.7% of the population and Catholics for 6.6%. The next largest group is Confucians (0.5%). A number of smaller groups account for the remaining 0.7%.

Religious Affiliation, Censuses

	1995	1985
No Religion	49.3%	57.4%
Christian	26.3%	20.7%
Protestant	19.7%	16.1%
Catholic	6.6%	4.6%
Buddhist	23.2%	19.9
Confucian	0.5%	1.2%
Other	0.7%	0.8%

In the decade between the 1985 and 1995 Censuses, the number of those with no religion decreased by 8.1 percentage points, from 57.4% to 49.3%. The number of Confucians also declined. This decline is matched by increases for both Christians and Buddhists. During the same 10-year period, the number of Christians increased by 5.6 percentage points, from 20.7% to 26.3% (Catholics gained 2.0 points and Protestants 3.6), and the number of Buddhists increased by 3.3 percentage points.

The trend shown in the Korean Censuses is similar to the findings of the World Values Survey (WVS)², which conducted surveys in Korea in 1982, 1990, 1996 and 2001. Between its 1982 and 2001 surveys, WVS shows a drop of 11.3 percentage points for those with no religion, from 48.3% to 37.0%. The percentage of Christians increased by 15.8 points during the same time period, going from 23.5% to 39.3%. According to the WVS findings, however, the number of Buddhists declined by 7.1 percentage points during that period, from 27.9% to 20.8%.

The 2006 Forum survey of adults ages 18 and older was based on a national probability sample of Korea's urban population.³ In the survey, approximately 42% were unaffiliated, 25% identified themselves as Protestant, 10% as Catholic, 22% as Buddhist and 1% as other. These findings are generally in line with the trend toward greater Christian affiliation, and lower percentages of non-affiliated, reflected in the Korean Censuses as well as WVS.

According to the Forum survey, renewalists - including charismatics and pentecostals - account for approximately one-in-ten of Korea's urban population. Approximately four-in-ten Protestants are either pentecostal or charismatic, and roughly one-in-ten Catholics can be classified as charismatic.

Renewalists in Urban South Korea,

Forum 2006 Survey

	Renewalist	Pentecostal	Charismatic
Total Population	11%	2%	9%
Catholic	12%	NA	12%
Protestant	37%	9%	29%

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Notes

¹Summary religious adherence data for Korea's 1985 and 1995 Censuses are archived at http://unstats.un.org. Data on religion from the 2005 Census were not available at the time of publication.

²http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/ See the introduction to this appendix for a discussion of the limitations of general population surveys for making demographic projections.

³See the introduction to the survey report for a discussion of survey methodology and definitions.

Methodology

Source:  Pew Forum