Many adults in East Asia and neighboring Vietnam have no religious affiliation. By some measures, the region seems like one of the least religious in the world. Yet many people in the region – including the religiously unaffiliated – hold religious or spiritual beliefs and engage in traditional rituals.
These findings come from a 2023 Pew Research Center survey of more than 10,000 adults in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. This survey builds on previous Center studies on religion in China, India, and South and Southeast Asia.
Here are six key findings about religion and spirituality in East Asia and Vietnam.
This analysis is drawn from the Pew Research Center report “Religion and Spirituality in East Asian Societies.” For that report, we surveyed 10,390 adults across East Asia and neighboring Vietnam. Local interviewers administered the survey in seven languages from June to September 2023.
Interviews were conducted over the phone in four places: Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In Vietnam, interviews took place face-to-face.
This survey is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.
Respondents were selected using a probability-based sample design. Data was weighted to account for different probabilities of selection and to align with demographic benchmarks for the adult population.
For more information, refer to the report’s methodology and the full survey questionnaire.
Typically, East Asia is considered to encompass China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan. In geopolitical terms, Vietnam is often categorized as part of Southeast Asia. But we surveyed Vietnam along with East Asia for several reasons, including its historic ties to China and Confucian traditions. Moreover, Buddhists in Vietnam practice the same strain of Buddhism (Mahayana) found across East Asia.
Throughout this report, the term “East Asia” refers to Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
When discussing trends throughout the broader “region,” we include Vietnam.
For legal and logistical reasons, we did not survey several other places that are generally considered part of East Asia. At present, China does not allow non-Chinese organizations to conduct surveys on the mainland, and public opinion surveys are not possible in North Korea. Conducting nationally representative surveys in Mongolia is difficult due to the nomadic lifestyle of a large part of its people. We did not survey Macau because its population is relatively small.
Most people in the region say they either have no religion or identify as Buddhist. In three places surveyed, the religiously unaffiliated are the largest group. Roughly half or more adults in Hong Kong (61%), South Korea (52%) and Vietnam (48%) say they have no religion. Substantial shares in Japan (42%) and Taiwan (27%) say the same.
Buddhism is also prevalent in the region: 46% of Japanese, 38% of Vietnamese and 28% of Taiwanese adults identify as Buddhist. In both South Korea and Hong Kong, 14% of adults are Buddhist.
Substantial shares in South Korea and Hong Kong identify as Christian, and Taiwan has a sizable number of Daoists (also spelled Taoists).
Relatively few adults say religion is very important in their lives, but many hold spiritual beliefs. In the five places we surveyed, no more than 26% of adults say religion is very important in their lives. However, most adults say they believe in god or unseen beings, like deities or spirits.
Many people also view nature as having invisible spirits. In Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam, about half of adults or more say they believe that mountains, rivers or trees have their own spirits.
Religiously unaffiliated adults believe in god or unseen beings at lower rates than Christians and Buddhists do. However, at least four-in-ten unaffiliated adults in each place express these beliefs.
Moreover, religiously unaffiliated people are generally more likely than Christians to believe that mountains, rivers or trees have their own spirits. For instance, in Hong Kong, 35% of unaffiliated adults say this, compared with 25% of Christians.
Large shares participate in ancestor veneration rituals. The spirits of ancestors are a common focus of rituals in East Asia and Vietnam. Roughly half of adults or more in all places we surveyed say they have offered food, water or drinks to honor or take care of their ancestors in the last year. This practice is common among Buddhists and people who do not identify with a religion.
In addition, many adults in the region have burned incense, offered flowers or lit candles in the last year to take care of ancestors. These practices are most evident in Vietnam, where 96% of adults say they have burned incense and 90% have offered flowers or lit candles recently.
Praying or offering respects to religious figures or deities is fairly common in the region. Relatively few people in East Asia and Vietnam pray daily. Daily prayer is more common in South Asia and Southeast Asia. But many East Asians and Vietnamese say they pray at least occasionally, and substantial shares also say they “pray or offer their respects” to religious figures or deities.
“Offering respects” is commonly understood in the region as an act of worship or veneration. It can take a variety of forms, including:
- Burning incense
- Offering food or drink
- Making wishes to a deity
- Bowing one’s head
- Putting one’s hands together
In each place except Japan, most Buddhists say they pray or offer their respects to Guanyin – a folk deity associated with compassion – and to Buddha. Almost all Christians say they pray or offer respects to Jesus. (The survey also asked about praying or offering respects to other religious figures, such as Guandi and Mazu.)
People across the region generally view religion as a positive force in society. Majorities in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam say that religion helps society by giving people guidance to do the right thing. In Japan, about half of adults take this position.
Across the region, Christians are somewhat more likely than other groups to see religion as a positive for society. In Hong Kong, for instance, 89% of Christians say religion guides people to do the right thing and treat others well, compared with 78% of Buddhists and 76% of the unaffiliated.
Negative views about religion’s role in society are not as widespread. Still, roughly four-in-ten each in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea say religion encourages superstition and illogical thinking.
In these places, the word “religion” is often understood to refer to organized, hierarchical forms of religion – such as Christianity or new religious movements – not to traditional Asian forms of spirituality. (“Religion” is commonly translated as zongjiao in Chinese, shūkyō in Japanese and jonggyo in Korean.)
Religious identification in the region is changing dramatically. Many adults in East Asia and Vietnam have switched away from their religious upbringing to no religion or to some other religion. The shares of adults who say this range from 17% in Vietnam to 53% each in Hong Kong and South Korea.
Most of this switching is disaffiliation. In some East Asian places, more than three-in-ten adults say they were raised in a religion but now identify with none. These rates of religious disaffiliation are among the highest in the world. Disaffiliation is much less common in Vietnam.
The departures are mostly from Buddhism, Christianity and Daoism. For instance, 14% of South Korean and Japanese adults report that they were brought up Buddhist but no longer identify with any religion.
Other adults in the region have switched from their childhood religion to another religion. For example, 12% of adults in South Korea and 9% in Hong Kong currently identify as Christian but were raised in a different religious tradition or with no religious identity.
Note: For more information, refer to the report’s methodology and the full survey questionnaire.
