Sometimes there is a sense that it’s only Western Christians abandoning organized religion in favor of increasingly secular or broadly spiritual lives. But the shift is not confined to the West. While the number of Christians, Muslims and most other major religious groups has grown globally, Buddhism stands as the only major religion in decline, according to a recent Pew Research Center report tracking trends between 2010 and 2020.
The decline of Buddhism is especially apparent in East Asia — places like China, South Korea and Japan. Roughly 4 in 10 Japanese adults raised Buddhist now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. In South Korea, the figure is similar, at about 42%. In several other Asian countries, including Cambodia, Malaysia, India and Thailand, Buddhist populations have actually grown.
In Japan, the departure is especially pronounced among the young. Only 34% of those between 18 and 39 identify as Buddhist, compared with 50% of those over 40.
So why are people walking away from the religion of their ancestors that’s also deeply interwoven with their culture?
It’s the question Pew asked several adults in a series of videos. Several interviews describe the gradual decline in religiosity from one generation to the next.
For college student Sunwoo Lee from Seoul, each family generation was less religious. Her grandparents were Buddhist, her mom was less religious and Lee views herself as completely nonreligious.
“First off, I don’t have a religion,” Lee said.
Still, though, when she goes to a Buddhist temple, she feels “a kind of peace of mind,” she said. “But I’m not praying to a God or performing rituals.” Her distance from religion, she explained, comes from a long-held belief that “it’s better to live focusing on this world.”
For others, the break came with moving to an urban environment. Tokyo resident Junichiro Tsujinaka traced his drift from Buddhism to moving to the city, where he found himself with “fewer and fewer opportunities to feel gratitude toward nature or experience awe.”
Time, too, was a recurring explanation. A retired Seoul shop owner, Jeongnam Oh, admitted she never prayed with her children or brought them to temple — not because she thought it unimportant, but because the opportunity never seemed to arise.
“I did it alone in my heart,” she said.
Other people cited the demands of time to maintain religious altars, even preferring that there would be a digital option that required no upkeep.
Along with this drift away from Buddhism, one woman worried that “something uniquely Japanese is in danger of being lost.” And yet, even among those who no longer identify as Buddhist, Pew’s interviews show a lingering spiritual undertow — people are still wrestling with questions of life and death and are turning to ancestral faith and its structures for comfort.
What I found interesting in this sketch of the state of Buddhism is that people appear to be casualties in their loss of religion — it sort of happened to them overtime as they went about their lives, moved around, worked long hours and raised children. Here, secularization appears to be less about strident disbelief and more about a gradual erosion that happens alongside shifts in social structures that once allowed religious practice to flourish.
Fresh off the press
- I caught up with Brett Scharffs, BYU law professor, who spoke on peacemaking at the United Nations Human Right Council in Geneva. BYU law professor at the U.N.: ‘The most significant obstacle to peace is people or interests who do not want peace’
- Regular church attendance associated with lower likelihood of mental health diagnoses.
Faith in the news
- Synagogue Attack Tests Bonds of Michigan Community. —The New York Times
- How the 2026 Academy Awards was able to pit faith against religion. “Now, in 2026, Hollywood is finally developing a synthesis: Faith is bad when it is an organized (particularly Christian) religion, but is positive when it is an expression of individual spirituality.” — National Catholic Reporter (via Religion Unplugged)
- Comedian Taylor Tomlinson has released a new Netflix special, but it’s full of raunchy jokes and language many would consider blasphemous. — RNS
- The Unlikely Red State Trying to Buck Trump and Big Tech. — Politico.
- In case you missed it, in a recent story, McKay Coppins ventured into the world of gambling by placing $10,000 worth of bets that The Atlantic had allocated for the project. Some of my favorite parts of the story are the reactions from Coppins’ children to his growing attachment to sports-betting, like when after an elaborate explanation of a bet, his 10-year-old son said: “You’re, like, a betting genius now.” — The Atlantic
- Chris Klomp, who used to be in charge of the Medicare program, was recently promoted to chief counselor of the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump calls him his “favorite Mormon.” — The Washington Post
- Muslims gathered to pray outside Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which was closed on Ramadan’s holiest night, due to security reasons, according to Israeli officials. — Al Jazeera
- Writer R.R. Reno makes the case for Christian nationalism. In the author’s view, Christian nationalism is self-restraining, it encourages political realism, restores America’s culture of freedom and renews the moral foundations of civic culture. — First Things
End notes
On Friday, I attended an event The Church Center for the United Nations, located across the street from the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
The event was the screening of the documentary called “Unmuted” about ending child marriage in India (and was held in conjunction with The Commission on the Status of Women conference). It’s a fascinating topic — nearly 300,000 minors were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018, a study found.
But I was also fascinated by the space itself. The 12-story building features a modernist sculpture by Benoit Gilsoul on its facade, where abstract human figures surround an eye-shaped form. Inside the chapel, the motif reappears in a stained-glass window. The artwork represents “Man’s Search for Peace,” and a nearby plaque explains its symbolism: “Man cannot escape the all-seeing eye of the Almighty which penetrates the darkness of his despair.”
After World War II, leaders in the Methodist Church and the United Methodist Women, a women’s organization within the Methodist church now known as the United Women in Faith, believed a strong global institution was necessary to prevent future wars, so they supported the creation and work of the United Nations by organizing educational seminars in New York City.
They helped fund and build the Church Center for the United Nations to host these gatherings and strengthen ties between faith groups and international diplomacy. The chapel is adorned with the symbols of the major religions: a cross, a Star of David, the Islamic crescent and star and the Dharma wheel, a symbol of Buddhism. It still serves as a hub for religious organizations and NGOs engaged in peace-building.