User:Daki9644/Religion in South Korea

History

Study performed by a South Korean Research Journal revealing the change in religion demographics from 2018 to 2020

2015- Present

In response to the rapidly changing demographics of religion in South Korea, 여론 속의 여론 (Yeo- Lone SUO-k ue yeo-leon) a Korean Research Journal, performed a survey on the present religious demographic in South Korea. According to the survey, new results deviate from the traditional sentiments of South Korean culture. In South Korea today, 50% of the population are atheist or non- religious. The latter half of the population that are religious, are split in the following way- 20% believe in Protestantism, 16% believe in Buddhism, 12% believe in Catholicism, and 2% being other religions or cults. Essentially, the studies findings show that 50% of South Korean are now non- religious, 32% follow some section of Christianity, 16% are Buddhist, and 2% believe in some other form of religion. The deviation from the traditionally religious South Korea culture and demographics, is the rise of Atheists.

Previous to this sudden change, A Cohort Analysis of Religious Population Change in Korea launched by the Korean Citation Index analyzed Korean Religious demographics from from 1999 to 2015. The data from the study focused on understanding religious conversion, switching, or abandonment within the demographic. Today, the study has given insight on the potential effects of the deviation in South Korea's religious demographic.

The study performed by the research journal, 여론 속의 여론 (Yeo- Lone SUO-k ue yeo-leon), discovered the change in the South Korea religious demographic stemmed from the youth. The younger demographic of South Korea tend to have a higher percentage of Atheists, while the older demographics have maintained relatively religious. The study states that 33% of Koreans who are around the age of 20 believe in religion, while above 61% of those aged 60 or older continue to believe in religion. The study also reveals that the demographic of believers and non believers are also affected by many more variables. For example, the specific religion and the age at which the religion was introduced to the individual can have effects on the probability of an individual to stay religious throughout their lives. Overall, there seems to be a large deviation between those who were introduced to religion before elementary and those who were introduced after their 50s. Of 101 individuals interviewed, 29 were introduced to religion before elementary school, 18 during elementary, 9 in their 40s, and 7 in their 50s. While Catholicism and Protestantism maintained a similar standard deviation, believers of Buddhism seemed to start during and near their 30s.

With the younger generation of South Korea remaining increasingly non- religious, and South Korea traditionally being a religious nation, the developments of South Korea's religious demographic will have many implications on the nation's culture, politics, and way of life.