Study: Despite highest rates of religious disaffiliation, East Asia remains spiritually vibrant
Worshippers pray as they burn their joss sticks at a temple to welcome in the Lunar New Year of the Dragon in Hong Kong on February 9. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
In East Asia, people are leaving their religion at rates that are among the highest in the world, according to a survey released June 17 by Pew Research Center. But while many East Asians do not identify as members of an organized religion, they continue to hold spiritual beliefs associated with the region’s faiths.
Pew studied more than 10,000 adult participants over four months in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and neighboring Vietnam and found that significant numbers of adults across the region say they have “no religion,” ranging from 27 percent in Taiwan to 61 percent in Hong Kong.
Among these religiously unaffiliated people, however, at least 4 in 10 believe in God or unseen beings, with a quarter or more saying that mountains, rivers, or trees have spirits, and half or more leave offerings for deceased ancestors.
