Religion in Vietnam

Officially, Vietnam is an atheist state. Despite this, many of its citizens are religious. The three main religions in Vietnam are Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Sometimes, they are grouped together as one religion called the three teachings or tam giáo. According to many studies, 38% of Vietnamese people are Buddhist. 12% are Christians (mostly Roman Catholic with 10% and Protestantism with 2.5%) and 1-2% practice indigenous, animist religions including Hinduism. About 1% are not religious but have a strong Buddhist influence in their life.

Despite strong links in the older adult population, the younger population of Vietnam is quite different, with low numbers of young people believing religious ideas. The religious ideas that don't fit state thinking aren't emphasized enough.

The earliest established religion was Hinduism during the Cham Hindu Kingdom era. Later, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism spread. Today, these religions are grouped into the same religion known as the triple religion or Tam Giao, which has many followers. Later religions in Vietnam include Christianity and Islam. New religious movements include Hoa Hao Buddhism and Cao Dai. Hinduism is still practised by a small Cham minority who live mainly in central Vietnam.

Among the religions in Vietnam, Buddhism has the most followers. According to the statistics of the Buddhist Church of Vietnam, 12 million are just Buddhist making it about 38- 40 million Buddhists. There are two main branches of Buddhism in Vietnam, Mahayana, and Theravada. Mahayana is more popular with the people in North of Vietnam while Theravada being more popular in South of Vietnam.

Christianity was first introduced to Vietnam in the 16th century. Christians represent a significant minority in Vietnam: Catholics and Protestants were reported to compose 7% and 2% of the country's population respectively in 2020. However, the real number of Christian in Vietnam is 10% to 12%

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