Religious Demography
The country has an area of approximately 47,000 square miles (120,000 km2) and a population estimated at 22.7 million. The number of religious believers was unknown but was estimated by the government to be 10,000 Protestants, 10,000 Buddhists, and 4,000 Catholics. Estimates by South Korean and international church-related groups were considerably higher. In addition, the Chondogyo Young Friends Party, a government-approved group based on a traditional religious movement, had approximately 40,000 practitioners, according to the Government.
According to Religious Intelligence UK the situation of religion in North Korea is the following:
- Irreligion: 15,460,000 (64.3% of population, the vast majority of which are adherents of the Juche philosophy)
- Korean Shamanism: 3,846,000 adherents (16% of population)
- Cheondoism: 3,245,000 adherents (13.5% of population)
- Buddhism: 1,082,000 adherents (4.5% of population)
- Christianity: 406,000 adherents (1.7% of population)
Read more about this topic: Religion In North Korea
Famous quotes containing the word religious:
“We think of religion as the symbolic expression of our highest moral ideals; we think of magic as a crude aggregate of superstitions. Religious belief seems to become mere superstitious credulity if we admit any relationship with magic. On the other hand our anthropological and ethnographical material makes it extremely difficult to separate the two fields.”
—Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945)