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South Korea Religion in Contemporary South Korea
According to government statistics, 42.6 percent or more than
17 million of South Korea's 1985 population professed adherence
to an organized religious community. There were at least 8
million Buddhists (about 20 percent of the total population),
about 6.5 million Protestants (16 percent of the population),
some 1.9 million Roman Catholics (5 percent), nearly 500,000
people who belonged to Confucian groups (1 percent), and more
than 300,000 others (0.7 percent). Significantly, large
metropolitan areas had the highest proportions of people
belonging to formal religious groups: 49.9 percent in Seoul, 46.1
percent for Pusan, and 45.8 percent for Taegu. The figures for
Christians revealed that South Korea had the highest percentage
of Christians of any country in East Asia or Southeast Asia, with
the exception of the Philippines.
Except for the Christian groups, who maintain a fairly clearcut distinction between believers and nonbelievers, there is some
ambiguity in these statistics. As mentioned above, there is no
exact or exclusive criterion by which Buddhists or Confucianists
can be identified. Many people outside of formal groups have been
deeply influenced by these traditions. Moreover, there is nothing
contradictory in one person's visiting and praying at Buddhist
temples, participating in Confucian ancestor rites, and even
consulting a shaman and sponsoring a kut. Furthermore, the
statistics may underrepresent the numbers of people belonging to
new religions. Some sources have given the number of adherents of
Ch'ondogyo as over 1 million.
Given the great diversity of religious expression, the role
of religion in South Korea's social development has been a
complex one. Some traditions, especially Buddhism, are identified
primarily with the past. Buddhist sites such as the Pulguksa
Temple and the Sokkuram Grotto in Kyongju and the Haeinsa Temple
near Taegu are regarded by most South Koreans as important
cultural properties rather than as places of worship.
Confucianism remains important as a social ethic; its influence
is evident in the immense importance Koreans ascribe to
education. Christianity is identified with modernization and
social reform. Many Christians in contemporary South Korea, such
as veteran political opposition leader Kim Dae Jung, a Catholic,
have been outspoken advocates of human rights and critics of the
government. Christian-sponsored organizations such as the Urban
Industrial Mission promote labor organizations and the union
movement. New religions draw on both traditional beliefs and on
Christianity, achieving a baffling variety and diversity of
views. It has been estimated that there were as many as 300 new
religions in South Korea in the late 1980s, though many were
small and transient phenomena.
Data as of June 1990
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