Facts about religions in Vietnam
According to incomplete statistics, up to 19 million Vietnamese practice one religion or another, making up of about a quarter of the 80 million population. Among them, there are nearly 57 thousand in the clergy and over 10 thousand students. There are over 10 thousand religious groupings that are in control of nearly 23 thousand worshipping places throughout the country. Besides, there are over two thousand entities conducting charity operations.
1. Buddhism:
As of 2003, 9,038,064 or about 12% of the population follow Buddhism, including about 1.2 million from the Khmer ethnic group.
There are about 33 thousand in the Buddhist clergy (including over 21 thousands from the Northern denomination, over 9 thousand in the Southern and Khmer denomination, with over 9 thousand dignitaries.
There are about 14,600 worshipping places for Buddhism throughout the country.
With regard to Buddhist training, there are 3 Buddhist Institutes with over one thousand students currently enrolled; 4 Buddhist college classes with 842 students; 30 intermediate level schools with over 3,000 students; 37 primary level classes with 2,500 students. In all these, there are up to 2,500 Khmer students. Among them, there are about 2,500 Khmers are currently enrolled in advanced, intermediate and primary Buddhist Pali classes.
There are 1,076 Buddhist charities in the country and 820 groupings of Buddhist households.
2. Catholicism:
There are 5,303,445 Catholics in the country, making up of 7.2% of the population.
- Catholic clergy: there are 2 Cardinals (Jean-Baptist Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City was ordained Cardinal by Vatican last year), 1 Archbishops, 36 Bishops, 2,410 priests, 11,147 parish priests; 4,390 students in grand seminaries and seminaries.
- There are 6,033 worshipping places for Catholics in the country’s 3 Archdioceses, 25 dioceses, and over 2 thousand parishes.
- There are 6 grand seminaries with 1,044 currently enrolled students and over one thousand charitable entities.
- There are 9,531 Catholic groupings in the country.
3. Protestantism:
There are about 622,000 thousand Protestants in Vietnam, compared to 200,000 in pre-1975 period. Among them, there are 872 pastors and missionary workers, compared to 371 in pre-1975 period.
There are 445 churches or praying houses, compared to 380 in pre-1975 period.
In the Central Highland alone, there are about 350,000 Protestants that practice 8 different Protestant factions. There are 79 pastors and part-time pastors, 96 Protestant missionary workers and 380 volunteer missionary.
24 branches of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam have been officially recognized, including 8 branches recognized during the 2003 Christmas season.
4. Cao Dai:
Nearly 2.3 million follow this indigenous religion which has nearly 1300 Grand Temples and temples and over 7,100 in the clergy.
5. Hoa Hao Buddhism:
Nearly 1.25 million follow this religion (or about 1.5% of the population) which has 522 large and small establishments under the management of 535 clergymen and clergywomen.
6. Islam:
This religion has about 65 thousands followers, with 699 in the clergy and 77 worshipping places across the country.
