Korea’s teens drift from religion, Buddhism hit hardest
South Korea’s Buddhist community has been embracing trendier, youth-oriented cultural events to appeal to younger generations, but a recent survey suggests the religion is still facing the steepest generational decline among the country’s major faiths.
The findings come amid a broader rise in religious nonaffiliation among teenagers, while also suggesting that Buddhism’s recent efforts to win over younger audiences have yet to resonate with teens.
According to a survey released Friday by Gallup Korea, only 2 percent of respondents aged 13 to 18 said they identified as Buddhist, compared with 16 percent among older age groups, marking the largest generational gap among Korea’s major religions.
By comparison, 12 percent of teenagers identified as Protestant, compared with 18 percent among older respondents, while 3 percent of teenagers identified as Catholic, compared with 6 percent among older respondents.
The survey was conducted from March to November 2025 among 1,039 teenagers aged 13 to 18 and 7,647 respondents from older age groups.
Gallup Korea noted that while it has tracked religious trends among adults since the 1980s, this was its first survey focused on teenagers.
The low share of Buddhist teenagers reflects a broader trend of young people turning away from organized religion. The survey found that 83 percent of teenage respondents said they had no religion.
The findings also suggest that the shift stems largely from indifference toward religion and the afterlife. Among respondents without a religion, 78 percent said no religion appealed to them, while 62 percent said they had no interest in religion at all.
Still, Buddhism’s especially low affiliation rate among teenagers indicates that the religion’s recent efforts to modernize its image have yet to resonate with the youngest generation, even as they appear to have gained traction among people in their 20s and 30s.
In recent years, Korean Buddhism has made some of the most visible efforts among Korea’s major religions to embrace popular culture, seeking to shed its image as old-fashioned or distant from young people.
The religion has introduced cute and kitschy merchandise inspired by Buddhist themes, organized temple matchmaking events and even hosted club-style rave parties celebrating Buddha’s Birthday, many of which gained attention on social media.
Those efforts appear to have improved perceptions of Buddhism among younger adults.
According to a December 2025 survey by Hankook Research, favorability toward Buddhism rose to 56.2 out of 100 among people aged 18 to 29 and 54.5 among respondents in their 30s, up 5.3 points and 5.9 points, respectively, from a year earlier.
The figures far exceeded those for Catholicism and Protestantism, which recorded favorability ratings of around 45 and 30, respectively, among the same age groups in 2025.
However, in Gallup Korea’s survey of teenagers, Buddhism ranked last among the major religions in terms of favorability. Only 3 percent of respondents selected Buddhism as the religion they viewed most positively, compared with 10 percent for Catholicism and 8 percent for Protestantism.
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