Page 18 - A Study of Traditional Chinese Religions in Malaysia: The Decline and the Path Towards Revitalization

The misunderstanding continued and DOSM repeated the mistake they made prior to

the 1980 census. Buddhism was retained as the main Chinese religion. Confucianism,
Taoism and folk religion were disregarded. The same mistake was repeated in the 2021

census. Henceforth, there is no accurate information about Chinese religiosity in Malaysia.
The information that was reported by DOSM does not reflect the actual conditions.

Table 1.3 Religious Demographics in Malaysia, 2010 and 2020

Year 2010 2020

Islam 61.3% 63.5%

Christian 9.2% 9.1%

Buddhism 19.8% 18.7%

Hinduism 6.3% 6.1%

Other 1.7% 0.9%

No Religion/Unknown 1.7% 1.8%

Source: “Penemuan Utama Banci Penduduk dan Perumahan Malaysia”. Jabatan Perangkaan Malaysia, 2022.

Nevertheless, according to the data in Table 1.2, TCR that includes Buddhism, is now
facing a downward trend. In 1970, 91.3 percent of the Chinese population claimed to be

believers of Buddhism, but in 2000, the percentage dropped to 86.5 percent. If this trend is
to persist, according to Ang Choo Hong, the number of Chinese who would still claim TCR
as their religion would decline to 80 percent by 2020. He also predicted that more and more

Chinese would abandon their traditional religions and convert to other religions, such as

Christianity, Islam or Hinduism (Shih 2010).

According to the Malaysia Population and Housing Census, Chinese Muslims
represented 0.2 percent of the total Chinese population in 1970, whereas Chinese Christians

stood at 3.5 percent (Sun 2020). In 2010 however, the number of Chinese Muslims increased
to 1 percent of the Chinese population, whereas Chinese Christians grew tremendously to
approximately 9.5 percent. This marks an increase from two to five folds for those who

embrace Islam and Christianity among the Chinese. It is worth noting that in 2010, the
number of Chinese Malaysians who were without a religion stood at 1.6 percent of the

Chinese Malaysian population. These individuals could be atheists or agnostics and their
numbers are on the rise. Also, by 2050, Pew Research Center has found that Muslims are

6