[Tlc] TLC-Asian-American census

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Todd Perreira.
Thanks,
justin

The PEW study misrepresents the demographic picture of
Buddhism in America.

According to a special report issued by the US Census Bureau
in Dec 2004, based on the 2000 US Census data, there are over
10 million Asians (broadly defined) living in America today.
Of these, forty percent speak no English or very limited
English in the home - i.e., about 4 million (see
http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-17.pdf) Since the
PEW data was based on 35,000 phone calls conducted exclusively
in Spanish and English we have no way of knowing how many
non-English speaking Asians in America would self-identify as
Buddhist. This means the results are biased towards White and
Hispanic respondents thus giving us a very skewed picture. A
more accurate demography of Buddhism in America would
necessarily have to draw on data gathered in the primary
languages of Asian immigrants - especially, Thai, Vietnamese,
Lao, Khmer, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. We should therefore
exercise caution and restraint in the use and interpretation
of these numbers. At the very least, we are reminded there is
more work to be done. 

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu