The geography of Buddhism in the Four Corners states

Abstract

While only 1–2% of US residents self-identify as Buddhist, this faith is expanding and diffusing rapidly despite its dissonance with American individualism and traditional Judeo-Christian ideals. Using data from recent surveys of religion, Internet searches, and a phone survey, this paper explores the diffusion of Buddhism into four distinct cultural settings: Colorado (secular, progressive), Utah (Mormon, conservative), New Mexico (Catholic, politically moderate), and Arizona (mixed-Christian, conservative). A total of 276 Buddhist organizations were found. Organizations were classified based on tradition, number of active members, ethnic composition, and date established. A time sequence analysis was done to study patterns of diffusion. Simple and multiple regressions were performed to explore factors responsible for the degree of presence of Buddhist groups. Attributes included: education level, ethnicity, political ideology based on voting patterns, and population total and density. Colorado had the greatest number of Buddhist organizations, but New Mexico had a slightly higher ratio relative to population. Arizona had the second largest number of groups, but a low ratio. Utah proved to be the least receptive state for Buddhism in both number of groups and ratio. Our study explores the cultural geography of Buddhism in the Four Corners States to explain the patterns discovered.

Keywords:

• Buddhism
• geography
• Four Corners states
• diffusion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.