How many monks are there in the world

[Stephen K]

Is the number of Theravada and Mahayana monks and nuns known?

[tiltbillings]

Is the number of Theravada and Mahayana monks and nuns known?

I would imagine it is a fairly fluid number, though I suppose there are estimates that one could find in census data.

[David N. Snyder]

There are precisely:

836,422 bhikkhus in the world and
811 bhikkhunis in the world and
917,256 eight precept mae chees and eight precept upasakas in the world right now.

Just kidding, I have no idea, but those are some guesses.

[fig tree]

Is the number of Theravada and Mahayana monks and nuns known?

There are just a few numbers given on [url]adherents.com[/url]: an estimate from 1988 that there were 800,000 monks in Burma (but only 100,000 lifelong ones), an estimate from 1988 of 300,000 Thai monks.

They also cite a 1999 estimate of 200,000 "Buddhist clergy" in China, and a 1985 estimate of 269,000 Buddhist monastics in Japan.

Politics has made a real mess in some of the countries that at one time had large monastic populations.

Fig Tree

[gavesako]

The numbers of temporary monks in Thailand and Burma rise sharply during the Rains retreat and will be falling right now after the Kathina ceremony.