Religious and cultural diversity

As in the geographic division, the religious diversity of Southeast Asia follows the same limitation.


The mainland countries are defined by the presence of majority of Buddhists.
Trade is a key characteristic that defines Southeast Asia as the reason why during the 13th Centuries,  Muslim merchants coming from Yemen and the African Coast had to cross the Bay of Bengal and the Malabar Coast in order to reach India and China for the exchange.
 This flow of people among the Islands and Coasts that now form Southeast Asia are the reason why we find now the high percentage of Muslim population in the Island Nations, since traders have settled there for centuries and their religion was slowly adopted and localised into the different cultures of the region.

Christianity is as well present in all the region due to the colonisation era by Western Empires that started in the  16th Century thanks to the European Voyages and exploration. Specially in the Philippines thanks to the actions of Luis de Velasco, the Viceroy of New Spain and Miguel Lopez de Legazpi a Spanish Explored who conquered several kindoms of what now constitute the Philippines transforming the culture beliefs from Islam to  Christianity

Curious fact: In Indonesia 234 million people are Muslim, constituting it the largest Muslim populated country in the world, BUT slam is NOT the official religion. 

This is the religious division of the different members of the Southeast Asian region

MAINLAND

Burma (Myanmar): Population: 53, 582, 855 (2017)

 4% Islam
 80% Buddhism
 8% Christianity

Cambodia: Population: 15, 762, 370 (2016)
 4% Islam
 80 % Buddhism
 0,40% Christianity

Laos: Population: 6,758,353 (2016)
 0% Islam
 65% Buddhism
 1% Christianity
Another major religion if Laotian follows religion which is a 31% of its population

Thailand: Population: 68, 863, 514 (2016)
 5% Islam
93 & Buddhism
 1% Christianity

Vietnam: Population: 94, 569, 072 (2016)
 0.20% Islam
 16% Buddhism
 8% Christianity
70% of Its population are linked to a folk religion or directly non-religious.

MARITIME 

Brunei: Population: 417, 200 (2015)
75% Islam
8% Buddhism
10% Christianity

Indonesia: Population: 261, 115, 456 (2016)
87% Islam
1% Buddhism
10% Christianity

Malaysia: Population: 31, 937, 000 (2018)
63% Islam
18% Buddhism
10% Christianity

Philippines: Population: 100, 981, 437 (2015)
5% Islam
0% Buddhism
93/ Christianity

Singapore: Population: 5, 612, 300 (2017)
14% Islam
33% Buddhism
18% Christianity
18% No religion

East Timor: Population: 1, 167, 242 (2015)
97% Christianity


Main current Religious conflict: 
- The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar: Rohingya muslims are a minority population of Myanmar or Burma (1 million), due to the Buddhist beliefs of the government of this country the ethnic group is being persecuted, creating one of the biggest refugee crisis in world history.