Buddhism in Australia

There is a clearly identifiable fascination about Buddhism and what it represents and what it really means.

BFM aims to “unplug” some of the mysticism, taking away barriers to welcome the whole community to investigate and see the different facets of Buddhism.

Australian Buddhism is a picture of ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as diversity of practice, some traditional practices surviving centuries and some others emerging recently due to the conditions of contemporary Australian society.

There are nearly 500,000 Buddhists in Australia and the numbers of those who identify as practicing Buddhists have doubled over the past 10 years

While Sydney itself has a relatively high percentage of Buddhists (3.8%), some parts of Sydney have even higher Buddhist populations due to migration from South-East Asia, for example, Fairfield-Liverpool (14.2%) and Canterbury-Bankstown (6.5%).

Areas like Inner Sydney (4.5%) and Inner-West Sydney (4.5%) can be characterised as more middle class, politically and socially progressive, with a greater interest in alternative spirituality and philosophy, alternative lifestyles and environmental activism.