Editing Falun Gong (section)

==Demography==
Prior to July 1999, official Chinese government estimates placed the number of Falun Gong practitioners at 70 million nationwide, rivalling membership in the CCP.<ref name="Faison">{{cite news |first=Seth |last=Faison |url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042799china-protest.html |title=In Beijing: A Roar of Silent Protestors |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015200744/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042799china-protest.html |archive-date=15 October 2015 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=27 April 1999 |quote=Buddhist Law, led by a qigong master named Li Hongzhi, claims to have more than 100 million followers. Even if that is an exaggeration, the government's estimate of 70&nbsp;million practitioners represents a large group in a nation of 1.2&nbsp;billion.}}</ref><ref name="BayFang">{{cite news |first=Bay |last=Fang |url=https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/990222/archive_000322.htm |title=An opiate of the masses? |newspaper=U.S. News & World Report |date=22 February 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202231429/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/990222/archive_000322.htm |archive-date=2 December 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Joseph |last=Kahn |url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042799china-protest-leader.html |title=Notoriety Now for Movement's Leader |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204062051/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042799china-protest-leader.html |archive-date=4 February 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=27 April 1999 |quote=Beijing puts the tally of followers in his mystical movement at 70 million. Its practitioners say they do not dispute those numbers. But they say they have no way of knowing for sure, in part because they have no central membership lists.}}</ref><ref name="Schoff">{{cite news |first=Renee |last=Schoff |title=Growing group poses a dilemma for China |newspaper=Associated Press |date=26 April 1999 |quote=It teaches morality and acceptance, just what the Beijing government likes to see. But, with more members than the Communist Party—at least 70 million, according to the State Sports Administration—Falun is also a formidable social network}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/13/world/4-from-chinese-spiritual-group-are-sentenced.html |title=4 From Chinese Spiritual group Are Sentenced |date=13 November 1999 |page=A5 |quote=Before the crackdown the government estimated membership at 70 million—which would make it larger than the Chinese Communist Party, with 61&nbsp;million members. |access-date=19 February 2017 |archive-date=28 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228110442/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/13/world/4-from-chinese-spiritual-group-are-sentenced.html |url-status=live }}</ref> By the time of the persecution on 22 July 1999, most Chinese government numbers said the population of Falun Gong was between 2 and 3 million,<ref name=Tong2009/><ref name="Zong">{{cite book |last=Zong |first=Hairen |title=Zhu Rongji zai 1999 |trans-title=Zhu Rongji in 1999 |location=Carle Place, New York |publisher=Mirror Books |date=2001}}</ref> though some publications maintained an estimate of 40 million.<ref name=Tong/><ref name="chan2004">{{Cite journal |last=Chan |first=Cheris Shun-ching |date=September 2004 |title=The Falun Gong in China: A Sociological Perspective |url=http://www.omnilogos.com/2014/12/the-falun-gong-in-china-sociological.html |url-status=dead |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=179 |pages=665–83 |doi=10.1017/S0305741004000530 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150124205438/http://www.omnilogos.com/2014/12/the-falun-gong-in-china-sociological.html |archive-date=24 January 2015 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10722/172350 |s2cid=55593101}}</ref> The Falun Gong organization estimated in the same period that the total number of practitioners in China was between 70 and 80 million,<ref name=Lowe/><ref name=Tong/> though sociologist David A. Palmer notes these numbers were likely highly inflated and gives a more reasonable estimate of 10 million.<ref name=Lowe/><ref name=Tong/><ref>{{harvp|Palmer|2007|pp=259–261}}</ref> Other sources have estimated the Falun Gong population in China to have peaked between 10 and 70 million practitioners.<ref>{{cite news |first=Seth |last=Faison |url=http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/FalunGong/16.htm |title=Followers of Chinese Sect Defend Its Spiritual Goals |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702052730/http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/FalunGong/16.htm |archive-date=2 July 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=30 July 1999}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Palmer|2007|pp=260–261}}: "we may very roughly and tentatively estimate that the total number of practitioners was, at its peak, between 3 and 20 million.{{nbsp}}... A mid-range estimate of 10&nbsp;million would appear, to me, more reasonable."</ref> The number of Falun Gong practitioners still practicing in China today is difficult to confirm, though the NGO [[Freedom House]] estimates that 7 to 20 million continue to practice privately.<ref name="DOS 2022">{{cite web |title=2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: China (Includes Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet, and Xinjiang) |url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/china/ |website=[[Department of State]] |access-date=6 July 2023 |archive-date=5 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805022615/https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/china/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau) |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2009/127268.htm |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=U.S. Department of State |archive-date=17 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717014104/https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2009/127268.htm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="MM">{{cite news |first=Malcolm |last=Moore |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5213629/Falun-Gong-growing-in-China-despite-10-year-ban.html |title=Falun Gong 'growing' in China despite 10-year ban |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526112956/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5213629/Falun-Gong-growing-in-China-despite-10-year-ban.html |archive-date=26 May 2018 |work=The Telegraph |date=24 April 2009}}</ref>

Demographic surveys conducted in China in 1998 found a population that was mostly female and elderly. Of 34,351 Falun Gong practitioners surveyed, 27% were male and 73% female. Only 38% were under 50 years old.<ref>{{harvp|Porter|2003|p=117}}</ref> Falun Gong attracted a range of other individuals, from young college students to bureaucrats, intellectuals and Party officials.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Lincoln |last=Kaye |title=Travelers Tales |magazine=[[Far Eastern Economic Review]] |date=23 July 1992}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Ownby|2008|p=127}}</ref> Surveys in China from the 1990s found that between 23 and 40% of practitioners held university degrees at the college or graduate level—several times higher than the general population.<ref name=porterthesis/>

Falun Gong is practiced by tens, and possibly hundreds, of thousands outside China,<ref name="David Ownby p 126">{{harvp|Ownby|2008|p=126}}</ref> with the largest communities found in [[Taiwan]] and North American cities with large Chinese populations, such as [[New York City|New York]] and [[Toronto]]. Demographic surveys by Palmer and Ownby in these communities found that 90% of practitioners are [[Chinese people|ethnic Chinese]]. The average age was approximately 40.<ref name="Ownby136">{{harvp|Ownby|2008|p=136}}</ref> Among survey respondents, 56% were female and 44% male; 80% were married. The surveys found the respondents to be highly educated: 9% held PhDs, 34% had master's degrees, and 24% had a bachelor's degree.<ref name=Ownby136/>

As of 2008, the most commonly reported reasons for being attracted to Falun Gong were intellectual content, cultivation exercises, and health benefits.<ref>{{harvp|Ownby|2008|pp=132–134}}</ref> Non-Chinese Falun Gong practitioners tend to fit the profile of "spiritual seekers"—people who had tried a variety of qigong, [[yoga]], or religious practices before finding Falun Gong. According to sociologist [[Richard Madsen (sociologist)|Richard Madsen]], who specializes in studying modern Chinese culture, Chinese scientists with doctorates from prestigious American universities who practice Falun Gong claim that modern physics (for example, [[superstring theory]]) and biology (specifically the [[pineal gland]]'s function) provide a scientific basis for their beliefs. From their point of view, "Falun Dafa is knowledge rather than religion, a new form of science rather than faith".<ref name="Madsen">{{cite journal |first=Richard |last=Madsen |title=Understanding Falun Gong |journal=[[Current History]] |date=September 2000|volume=99 |issue=638 |pages=243–247 |doi=10.1525/curh.2000.99.638.243 }}</ref>{{volume needed|date=May 2025}}