Reports Tushita’s Annual Report 2016
31
Dec
2016

Tushita’s Annual Report 2016

Who are Tushita’s Students?
We’ve been keeping records of the demographics of our residential students since 2009, so please rejoice in some pretty amazing statistics!

In the 8-year period 2009 – 2016:

  • We had 11,463 residential students, from 94 countries
  • Their age range was between 16 and 81
  • We also had 71,302 attendees on our Non-Residential Courses and Drop-In Sessions

Since 2009 we have been offering 3 different Dharma activities at the same time!

Introduction to Buddhism Courses (residential)

For many decades introducing new students to the Dharma was our main function, and our very popular Introduction to Buddhism course used to be the emphasis of our programme. They are still hugely popular with the highest student numbers and long waiting list all year around. We had an average of 95 students per course in 2016, up from 80 from the previous year!

Intermediate / Advanced Courses and Group Retreats (all residential)

Many students after having done an introductory course would like to deepen their studies and practice. To fulfill this growing demand we started to offer intermediate and advanced courses and group retreats on a regular basis in 2009. They have been hugely successful, with students coming back again and again and courses often booked out many months in advance.

As you can see we hosted a total of 29 residential courses & group retreats in 2016 with a total attendance of 1963 students! Our average number of students in our Intro courses jumped significantly from 80 students per course last year to a whopping 95! We are so thrilled to host so many students meeting the teachings of Buddha in this way.

Figure 1. Total number of students attending our residential courses each year from 2009 to 2016.

This year we had a surge in residential course participants compared to previous years as seen in the above figure. We rejoice in being able to offer Dharma teachings to so many!

Drop-In Activities (daily guided meditation sessions, video days, pujas etc.)

Since 2010 we have been offering our daily guided meditation sessions all season and they are so popular that we often have to squeeze people tightly into our gompa. This year we had 21,302 “cushion units” in our morning meditation sessions. That’s to say that the same people often attend these sessions frequently, so it wouldn’t be accurate to say that this many individuals had attended. However, no matter how you interpret the figures, our drop-in sessions were definitely well attended!

Figure 2. Weekly average of attendance for our daily Drop In meditations.

On top of all this we had many of our precious lamas visiting, giving teachings and advice, consecrating statues and more. Please have a look at our  July 2016 Newsletter for some truly inspirational reading!

Who are the people who come to Tushita courses?

How old are the students in Tushita’s courses (2016)?

Each year we are happy to accommodate a broad range of students of various ages. In 2016 our students spanned 57 years from 18 to 75 years of age.

Our Introduction to Buddhism courses have a predominance of students in their 20’s as you can see from the graph below. However, it also shows representation throughout each age group, bringing a valued diversity of experience to each course. Year after year we have almost the same breakdown of ages as we did this year:  60% of students are 18 – 30, 27% aged between 31 – 40, and 13% over 40.

Figure 1. Age of Tushita’s Students in all Introduction to Buddhism courses (2016).

 

While the majority of students in Introductory courses are under 30, in our Intermediate courses there is a much more balanced spread of ages, though the ranges (from youngest to oldest) are very similar. This is evidenced in the graph below showing the age range of Intermediate course students (green) against that of the Introductory course students (red).

Figure 2. Distribution of ages for both Introduction Courses (red) and Intermediate/Advanced Courses and Group Retreats(green) in 2016.

How many Men & Women take part in our courses (2016)?

This year we had a majority of Women (56%) compared to Men (44%) as seen below in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Gender Balance in all our residential courses in 2016.

While this has been the case since we began collecting data in 2009, we have witnessed a trend toward greater balance each year. This year was an exception with a greater contrast between the genders. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Recent Trends of Gender differences from 2011-2016.

The graph below depicts the breakdown of gender by course types in 2016. Females attended each course type in greater numbers than males this year.

Figure 3. Gender balances in each residential course type in 2016.

Where are Tushita’s Students from?

Between 2009 – 2016, we had students on our residential courses from 94 different countries!

In “Table A” you can see a list of the top ten nationalities represented by our students in 2016. India maintained it’s position after breaking through to #1 in 2015, and Brazil has beat out the Netherlands for a spot in the Top Ten.

This year we were happy to welcome two students from Bolivia for the first time since we began records in 2009. If you would like to see the full list of 95 countries, please click here. See if your country is represented. If not: come, we need you!

The Netherlands have been present on our Top 10 list for almost every year since we began collecting this data in 2009. This year, however, they have been usurped by Brazil as one of our most represented countries. Brazil has steadily climbed the ranks to finally break through into the Top 10 this year. We are happy to welcome so many South Americans into our Tushita mix!

Figure 1 (below) shows these and more nationalities by percentage from our 2016 Residential Courses.

Figure 1. Nationalities represented by percentage in all of Tushita’s residential courses in 2016.

 

Participation among Indian citizens has increased more than 7 times in 8 years – from 60 students in 2009 to 439 students in 2016!

Figure 2. National Trends of Residential Course Participants from 2009 to 2016.

 

We rejoice – returning Buddha Dharma to the Motherland!

Click here to see the full list of countries in 2016!
# Native Country of
Residential Students		 2016    %
1 India 439 22.36
2 Israel 387 19.71
3 USA 177 9.02
4 UK 116 5.91
5 Germany 109 5.55
6 Australia 75 3.82
7 France 74 3.77
8 Canada 67 3.41
9 Spain 38 1.94
10 Brazil 33 1.68
11 Italy 32 1.63
12 Netherlands 30 1.53
13 Sweden 29 1.48
14 Russia 27 1.38
15 Argentina 25 1.27
16 Mexico 23 1.17
17 Chile 21 1.07
18 Ireland 20 1.02
19 Austria 19 0.97
20 Poland 18 0.92
21 New Zealand 16 0.82
22 Finland 14 0.71
23 South Africa 14 0.71
24 Switzerland 13 0.66
25 Belgium 13 0.66
26 Colombia 13 0.66
27 Portugal 11 0.56
28 South Korea 9 0.46
29 Denmark 6 0.31
30 Turkey 6 0.31
31 Ukraine 6 0.31
32 Romania 5 0.25
33 Norway 5 0.25
34 Bulgaria 5 0.25
35 Croatia 5 0.25
36 Japan 4 0.20
37 Estonia 4 0.20
38 Costa Rica 4 0.20
39 Vietnam 3 0.15
40 Czech Republic 3 0.15
41 Hungary 3 0.15
42 Lithuania 3 0.15
43 Slovakia 3 0.15
44 Iran 3 0.15
45 Slovenia 3 0.15
46 Malaysia 3 0.15
47 Kazakhstan 3 0.15
48 Lebanon 3 0.15
49 Mauritius 2 0.10
50 Latvia 2 0.10
51 Uruguay 2 0.10
52 Greece 2 0.10
53 Iceland 2 0.10
54 Bolivia 2 0.10
55 Singapore 1 0.05
56 China 1 0.05
57 Tibet 1 0.05
58 Serbia 1 0.05
59 Thailand 1 0.05
60 Philippines 1 0.05
61 Jordan 1 0.05
62 Kyrgyzstan 1 0.05
63 Sri Lanka 1 0.05
  Total 1963 100.00
Click here for all 94 countries that have participated in Residential Courses 2009-16
# Native Country of
Residential Students		 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2009-2016 % From 2009-2016
1 Israel 166 151 233 230 260 245 251 387 1923 16.73
2 India 60 94 106 142 202 228 325 439 1596 13.89
3 USA 178 201 200 165 175 142 180 177 1418 12.34
4 UK 129 103 145 103 100 81 103 116 880 7.66
5 Germany 82 79 73 85 79 71 100 109 678 5.90
6 Canada 59 95 67 73 69 54 69 67 553 4.81
7 Australia 81 74 81 77 49 44 57 75 538 4.68
8 France 25 44 68 63 67 76 48 74 465 4.05
9 Spain 25 35 33 35 38 27 35 38 266 2.31
10 Netherlands 40 24 32 42 22 23 36 30 249 2.17
11 Sweden 13 25 26 35 34 18 16 29 196 1.71
12 Brazil 10 18 15 25 15 26 24 33 166 1.44
13 Austria 12 18 27 31 16 10 25 19 158 1.37
14 Italy 14 16 14 17 22 13 23 32 151 1.31
15 Mexico 17 21 19 24 14 10 9 23 137 1.19
16 Switzerland 15 26 14 28 15 15 8 13 134 1.17
17 Ireland 19 16 22 16 14 15 10 20 132 1.15
18 Russia 8 2 7 9 26 26 26 27 131 1.14
19 Argentina 7 8 14 17 14 19 20 25 124 1.08
20 New Zealand 18 20 12 6 11 8 11 16 102 0.89
21 Belgium 11 9 9 17 9 16 18 13 102 0.89
22 Poland 6 9 9 9 10 19 11 18 91 0.79
23 Finland 14 6 18 9 11 6 9 14 87 0.76
24 Denmark 15 10 16 13 10 8 7 6 85 0.74
25 Chile 1 10 12 3 12 8 13 21 80 0.70
26 South Korea 9 7 12 20 12 6 3 9 78 0.68
27 South Africa 9 4 5 7 12 9 14 14 74 0.64
28 Colombia 2 8 7 7 7 13 13 13 70 0.61
29 Portugal 6 1 15 9 15 3 6 11 66 0.57
30 Japan 11 6 11 8 11 4 5 4 60 0.52
31 Slovenia 5 1 2 8 4 9 9 3 41 0.36
32 Taiwan 4 16 1 3 7 3 6 0 40 0.35
33 Turkey 3 6 5 5 2 6 5 6 38 0.33
34 Czech Republic 4 2 7 6 5 7 3 3 37 0.32
35 Singapore 2 10 7 7 1 1 7 1 36 0.31
36 Ukraine 2 5 3 3 6 7 2 6 34 0.30
37 Norway 2 5 2 8 6 2 3 5 33 0.29
38 Romania 1 3 2 2 5 6 5 5 29 0.25
39 Hungary 2 6 2 3 4 6 3 3 29 0.25
40 Estonia 5 1 10 2 1 1 2 4 26 0.23
41 Slovakia 3 7 5 0 0 5 3 3 26 0.23
42 Greece 5 4 1 3 1 5 3 2 24 0.21
43 China 1 2 3 4 5 4 4 1 24 0.21
44 Tibet 3 5 4 0 6 1 2 1 22 0.19
45 Malaysia 1 8 1 4 0 1 3 3 21 0.18
46 Vietnam 6 0 1 3 3 3 0 3 19 0.17
47 Lithuania 1 0 2 5 0 2 4 3 17 0.15
48 Thailand 0 1 5 0 2 2 6 1 17 0.15
49 Indonesia 0 5 10 0 0 1 1 0 17 0.15
50 Bulgaria 0 0 2 0 3 2 3 5 15 0.13
51 Latvia 1 1 5 2 1 1 0 2 13 0.11
52 Mauritius 0 2 1 1 1 3 1 2 11 0.10
53 Iran 0 1 3 0 0 0 2 3 9 0.08
54 Malta 1 0 2 1 1 2 1 0 8 0.07
55 Venezuela 1 1 1 1 0 3 0 0 7 0.06
56 Belarus 0 0 1 1 2 1 2 0 7 0.06
57 Luxembourg 4 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 7 0.06
58 Croatia 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0.05
59 Costa Rica 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 5 0.04
60 Uruguay 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 2 5 0.04
61 Iceland 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 2 5 0.04
62 Philippines 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 5 0.04
63 Peru 0 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 5 0.04
64 Nepal 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 5 0.04
65 Ecuador 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 0 5 0.04
66 Kazakhstan 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 4 0.03
67 Lebanon 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 4 0.03
68 Cyprus 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 0.03
69 Egypt 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 4 0.03
70 Jordan 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 0.03
71 Kyrgyzstan 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 0.03
72 Morocco 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 3 0.03
73 Bolivia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0.02
74 Serbia 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0.02
75 Sri Lanka 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0.02
76 Guatemala 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.02
77 Oman 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 0.02
78 Botswana 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0.02
79 Georgia 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.02
80 Jamaica 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.02
81 Mongolia 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0.02
82 Moldova 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.01
83 Algeria 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.01
84 Bhutan 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.01
85 Cambodia 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.01
86 Myanmar 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.01
87 Nicaragua 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.01
88 Palestine 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.01
89 Panama 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.01
90 Saudi Arabia 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.01
91 Syria 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.01
92 Uganda 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.01
93 Zimbabwe 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.01
94 Yemen 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.01
                       
  Total 1122 1243 1423 1411 1424 1340 1568 1963 11494 100.00