The total number of Hoa Hao followers is estimated at over two million people (before 1-1-1966) representing more than one third the population of the Western Area, or 10 percent of the population of South Vietnam.
In such provinces as Chau Doc, An Giang, Kien Phong, and Sadec, Hoa Hao Buddhists account for 90 percent of the population. In other provinces, this proportion varies from 10 to 60 percent.
In elections held in the above provinces, Hoa Hao Buddhists have won the majority of seats. At the 1965 Provincial Councils election held in An Giang and Chau Doc, Hoa Hao followers won all the Council seats; in Kien Phong, Vinh Long and Phong Dinh, they won 80 percent of the seats. This proportion was the same in the September 11, 1966 elections to the Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Vietnam, and the electoral list that won the greatest number of votes in the entire nation was that of Hoa Hao adepts in An Giang province.