The following is the percentage of Buddhists in the U.S. territories as of 2010:

While a majority of the Buddhist Churches of America's membership are ethnically Japanese, some members have non-Asian backgrounds. Thus, it has limited aspects of export Buddhism. As involvement by its ethnic community declined, internal discussions advocated attracting the broader public.

While Asian immigrants were arriving, some American intellectuals examined Buddhism, based primarily on information from British colonies in India and East Asia.

Zen was introduced to the United States by Japanese priests who were sent to serve local immigrant groups. A small group also came to study the American culture and way of life.

In the 1930s Soyu Matsuoka-roshi was sent to America by Sōtōshū, to establish the Sōtō Zen tradition in the United States. He established the Chicago Buddhist Temple in 1949. Matsuoka-roshi also served as superintendent and abbot of the Long Beach Zen Buddhist Temple and Zen Center. He relocated from Chicago to establish a temple at Long Beach in 1971 after leaving the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago to his dharma heir Kongo Richard Langlois, Roshi. He returned to Chicago in 1995, where he died in 1998.

Ordained in 1974 in Japan by Tosui Ohta, came to the United States in 1983, initially posted to Zenshuji in Los Angeles. In 1985 he became the abbot of Milwaukee Zen Center, which he led and developed until 2000. He has three dharma heirs: Jisho Warner in California, abiding teacher of Stone Creek Zen Center; Tonen Sara O'Connor in Wisconsin, former head priest of Milwaukee Zen Center; and Toshu Neatrour in Idaho.

There are also Zen teachers of Chinese Chán, Korean Seon, and Vietnamese Thien.

Recently, many Korean Buddhist monks have come to the United States to spread the Dharma. They are establishing temples and zen (Korean, 'Seon') centers all around the United States. For example, Hyeonho established the Goryosah Temple in Los Angeles in 1979, and Muil Woohak founded the Budzen Center in New York.

Dilowa Gegen (Diluu Khudagt) was the first lama to immigrate to the United States in 1949 as a political refugee and joined Owen Lattimore's Mongolia Project. He was born in Tudevtei, Zavkhan, Mongolia and was one of the leading figures in declaration of independence of Mongolia. He was exiled from Mongolia, the reason remains unrevealed to this day. After arriving in the US, he joined Johns Hopkins University and founded a monastery in New Jersey.

Following is a partial list from reliable sources, limited to the United States and by no means all-inclusive.