It’s very easy to find statues of Buddhas (Siddhartha or Budai) in western shops or sitting in gardens often mass produced. Now I’d go out on a limb here and assume that most of these statues I see aren’t possessed by people who practice Buddhism and just simply like the statues.
Why are they so inexplicably popular among presumably non-religious westerners compared to other religious idols? e.g. Hindu deities
There is a lot to unpack/estimate here to prove your claim that Buddha statues are over-represented: 1. How many Buddhas are sold every year in country X? 2. How many Buddhists are there? 3. How many crucifixes and crosses and icons versus number of Christians? 4. How many Faravahars 5. How many Natarajas, etc.
I don’t have any hard data for this claim just something I seem to have noticed browsing shelves over the years. Honestly could just be a confirmation bias but even living in a Christian country I seem to notice fewer crosses/crucifixes being sold compared to Buddhas.
Don’t know which country you are in, but in my experience in the United States (I’ve lived in six states in four regions) Catholics buy iconography from specific gift shops, either independent ones that cater to the baptism/first communion/confirmation trade or that are attached to shrines/cathedrals/seminaries. You’re unlikely to find a crucifix at Tuesday Morning or a random home decor place. Though I don’t recall seeing Buddha statues either.
I see Buddha statues for sale in Asian stores (like in Chinatowns) or in “Himalayan” stores where various arts and crafts inspired by Tibetan culture are sold. Both East Asian decorative pieces (running the gamut from fine art to cheap junk) and Tibetan arts and crafts are quite popular, the latter due to the Dalai Lama’s personal charisma and writings, I believe.
Perhaps people prefer to have a friendly statue of Buddha achieving enlightenment on their shelves. rather than one of Jesus being tortured to death.
Also, virtue signalling about diversity (not that it’s a bad thing) to express one’s worldliness.
My first thought goes to Pier 1 Imports:
https://www.pier1.com/products/meditating-buddha-statue?variant=37418146594983
It looks like they have some Jesuses too, but it doesn’t claim that they will “add luck and prosperity to any space” and make “an amazing housewarming gift”:
https://www.pier1.com/products/jesus-loves-the-little-children-garden-sculpture?variant=41699881517223
I am an Hindu atheist and have investigated this sometime back. Here’s what I have learnt (please feel free to correct) :
Roughly 50% of the US are Protestants and 23% are Catholics. Protestants far outnumber Catholics. Protestants do not approve idolatry or the statues of Jesus. Catholics do. I have seen Buddha statues or representations as artwork in Protestant American homes but never Jesus statues. Some Atheist Americans (in my opinion) are also okay with putting up Buddha statues / artwork as decoration, but not Jesus.
Here’s a comparison for popular “art” work :
At Michaels; a very popular American craft / art store
a. Buddha related art work : 80 results with 80% statues Search Product | Michaels
b. Jesus related art work : 21 results with about 20% statues
Search Product | Michaels
At Target; Home category, another American retail giant:
a. Buddha related art work : 23 results Buddha : Target
b. Jesus related art work : 16 Jesus : Target
One thing to note (and the OP seems to be aware of this, but others may not be) is that there are two different types of decorative statues that get seen in the west, depicting two completely different people, though both commonly get called “Buddha” in the west.
One depicts Siddhartha Gautama (a.k.a. Gautama Buddha), the founder of Buddhism, and statues of him typically depict him in a meditative pose:
The other depicts a Chinese monk named Budai, who is venerated in a sect of Buddhism known as Chan Buddhism. He is depicted very differently: as a fat and laughing monk.
FWIW, most of the time that I’ve seen a “Buddha statue” in someone’s home, it’s of him, and it seems like many non-Buddhist westerners think (or assume) that the “fat Buddha” is the guy who founded Buddhism, or something.
My parents had a little wooden statue of Budai in their house for many years, which we all always just referred to as “Fat Buddha”; there was no intent for philosophical meaning in them having it, as far as I know. My parents must have picked it up in a decor store during the 1960s.
Reason one: Some westerners adopt a form of Buddhism as their life philosophy or include Buddha in their vague spirituality. Hinduism, not so much.
Reason two: Buddhism is very wide spread in Asia and Buddha statues are seen as part of a style. Previous owners of our house (all white) did the garden in a vaguely Asian style and included a Buddha head.
Reason three: Reason one and two make Buddha statues available and “ok” for westerners who barely know about Buddhism (not that group one always do) to include in their collection of kitsch. You’re much more likely to get frowns if you get a statue of Ganesha (though of course not guaranteed to if all your friends are like you).
I’ve noticed these types of statues are becoming more popular than “fat Buddha” over the last few years. AFAICT, they are just for looks, no religion involved.
Or if you are like me, your friends know that you are an atheist who loves religious kitsch and they bring you gifts in that vein. That’s how I got one of those fat, laughing Buddhas like in @kenobi_65’s link from a good friend who brought it for me from his vacation in Hungary, of all places. I also have little porcelain Jesus and Virgin Mary statuettes I got from the junk tray in a department store for one Deutschmark each and other stuff like that. I like it, the cheaper and trashier, the better, and it’s decoration for me.
NB watch out for lots of swastikas on some of that Buddhist and Jain stuff… don’t know how well that goes over in Germany
Don’t worry, no swastikas on my Buddha, and I’m sure this would fall outside of the prohibition of fascist iconography in Germany and wouldn’t stand in court. But I wouldn’t want to have any swastikas in my house anyway.
ETA: as an aside, I have heard about people complaining and reporting to the authorities about swastikas at Buddhist and maybe Jain places of worship, but usually this gets sorted out very quickly. Most Germans wouldn’t know that the swastika had been an ancient symbol when it was adapted by the nazis.
Most Hindus, Buddhists and Jains wouldn’t know that the Swastika is not just an ancient Indian symbol, but an ancient European symbol as well :
"… Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered more than 1,800 ancient samples of the swastika symbol and its variants while digging the Hisarlik mound near the Aegean Sea coast for the history of Troy. "
In heavily-Protestant West Virginia where I grew up, paintings of Jesus were quite common in peoples’ homes. Statues less so.
You should realize that that website is not intended as a realistic representation of most white people (presumably in North America). It’s a jab at white, reasonably well-off people who think of themselves as hip and who probably live in big cities and their suburbs, mostly on the coasts. It’s both a website that started in 2008 and hasn’t any entries later than 2010 and a book published in 2008. Some of the entries are rather nasty. Many are out of date. There are people that are similar to the characteristics of many of the points made in the website but not as many as the author thinks.
Would garden gnomes be pagan?
How about the zombie pagan gnomes that I got for my oldest son when he started renting a house instead of an apartment?
Y’all are missing the obvious! Jesus statues are far easier to tip over than Buddha ones are.
As a Lutheran that just recently bought her first Budai, from an Asian trinket shop in Cleveland’s Asiatown during their Asian Fest … I can say that I bought it because it looks neat, it was very cheap ($3? $5?) and it’s a lucky symbol that holds no religious meaning to me. I’m not trying to worship it (and I don’t think Buddhists are either?) I was just hoping for some monetary prosperity 
(different poses are for different kinds of luck). I put it on my shelf next to the crucifix my Catholic mom gave me and some of my Star Wars figures.