Only one-in-eight Canadians rule out the possibility of life continuing after death entirely
March 27, 2024 – For many Canadians, Easter weekend has become a secular holiday celebrated by students as spring break and marked with a statutory holiday for workers across the country. But the religious significance of the date still holds import for Christians, who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and perhaps provides an opportunity for others to consider if there is life beyond what we know.
New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with Cardus, finds three-in-five Canadians believe there is some sort of life after death – whether that is the heaven or hell of the Christian faith, the Jannah or Jahannam of Islam, or the reincarnation of the soul believed by Sikhs and Hindus. The belief in the afterlife has been held at a majority level steadily in survey data seen back to 1960. Two-in-five (40%) say there is no life after this one, but only one-in-eight (13%) Canadians “definitely” rule it out.
As Christians celebrate the Holy Week, they do so with varying beliefs depending on their sect. Evangelical Christians are the most likely (92% say yes) to believe in life after death, while Roman Catholics express more doubt (67%). Among the other Abrahamic faiths, Muslims (87%) strongly believe while Jews predominately doubt the existence of life after death at a majority level (60%). Hindus (71%), who celebrated the arrival of spring with Holi this week, and Sikhs (67%) are also firm in their belief of life after death.
About ARI
The Angus Reid Institute (ARI) was founded in October 2014 by pollster and sociologist, Dr. Angus Reid. ARI is a national, not-for-profit, non-partisan public opinion research foundation established to advance education by commissioning, conducting and disseminating to the public accessible and impartial statistical data, research and policy analysis on economics, political science, philanthropy, public administration, domestic and international affairs and other socio-economic issues of importance to Canada and its world.
About Cardus
Founded in 1974, Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.
INDEX
Part One: Life after death
-
Belief by religion
-
Consistently, a majority have believed in the afterlife
-
The Spiritually Uncertain are split as to what happens after death
Part Two: The resurrection: history or myth?
-
Canadians split as to whether the resurrection of Jesus was an actual historical event
Part One: Life after death
Belief by religion
The belief in some sort of life after death is a core tenet of many religions including Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism; these are the religions that two-thirds (64%) of Canadians say they are followers of. What that life comprises varies by religion.
Christianity teaches that following Jesus Christ leads to eternity in heaven, while not following him leads to hell. For Muslims, it’s the Akhirah, or the hereafter, the afterlife experienced either in Jannah (paradise) or Jahannam (hell). The Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text, describes the concept of that religion’s reincarnation, where the atman, or soul, enters a new body after death. In Sikhism, life is a cycle of samsara, or birth, death and rebirth, where souls are continuously reincarnated in new bodies.
The belief in life continuing after death is held by a consistent majority of Canadians. Currently, three-in-five (60%) say they believe there is some sort of an afterlife though that varies from those whose belief is definite (28%) to those who are less certain (32%). Two-in-five (40%) believe one life is all humans get, including one-quarter (27%) who express some uncertainty and 13 per cent who rule it out entirely.
Majorities of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs say they believe in a life after death. For Christians, belief varies in strength on a spectrum from Evangelicals to Roman Catholics. A majority of Jews disagree that there is a life after this one, perhaps reflecting that religion’s ambiguity on the matter.
Consistently, a majority have believed in the afterlife
The number of Canadians who say they believe in life after death has varied little over time, ranging from 60 per cent to 66 per cent in a typical year with a notable exception. In the aftermath of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic – the kind of once-in-a-lifetime event whose ripples are still being felt – belief in life after death reached a nadir but was still held by a narrow majority:
In fact, the majority belief in a life after death has held since the 1960s. In Gallup polls in 1960 and 1984 at least three-in-five Canadians said they believed there was life after death. Note that the question varied for Gallup, offering an option of “don’t know” which was not provided in the ARI questionnaires.
Quebecers are the least likely to believe in a life after death, perhaps owing to that province’s higher propensity for secularism. Elsewhere, belief is highest on the prairies and lowest on the coasts:
There is divergence among genders on this matter. Men older than 54 are the most likely to definitively deny there is life after death at one-in-four (23%) while women that age are the most likely to definitively affirm it exists at 36 per cent:
The Spiritually Uncertain are split as to what happens after death
The Angus Reid Institute’s Spectrum of Spirituality index was developed in partnership with Cardus in 2017 to help understand religiosity in Canada. Using a series of questions on faith, beliefs and religious practice, the Spectrum categorizes Canadians into four mindsets: Non-Believers, the Spiritually Uncertain, Privately Faithful and Religiously Committed. To read more about the four mindsets, click here. To read more about how the Spectrum is derived, click here.
The largest group of Canadians are Spiritually Uncertain (43%), while near equal-sized groups are classified as Non-Believer (21%), Privately Faithful (19%) and Religiously Committed (17%).
Non-Believers are near unanimous (92%) in their belief that there is no life after this death, with few (8%) disagreeing. The Spiritually Uncertain are the most divided, leaning slightly towards believing in some sort of afterlife (56%) than not (44%). Meanwhile, the Privately Faithful and Religiously Committed believe in life after death at supermajority levels:
Part Two: The resurrection: history or myth?
Canadians split as to whether the resurrection of Jesus was an actual historical event
The Easter weekend is an important one on the Christian calendar, marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his death on the cross. This account is in the New Testament of the Bible, but whether or not this was a historical event is an unsettled matter.
There are near equal-sized groups of Canadians on both sides of the argument. Two-in-five (38%) believe the resurrection was not a historical event, while a similar number (36%) believe it was. One-quarter (26%) offer no opinion. Young men and women older than 54 are the most likely to believe the Easter resurrection occurred in the first century, but at least one-quarter of all age-gender groups say they strongly disagree that was the case:
Seven-in-ten (70%) Evangelical Christians say they strongly believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a historical event, the most of any group of religious followers. A majority (62%) of Jews disagree, the only religious group to do so at a majority level:
Survey Methodology:
The Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with Cardus, conducted two online surveys among adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum.
The first survey was conducted from Feb. 20-25, 2024 among a representative randomized sample of 2,026 Canadian adults. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
A second survey was conducted from March 11-14, 2024, among Canadians from the four largest non-Christian faith groups, including 144 Canadian Muslims, 143 Canadian Hindus, 142 Canadian Jews and 112 Canadian Sikhs.
Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by ARI and Cardus.
For detailed results by age, gender, region, education, and other demographics, click here.
For detailed results by religion and the Spectrum of Spirituality, click here.
For a PDF of the full report, including detailed tables and methodology, click here.
To read the questionnaire, click here.
Image – Varshil Changani/ Unsplash
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Shachi Kurl, President, ARI: 604.908.1693 shachi.kurl@angusreid.org @shachikurl
Daniel Proussalidis, Director of Communications, Cardus: 613.899.5174 dproussalidis@cardus.ca
