What happens after we die? Most Canadians say an afterlife does exist, survey shows

A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.

A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.

Conducted in February and March, the survey gathered responses from more than 2,000 Canadians, with a variety of religious affiliations, across the country. Continuing a trend found in prior surveys by ARI and Gallup, at least three in five respondents said they believed in an afterlife.

"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," an ARI release of the survey results reads. "Only one-in-eight (13%) Canadians 'definitely' ruled it out."

Proportions of those who believe in an afterlife varied across the country, with survey respondents in Ontario and the Prairies more likely to believe, and those on Canada's coasts and Quebec more commonly expressing doubts.

Manitoba had the highest proportion of those who believed either somewhat or strongly in an afterlife at 72 per cent, followed by Saskatchewan (69 per cent), Alberta and Ontario (63 per cent), British Columbia (60 per cent), the Atlantic region (59 per cent) and Quebec (50 per cent).

Quebec also had the highest rate for strong feelings of doubt regarding an afterlife at 17 per cent, compared to 13 per cent among the national population and six per cent in Saskatchewan, where the smallest proportion of Canadians strongly disbelieved.