Sociodemographic variations of belief in life after death across 22 Countries

Belief in life after death is among the oldest forms of spiritual belief, found in nearly every world civilization and religion. While several national surveys highlight differences in afterlife beliefs across countries, none have explored the sociodemographic factors associated with these beliefs. Using data from Wave 1 of the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898), weighted to be nationally representative, we estimated the proportion of people affirming belief in an afterlife in 22 countries. Primary analyses with demographic variables were conducted separately by country and then pooled using meta-analytic techniques. We examined variations in afterlife belief across nine sociodemographic characteristics: age, gender, marital status, employment status, education level, immigration status, frequency of religious service attendance, religious affiliation, and racial/ethnic identity. The overall proportion of the populations believing in life after death ranged from 95% in Indonesia to 21% in Japan. Meta-analytic results indicated cross-national heterogeneity across all sociodemographic categories, though the degree of variation differed. Random effects meta-analytic results highlighted religious service attendance as a key factor, with the highest belief in the afterlife observed among those attending services at least once per week. These findings provide a foundation for understanding population-level beliefs in the afterlife and continued exploration of their complexity across different contexts.