A massive global poll has shown that 51% of people believe in God, while only 18% don’t and 17% are undecided.
The poll was conducted by the global research company, Ipsos Social Research Institute, and they questioned over 18,000 people based in 23 different countries.
The managing director of Ipsos, Bobby Duffy, informed Reuters, "It may seem to many that we live in a secular world but this survey shows just how important spiritual life is to so many global citizens with half saying they believe in a spiritual being and the same proportion in an afterlife of some sort or other.”
"The other really interesting thing is that such a large proportion of the remaining people are just not sure there is a spiritual explanation either for how they got here or what happens after they die."
South African ranks in the top percentages of countries where a majority of people ascribe to a “definitive belief in a God or Supreme Being," with 83% of South Africans confirming this as their belief, fourth on the list behind Indonesia (93%), Turkey (91%) and Brazil (84%). Those who are most likely to believe in “many Gods or Supreme Beings” live in India (24%), China (14%) and Russia (10%).
Those countries at the top of the list of those who say they don’t believe in God or a Supreme Being(s) are France (39%), Sweden (37%), Belgium (36%), Great Britain (34%), Japan (33%) and Germany (31%).
When it comes to questions of heaven and hell, the statistics roughly match those who believe in God with around half of the global population believing in a form of afterlife. However, nearly a quarter of respondents do not believe in either heaven or hell.
Other findings of interest revealed by the survey shows that 41% of people believe in human evolution, while 28% believe in creationism and 31% are unsure what to believe.
The participating countries for the survey were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States of America.