From
statistical investigations:
Europe
Western Germany USA
Canada 1969
20
%
25 %
20
% 26 % 1978-1982
21 %* 1981
21 % 1990
23
%
26
% 31 % 2005
20 %
* of persons who had own religious experiences: 36 %! For
USA 2005: “yes” 20%, “maybe” 20 %, “no” 59 %.
Newer results about the belief in reincarnation:
For USA: 27 %, of them 23 % are men and 30 % women
40 % of age 25-29, 14 % of age over 64
21 % Christians, 40 % non-Christians
For Europe: 24 % – increasing
24 % Protestants and 27 % Catholics in Germany
25-33 % in mainly Catholic countries
15-20 % in mainly Protestant countries
by country:
23 % in France
30 % in the UK – Catholics: 41 %
18 % in the Netherlands
29 % in Austria – age 15-30: 33.7 %
20 % in Sweden – age 15-30: 26 %
In Sweden, according to an older Demoskop investigation
from 2002:
overall 15 % yes, 34 % maybe, 50 % no,
age group 15-24 years: 20 % yes, 39 % maybe, 41 % no.
According to the Buddhist
Jian Shakya some statistics
show as many as 60 % of Americans consider reincarnation a “reasonable
probability”.
This doesn't mean that they actually believe in it, but that to
them it at least might be a possibility.
As concerns Eastern Europe, survey data show that the belief in
reincarnation is particularly high in the Baltic countries, with Lithuania
having the highest figure for the whole of Europe: 44 %. The lowest figure is
for
Eastern Germany (the former GDR), 12 %. In Russia, about one-third believes in reincarnation. The
effect of communist anti-religious ideas on the beliefs of the populations of
Eastern Europe seems to have been rather slight, if any, except apparently in
East Germany.
According to survey data from 1999-2002, 22 % of respondents in
Western Europe believe in reincarnation, which is not in line with the dominant
doctrine of the Christian Churches, Catholic or Protestant, since the number
will include many Christians.
A 1990 Gallup poll found that 25 % of Catholics in the
United States believe in reincarnation. And it's not just America. Another
recent survey, by the University of London, concluded that 28 % of the
people in France believe in reincarnation, while only 57 % believe in God. Sources a.o.: Mark
C. Albrecht: Reincarnation, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill.,
1982 Richard Friedli: Zwischen Himmel und Hölle, Universitätsverlag, Freiburg
(Switzerland), 1986 European
Values Survey
“Three in
Four Americans Believe in Paranormal”, Gallup Poll June 16, 2005 From
a Gallup poll in Slovenia in 1993: 15
% believe in reincarnation 29
% believe in life after death Source:
Aura magazine 43/1993, Ljubljana From
an investigation report Reincarnation in contemporary England „The numbers of westerners
interested in reincarnation greatly exceed the numbers of westerners attached
to Eastern or New Age religions. … If there is a private
belief par excellence, it could well be reincarnation… … Our interviews confirm
that it is perfectly possible both to go to church and to believe in
reincarnation, and that those who entertain the idea of reincarnation need not
accept large chunks of a “New Age” or “alternative” package…
Entertaining
the idea of reincarnation has little to do with their membership of a church…
It
has little to do with the New Age… Our respondents were not notable for
displaying the lifestyle trappings, Aquarian hopes, or holism of the New Age.
Reincarnation
is one way of tackling issues of suffering that Christianity struggles with,
but this private solution need not entail leaving the institutional church.”
The
results reported in this investigation clear away a bit of a myth. It has
repeatedly been alleged by the Church that the increase of the reincarnation
belief in the West, which can be observed to day, would have to do with the New
Age movement. It is certain that one believes in reincarnation in the New Age,
but the belief was here in the West long before was a New Age existed. It has
also been alleged that the belief would have been brought to the West with the
Theosophy of Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky. The belief was here long before there was a Theosophy. The
Vikings, Celts and other ancient European cultures had there forms of
reincarnation belief. Greek philosophers wrote about it. Cabbalists and Gnostic
Christians believed in it, and so did later Gnostic movements like the Cathars
and the Manichaeans. Most of the so called “secret societies” believed in it.
They kept their doctrines secret in order to avoid the dangers of the murderous
Inquisition, but to day their beliefs are no more very secret. It is also not true that
the belief in reincarnation would originate from India. It has survived there,
whereas it disappeared in (or with) other cultures. For example, the great
indigenous cultures like Incas and Mayas could not have had their belief in
reincarnation from India. The belief seems to go like a “red thread” through
almost all cultures and religions. Where the belief is no more to day, it usually
was earlier. See
also Reincarnation,
Modernity and Identity by Tony Walter (Sociology, Vol. 35, No.
1, pp. 21-38). Review by an
Icelandic expert Prof. Erlendur
Haraldsson (Iceland) – a.o. known for several investigations of cases of children
who talk about a previous life – has published a study in Network, No. 87, 2005 (pp.
22-24): “West- and East-Europeans and their Belief in Reincarnation and
Life after Death”, downloadable from his webpage.
Based on data collected 1999-2002, he finds that as an average in Western Europe
22.3 % believe in reincarnation and 57 % in a life after death. In Eastern
Europe (the former communist countries) 27 % believe in reincarnation and 47.6 %
in a life after death. Of the Western Europeans who believe in a life after
death, 36.8 % believe in reincarnation, but as many as 50.2 % of the East
Europeans!
More recent statistics:
http://www.spiritual-wholeness.org/faqs/reinceur/reineuro.htm
http://postyour.info/statistics/do-you-believe-in-reincarnation.htm
How many believe in reincarnation
in the Western culture?Facts and Figures of Reincarnation Belief in Europe (interesting graphs!)
Harris
Poll
Religious Tolerance
Wikipedia
Catholic
Culture