Striking findings from 2023
Here’s a look back at 2023 through some of our most striking research findings.
Death & Dying
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Death & Dying
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Spirituality Among Americans
Overall, 70% of U.S. adults describe themselves as spiritual in some way, including 22% who are spiritual but not religious. An overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (83%) say they believe that people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body. And 81% say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.
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Many Americans report interacting with dead relatives in dreams or other ways
46% of Americans report that they’ve been visited by a dead family member in a dream, while 31% report having been visited by dead relatives in some other form.
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Few Americans Blame God or Say Faith Has Been Shaken Amid Pandemic, Other Tragedies
In the new survey, the Center attempted for the first time to pose some of these philosophical questions to a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, finding that Americans largely blame random chance – along with people’s own actions and the way society is structured – for human suffering, while relatively few believers blame God or voice doubts about the existence of God for this reason.
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Americans lost more years of life to COVID-19 in 2020 than to all accidents combined in a typical year
In 2020 alone, the coronavirus was responsible for about 380,000 deaths and roughly 5.5 million years of lost life in the United States.
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Most Americans believe in heaven … and hell
72% of Americans believe in heaven, while 58% believe in hell.
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California legalizes assisted suicide amid growing support for such laws
Two-thirds of Americans say doctors should be allowed by law to assist patients who are terminally ill and living in severe pain to commit suicide.
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Proposed law would clarify who gets access to a deceased person’s digital accounts
The Uniform Law Commission, a body of lawyers who produce uniform legislation for states to adopt, recently drafted the “Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (FADA),” which would grant fiduciaries broad authority to access and control digital assets and accounts.
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Chart of the Week: How Americans die, by the numbers
Americans aren’t dying like they used to. They’re living longer, and more are dying of natural causes. In 2010, nearly one-third of all deaths (31%) came from people ages 85 and older – a big improvement from 1968, when the 85+ age cohort made up just 12.6% of all deaths.
