What the 'hell'? Gen Z more likely to believe in damnation after death, finds study

Gen Z is cool, Gen Z doesn't really believe in God, but as per a new study, it does believe in hell. This may come as a surprise for many, but a new study has found that Generation Z aka Gen Z is almost twice as likely to believe in hell than baby boomers. While only 18 per cent of the boomers said they believe in the concept of the land of the damned, a whopping 32 per cent of Gen Z said they believe in the netherworlds.

And it's not just Gen Z, millennials too, believe in hell. This coming from generations that more often than not identify as atheist is sure to leave you bamboozled. After all, the idea of damnation must belong to an age where people and their lives are all shaped by the fear of hellfire and punishment after death.

The results are from the 'World Values Survey', one of the world's largest and most widely used academic social surveys.

Conducted by the Policy Institute at King’s College, London, it found that in the United Kingdom, the younger generations are also more likely to believe in life after death than older generations.

World Values Survey found that while 32 per cent of both Gen Z and millennials believe in hell, only 24 per cent of the pre-war generation, and at 18 per cent, an even lesser percentage of baby boomers think damnation awaits people after death.

In comparison, only 27 per cent of millennials and Gen Z see themselves as religious, while 46 per cent of the pre-war generation identified as religiously inclined. In 1981, 69 per cent of the older generation said they were religious.

The statistics for the United Kingdom are based on a representative sample of 3,056 adults interviewed by Ipsos through a combination of face-to-face and online surveys.

Calgary Herald reports that the study classifies different generations based on their birth years for this analysis. The pre-war generation referred to individuals born before 1945, baby boomers included those born between 1945 and 1965, Gen X encompassed individuals born from 1966 to 1979, millennials referred to those born between 1980 and 1995, and Gen Z included individuals born from 1996 onwards.

As per the study, it's just hell. Between 1981 and 2022, the British public overall also stopped believing in heaven. From 1981 to 2022, the number of people who believe in heaven fell from 57 per cent to 41 per cent.

The data also reveals that just under half of Britons expressed a belief in God in 2022, a decrease from three-quarters in 1981. Among the 24 nations included in the study, only five now show a lower likelihood of believing in God compared to the UK, with China having the lowest percentage at 17 per cent.

Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute, commented on the findings and said that while organised religion's cultural influence has continued to decline in the UK, the belief in "something" beyond this life remains strong, especially among the youngest generations.

"Our cultural attachment to organised religion has continued to decline in the UK – but our belief that there is something beyond this life is holding strong, including among the youngest generations," said Duffy.

"While the youngest generations continue to have lower attachment to formal religion, many of them have similar or even greater need to believe that there is 'more than this'." 

Beliefs regarding life after death have remained consistent over the past four decades, with slightly less than half of the public consistently accepting that they believe in it. Despite their relatively lower level of faith, younger individuals demonstrate higher levels of belief. Last year, slightly over half of Gen Z and millennials expressed their belief in life after death, which is significantly higher than the 35 per cent of baby boomers and 39 per cent of the pre-war generation.

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