What Do Different Religions Believe Happens After We Die?

Few questions have produced as many different answers as what happens after we die. This article gives the numbers on what people believe, then summarizes what the main traditions teach. It presents each view as its followers understand it, and does not argue for any of them.

How many people believe in life after death?

Most people do. Pew Research Center reports that 70 percent of American adults say there is definitely or probably life after death. In a separate 2023 survey, 71 percent believed in heaven and 61 percent in hell. Another Pew study, the Religious Landscape Study, found 67 percent for heaven and 55 percent for hell. In 35 countries surveyed in 2024, Religion News Service reports a median of 64 percent believing in life after death. The highest was Indonesia at 85 percent, followed by Turkey at 84 and Kenya at 80. The lowest was Sweden at 38 percent.

How does belief differ by religion?

A great deal. In the Pew survey of Americans, atheists rarely believed in heaven (4 percent) or hell (3 percent). Jews were more likely to believe in heaven (48 percent) than in hell (20 percent). Large majorities of evangelical Protestants and members of historically Black Protestant churches believed in both heaven and hell. Pew also found that 42 percent of Americans believe the dead can communicate with the living.

How common is belief in reincarnation?

Less common, but widespread. Across the 35 countries, Pew found a median of 33 percent believing in reincarnation, which it defined as being reborn in this world again and again. It was 48 percent in India, Nigeria, and Thailand, 44 percent in Chile, and 12 percent in Poland and Sweden. In the United States it was 31 percent. Buddhists and Hindus were consistently more likely than others in their countries to believe in it. For more, see What Different Religions Teach About Reincarnation.

What do the major traditions teach?

In general terms:

• Hindu and Buddhist traditions teach some form of rebirth shaped by karma, the consequences of actions. They differ on the nature of the soul and the final goal.
• Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions include, in different forms, belief in resurrection and a future judgment. Understanding of heaven, hell, and the soul varies within each.
• Secular and humanist views often hold that there is no afterlife for the individual, and that a person continues through memory and the impact they had.

Each tradition has more variety than a summary can show. For how these beliefs shape funerals, see Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist practices.

Why doesn’t this article pick one view?

Because the question is beyond what any single resource can settle, and people hold their beliefs sincerely. For the philosophers’ side, see What Do Philosophers Say About Death?. For customs from many cultures, see Death Around the World.