Easter Poll: Majority Of Canadians (73%) And Americans (78%) Believe In The Resurrection

Toronto, ON - While perhaps billions of Christians around the world will celebrate the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ on this Good Friday, a new Ipsos Reid survey undertaken on behalf of CanWest News Service and Global News in both the United States and Canada reveals an underlying belief among many in both countries that the resurrection never actually occurred. Is this the impact of the block-buster novel the Da Vinci Code?

When asked about Jesus Christ, a strong majority in both Canada (73%) and the United States (78%) indicate they believe he "died on the cross and was resurrected to eternal life". But, 17% of Canadians and 13% of Americans are of the opinion that "Jesus' apparent death on the cross was faked" and that "Jesus was also married and had a family". One in ten in both countries don't have an opinion on this issue.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News Service/Global News. For the survey, a representative sample of 814 adult Canadians, and 768 adult Americans were interviewed via telephone, from April 11th-12th, 2006. The sample used in this study has been weighted according to Census data to accurately reflect the population of both countries. With a sample of this size, the results for both countries are considered accurate to within 1773.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of each country been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population.

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Andrew Grenville
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 526-6055