One in Four (24%) Canadians Want to Live Forever

In the latest CTV/Angus Reid Poll, a representative cross-section of 1,000 Canadians were asked to agree/disagree with various statements dealing with immortality, that is the ability for someone to live forever. The results of these questions are outlined below.

One in four Canadians want to live forever (24%) -- a similar proportion (26%) is afraid of dying

At the Two Extremes, Quebecers Have Greatest Will to Be Immortal (30%) While Residents of Saskatchewan/Manitoba Have the Lowest Desire for Immortality (14%)

One in four (24%) Canadians want to live forever. Those most likely to agree with the statement, "if I had the opportunity, I would choose to live forever", include Quebecers (30%), Canadians between 18 and 34 years (32%), men (31%), Canadians whose highest level of completed education is high school (31%) and those with household incomes between 25,000 and $55,000 (25%). (Download detailed charts and tables in .pdf format.)

Those who are most likely to disagree with this statement (i.e., they would not want to be immortal) include, residents of Saskatchewan/Manitoba (83%), those with household incomes below $25,000 (78%), Canadians who have not completed high school (79%) and women (81%). It is interesting that women are far more likely than men to indicate that they would not want to live forever (81% versus 68%).

A similar proportion, one quarter (26%) of Canadians agree with the statement, "I am afraid of dying". Those most likely indicate that they are afraid of dying are Quebecers (32%), Canadians between 18 and 34 years (29%), Canadians whose highest level of completed education is high school (30%), those with household incomes over $55,000 (32%) and married Canadians (29%). (Download detailed charts and tables in .pdf format.)

Those who are most likely to disagree with this statement (i.e., they are not afraid of dying) include, residents of Saskatchewan/Manitoba (81%), those with household incomes below $25,000 (78%), Canadians who have not completed high school (77%), widows (87%) and Canadians over 55 (78%).

In spite of potentially serious side effects, one in ten Canadians (10%) would take a drug to double their lives

Despite Quebecers expressed desire for immortality, they are the least likely to indicate that they would take the drug (92% would not take the drug)

Men are twice as likely as women to take the potentially harmful drug

Ten percent of Canadians agree with the statement that "if a drug existed that would more than double my life but might have serious side effects, I would still take it". Nine in ten (89%) Canadians indicate that they would not take the drug. (Download detailed charts and tables in .pdf format.)

British Columbians (14%), younger Canadians (12% among those between 18 and 34), men (14%) and those with household incomes over $55,000 (14%) are among the most likely to take the drug.

In spite of their proportionately high fear of dying (32%) and their expressed desire to live forever (30%), Quebecers are the most likely to pass on the drug (92% would not take the drug).

It is noteworthy that twice as many men would take the drug compared to women (14% versus 6%).

A drug that would double one's life, but might have serious side effects is valued at an average of $85,000 -- but the plurality would not pay more than $10,000

Among those who would take the drug, the plurality (43%) indicate that they would pay under $10,000 for the drug and 33% indicate that they would pay $10,000 or more and 3% would not pay for the drug. An additional 22% do not know how much they would pay for the drug. (Table 3)

As one might expect, affluent Canadians are more likely to value the drug at over $10,000 than those less affluent. Specifically, the plurality of Canadians with household incomes over $55,000 (41%) indicates that they would spend over $10,000 for the drug while the plurality of those with household incomes under $25,000 (54%) and incomes between $25,000 and $55,000 (48%) indicates that they would spend under $10,000 for the drug.

This CTV/Angus Reid Poll was conducted by telephone between February 9th and 12th 1998 among a representative cross-section of 1,000 Canadian adults.

These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1996 Census data.

With a Canada-wide sample of 1,000, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results are within ±3.2 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

W. John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(416) 324-2900