Senior Citizen Attitudes Differ from other adults

April 10, 2003 - Senior Citizens 65 and older do have some ideas that are quite different from other adults, and that are sometimes puzzling. For example, 95 percent believe in God, but only 62 percent believe there is a devil. On average, only 90 percent of American adults believe in God, but 69 percent believe in the devil. Maybe the closer we get to the inevitable; the more we want to believe there is a good God and not a bad devil.

The most striking differences between older Americans and other adults concerned belief in ghosts, astrology and reincarnation. We seniors are a lot more settable about these things.

These are some of the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,201 U.S. adults surveyed in January, 2003, using the same methods used by Harris Interactive^® to forecast the 2000 elections with great accuracy.

Following are graphs showing how the attitudes of senior citizens (65 and over) compared with other adults. To see the chart of all the results, go below the individual graphs.

ELEVEN BELIEFS – BY SEX AND AGE

"Please indicate for each one if you believe in it, or not."

	All Adults	Sex		Age
	All Adults	Male	Female	18 – 24	25 – 29	30 – 29	40 – 49	50 – 64	65+
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
God	90	86	93	84	82	91	90	91	95
Survival of the soul after death	84	78	89	85	88	81	86	82	84
Miracles	84	77	90	86	85	82	85	83	82
Heaven	82	75	89	83	71	83	84	80	85
The resurrection of Christ	80	73	86	76	68	81	82	81	84
The Virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary)	77	70	83	76	60	79	80	78	80
Hell	69	65	73	74	63	69	72	66	68
The devil	68	64	73	68	62	72	72	68	62
Ghosts	51	45	58	58	65	55	57	48	27
Astrology	31	25	36	37	43	37	23	32	17
Reincarnation	27	23	30	30	40	30	25	26	14

To see the complete results and more by Harris, go to http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=359