How has the coronavirus pandemic affected Britons’ views on death?
At the end of January the UK reached a sad milestone of 100,000 Covid-related deaths. The YouGov Death Study asked the public if the pandemic has affected how they view death.
A quarter of Britons (25%) say that it has, with this applying to one in five (21%) men and three in ten (29%) women. For the large majority – 69% – the pandemic has had no impact on their perception of death.
Over a third of Britons aged 16-24 (35%) say that the pandemic has affected their views on mortality, compared to 22% of Britons aged 60 or older. Older women (25%) are more likely than older men (18%) to say the pandemic has changed their views on death.
Religious Britons, whether they are practicing their faith or not, are more likely than those who don’t belong to any religion to say that their views on death have changed: 31% vs 21%.
Among the quarter of Britons who said that the pandemic has changed their views about death, seven in ten (72%) report becoming more worried about losing loved ones.
Around half (46%) note that they are thinking about death more than before the COVID-19 outbreak. A quarter (25%) report becoming more worried about their own death, and a further 9% report becoming more accepting of their own death.
