Notre Dame Cathedral, Ottawa, Canada. Photo by Macy Nguyen on Unsplash.
Support for teaching creationism in Canada's public schools increased slightly in the last year and a half, according (PDF) to a new poll, even though almost two thirds of Canadians agree that human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years.
Asked, "Do you think creationism — the belief that the universe and life originated from specific acts of divine creation — should be part of the school curriculum in your province?" (decisions about curriculum in Canada are generally made at the provincial level, by the province's ministry of education), 19 percent of respondents said that it definitely should; 29 percent said that it probably should; 15 percent said that it probably should not; and 20 percent said that it certainly should not, with 18 percent not sure.
In a similar poll conducted in 2024, 16 percent of respondents said that creationism definitely should be part of the school curriculum and 25 percent said that it probably should. So the percentage of respondents favoring teaching creationism increased by seven percentage points. A press release from Research Co., which conducted both polls, observed, "The increase in support for discussing creationism in schools is being driven by Canadians aged 18-to-34."
Asked, "Which of these statements comes closest to your own point of view regarding the origin and development of human beings on earth," 38 percent of respondents preferred "Human beings definitely evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years”; 23 percent preferred "probably evolved"; 8 percent preferred "God probably created human beings in the present form within the last 10,000 years"; and 15 percent preferred "God definitely," with 16 percent not sure. The 2024 results were similar.
The poll was conducted online by Research Co. from October 24 to October 26, 2025, among 1,002 adults in Canada. The data were statistically weighted by Canadian census figures for age, gender, and region. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent at the 95% confidence level.
