Thirteen percent of the Canadian population expects aliens to visit earth in 2025 while 30 percent are convinced life will be discovered on other planets, a recently released survey suggests.
Those beliefs are even more prevalent globally. A global survey conducted by Ipsos found that 18 percent of respondents across 33 countries believe this year will mark the arrival of aliens on earth while 34 percent expect life to be discovered on other planets in 2025.
The 2025 Ipsos predictions survey found the belief in an alien invasion was particularly high in many of the Asian countries surveyed, with India topping the list at 53 percent, while residents of Great Britain and Sweden were the most skeptical at 7 percent. There were also more believers in the United States than in Canada, with 17 percent of Americans watching the skies for alien aircraft compared to Canada’s 13 percent.
Those polled in Great Britain and Sweden were similarly dubious about life being found on other planets this year. Only Japan had more skeptics with 16 percent believing life would be discovered compared to the 20 percent of those polled in Great Britain and Sweden.
Canada had more believers at 30 percent than the United States at 27 percent but it was again Asian countries that topped the list of believers. Half of Malaysians, 57 percent of Indians, and 59 percent of Indonesians expect the discovery of life on other planets this year.
Despite widespread skepticism about extraterrestrial life in many of the countries surveyed, nearly half of those polled expect robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to have a considerable impact in 2025.
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Forty-eight percent of those polled across the globe said they think robots will look like, think like, and speak like humans this year. That belief was highest in Indonesia at 81 percent and lowest in Japan at 29 percent.
Canada had fewer believers in the advancement of robotics than the United States. Thirty-eight percent of Canadians anticipate robots will be capable of human-like behaviour by 2025, compared to the 42 percent of Americans who share this perspective.
With the exception of Japan, more than half of respondents in all countries surveyed—65 percent—said they believed artificial intelligence would lead to “many new jobs being lost” in their respective countries this year.
That belief was highest in Indonesia at 85 percent compared to Canada’s 63 percent and 61 percent in the United States. Only 42 percent of those surveyed in Japan were concerned about AI replacing humans in the workforce.
Respondents were less optimistic AI would generate new employment opportunities, with only 43 percent believing “many new jobs” would be created.
China was the most optimistic about AI job creation at 77 percent while Hungary was the least convinced at 24 percent. Thirty-three percent of Canadians expect more AI jobs this year compared to 36 percent of Americans.
Looking Ahead
Despite concerns about AI-related job loss, the vast majority of those polled across the globe were hopeful the upcoming year would be better than 2024.
Seventy-one percent of those surveyed said they were “optimistic that 2025 will be a better year for me than it was in 2024.”
That sentiment was shared by many Canadians surveyed with 71 percent expressing optimism about 2025. The United States was just behind Canada at 70 percent, while Great Britain lagged further at 61 percent. Indonesians were the most optimistic with 90 percent expecting better things in 2025 compared to the Japanese at just 38 percent. Japan was the lone country to have fewer than half of survey respondents express optimism for the year ahead.
Despite nearly three-quarters of respondents expressing optimism about their personal circumstances, only half said the global economy would be stronger this year than it was in 2024.
Fewer Canadians expressed optimism about the economy, with only 46 percent expecting an improvement compared to the global average of 51 percent. Fifty-four percent of Americans surveyed expected the global economy to change for the better compared to France which came in at the bottom of the list at 25 percent.
France wasn’t alone in its pessimism. That attitude was shared by a number of countries in Europe.
“While on a global level people are most positive the economy will [be] stronger than in recent years, in Europe a number of countries are less positive in their outlook than last year,” the survey authors said in a release.
Fewer than half of respondents in Sweden, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Belgium, and France were hopeful the economy would improve this year.
Seventy-nine percent of respondents globally predicted prices in their country would increase faster than people’s incomes, while 70 percent said inflation would be higher this year. Sixty-eight percent predicted increased unemployment and 61 percent said they expected interest rates to rise.
Canadians largely shared these outlooks with 81 percent expecting prices to surpass incomes, 67 percent anticipating higher inflation, 67 percent forecasting a rise in unemployment, and 50 percent predicting an increase in interest rates.
