A Demographic Portrait of 5,700+ NDERF Contributors

The Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) has received over 6,000 firsthand accounts of near-death and related experiences over more than two decades. This represents the largest publicly accessible database of NDE narratives in the world. But who are the people behind these accounts?

This analysis examines 5,731 English-language submissions from the NDERF database to create a comprehensive demographic portrait of the NDE community. By understanding who experiences and shares these profound events we gain valuable context for interpreting the collective wisdom these accounts offer.

The findings reveal a diverse community spanning continents, generations, and belief systems.

The NDERF database categorizes experiences using a classification system that reflects the diversity of transcendent events people report. The distribution reveals that while classical NDEs dominate, the database captures a rich spectrum of related phenomena:

The classification system attempts to categorize a range of differing spiritual events:

NDE (Near-Death Experience): Accounts that clearly meet the criteria for a classical near-death experience, typically involving an out-of-body component, altered perception of time, and encounters with other realms or beings.

STE (Spiritually Transformative Experience): Profound spiritual experiences that transform the individual but do not involved a life threatening event.

ADC (After-Death Communication): Direct encounters or communications with deceased persons.

OBE (Out-of-Body Experience): Experiences of consciousness separating from the body without the full NDE context.

SDE (Shared Death Experience): Experiencers who share in the dying process of another person, witnessing their transition.

For the purposes of this demographic analysis, we treat all classifications together.

One of the most striking demographic findings is the gender imbalance: women account for 55% of all submissions, while men represent 44%. This approximately 10-point difference holds steady across classifications and geographic regions.

Several factors may explain this gender difference:

Willingness to share: Research suggests women may be more inclined to share profound personal experiences, particularly those involving emotional transformation. The act of submitting an account to NDERF requires vulnerability and introspection—qualities that cultural patterns may associate with feminine expression.

Medical factors: Women experience higher rates of certain medical conditions that can trigger NDEs, though the overall incidence of NDEs across genders may be more balanced than submission rates suggest.

Age at experience: Women tend to have their first NDE at slightly younger ages, potentially meaning more years of life to reflect on and eventually share the experience.

It's important to note that this gender ratio reflects submission patterns, not necessarily the actual incidence of NDEs in the population. Men may have experiences at similar rates but be less likely to document and share them publicly.

Perhaps no demographic variable is more intriguing than the age at which people first experience an NDE. The data reveals that NDEs occur across the entire human lifespan—from infancy through advanced age—but with distinct patterns:

The peak age range for NDEs is 26-40 years, accounting for 27% of all experiences. This aligns with life stages involving increased responsibilities, stress, and potentially greater exposure to situations that might trigger medical emergencies or accidents.

However, one finding demands special attention: 17% of NDEs occur in children under age 12. This includes infants and toddlers who, according to their later reports, had experiences during birth, medical crises, or accidents in their earliest years.

Childhood NDEs are particularly significant because:

• They occur before extensive cultural conditioning about death and spirituality
• The accounts, recalled years later, often describe elements that children would not have been exposed to through normal channels
• They suggest that NDE consciousness may operate independently of developmental cognitive capacity

The mean age of 28.1 years and median of 25 years confirm that NDEs disproportionately affect younger adults—the very population that might have the most life left to integrate and apply the transformative lessons of their experience.

The NDERF database captures experiences from over 70 countries, making it a truly global collection. However, the geographic distribution reflects both the organization's US origins and broader patterns of internet accessibility and English-language dominance:

Beyond the United States (3,136 accounts), the top contributing countries reflect Western, English-accessible nations along with surprising global reach:

The presence of experiences from India, Iran, Brazil, South Africa, and dozens of other non-Western countries demonstrates that NDEs are not culturally bound. While submission rates are higher from English-speaking and Western nations, the phenomenon itself appears universal.

Researchers have noted that core NDE elements (out-of-body perception, tunnels or passages, encounters with beings, life review) appear across cultures, though the interpretation and imagery may vary based on cultural and religious background. The geographic diversity of NDERF's collection supports the hypothesis that NDEs represent a fundamental human experience rather than a culturally constructed phenomenon.

Tracking experiences by decade reveals fascinating historical patterns. The number of NDEs has grown dramatically over time, with peak decades in the 1990s and 2000s:

The rise from 141 documented experiences in the 1950s to over 1,000 in the 2000s reflects multiple factors:

Medical advances: Improved resuscitation techniques, particularly CPR and advanced cardiac life support, dramatically increased survival rates from cardiac arrest and trauma, the most common triggers for NDEs. More people surviving near-death events means more potential NDEs.

Increased awareness: Raymond Moody's 1975 book "Life After Life" introduced the term "near-death experience" to public consciousness. This awareness made people more likely to recognize and share their experiences. NDERF, founded in 1999, provided an accessible platform for submission.

Internet accessibility: The rise of the internet made sharing profoundly personal experiences easier and more private. People could submit accounts without the barrier of face-to-face disclosure.

Recent decline: The apparent decrease in 2010s and 2020s submissions may reflect several factors: a younger population less inclined to document experiences, potential data collection lag, or simply that the database has captured the surge from earlier decades' survivors. It may also reflect improvements in medical care that prevent the near-death threshold from being reached.

Dr. Bruce Greyson developed the Greyson NDE Scale to quantify the depth and completeness of near-death experiences. The scale measures 16 characteristic elements, yielding a score from 0-32. Higher scores indicate more complete, "deeper" NDEs with more classic elements.

Among 4,963 experiences with Greyson scoring, the distribution reveals that most NDERF accounts fall in the "deep" range:

The mean Greyson score of 11.9 and median of 12 indicate that the typical NDERF account represents a moderate-to-deep NDE—one with approximately half of the classic NDE elements present. This is meaningful because:

• Selection effect: People with deeper, more transformative experiences may be more motivated to document and share them
• Memory preservation: More complete NDEs may be more memorable and thus more likely to be recalled and submitted years later
• Impact depth: Higher Greyson scores correlate with greater life transformation, making these experiences more significant to the experiencer

Notably, 12% of accounts score 21 or higher, representing very deep or extremely deep experiences—the kind that dramatically and permanently transform individuals' worldviews, values, and life trajectories.

The character length of submitted narratives provides insight into how thoroughly experiencers document their experiences. The distribution shows that most people write substantial accounts:

The mean length of account is approximately 7,200 characters (~1,200 words.)

This commitment to thorough documentation reflects the profound significance experiencers attach to these events and their desire to create a lasting record.

While all accounts in this analysis are in English (the NDERF database's primary language), the original language field reveals that many experiences were first recounted in other languages and later translated:

~900 accounts are originally written in languages other than English. Experiencers from Spanish, French, German, Italian, and numerous other linguistic backgrounds have contributed, with their accounts translated to many other languages.

One of NDERF's most significant data points captures the religious or spiritual affiliation experiencers report after their NDE. This reveals how the experience reshaped their spiritual identity:

Our demographic analysis of 5,731 NDERF accounts reveals a diverse community.

Who Experiences NDEs?

NDEs occur across the entire human lifespan, from infancy through advanced age, with peak incidence in young adulthood (26-40). Women share accounts more frequently than men (55% vs 44%), though this may reflect willingness to share rather than actual incidence. The phenomenon spans 70+ countries and countless cultural backgrounds.

What the Demographics Suggest

The breadth of this demographic distribution supports a fundamental insight: NDEs are not confined to any particular population. They occur to infants who have no cultural concepts of death; they happen in Iran and India as well as Indiana; they transform atheists and agnostics alongside Catholics and Buddhists.

This universality lends weight to the hypothesis that NDEs represent a fundamental human experience that emerges from consciousness itself when at the threshold of death, rather than a culturally constructed narrative imposed by prior beliefs.

This analysis is part of an ongoing series exploring the NDERF database.