World Meditation Survey

Background

Meditation is currently extremely popular in the media and in research. It can be practised for all kinds of different reasons. Originally, meditation was taught to connect to the spiritual and achieve liberation. More recently, meditation has become more mainstream and is often used for more secular reasons such as improving wellbeing and reducing stress. Hundreds of scientific studies demonstrate the remarkably positive effects of meditation.

However, most of these studies were conducted in Western, industrialised societies of the Global North. They were also often limited to certain groups of meditators and certain meditation practices. Finally, they often did not consider that people vary in their individual characteristics and motivation and respond quite differently to meditation.

Aims of this study

We want to give voice to all types of meditators throughout the world and be as inclusive as possible. Our team of dedicated researchers works in ten different countries across Asia, Europe, South America and Australia and has translated the survey into ten different languages. We strongly believe in international and interdisciplinary collaboration and are committed to documenting all practices respectfully and inclusively.

The aim of this study is to examine meditation practice, motivation and individual characteristics of meditators in different traditional and cultural contexts. We want to know more about how people practice meditation around the globe and why they choose certain meditation traditions and practices. We further want to explore how these aspects develop and change over time.

Participation

The study is currently recruiting meditators from any country, tradition or level of experience. Choose between a short 10-15 minute survey or an 35-45 minute in-depth exploration of your meditation practice.

The survey is available in English, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Hindi, Japanese, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Sinhala.

Get involved

University of Melbourne contributors

External contributors

  • Dr Heena Kamble, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, India
  • A/Prof Takeshi Hamamura, Curtin University Perth, Australia
  • Dr Anuradha Baminiwatta, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
  • A/Prof Ivan Nyklíček, Tilburg University, Netherlands
  • Dr Jesús Montero-Marín, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
  • Prof Javier Garcia Campayo, University of Zaragoza, Spain
  • A/Prof Katherine Chen, University of Macao, Hong Kong
  • Dr Liudmila Gamaiunova, Université de Lausanne, France
  • A/Prof Marcelo Demarzo, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil
  • Prof Masaru Kanetkusi, Hosei University, Japan

May 2026

Our current data set includes 2,429 completed surveys across three different waves (1,602 at baseline), with participants still enrolling into the study and completing follow-up surveys.

Participants represent a broad range of world regions and meditation traditions. They live in Europe (n = 628), Australasia (219), Latin America (197), Asia (195), and North America (192). Their main traditions are Buddhist (n = 385), Hindu (327), secular (308), Abrahamic (75), or a mix of different traditions (369). Preliminary data analysis is underway and suggests substantial differences between meditators from different regions and traditions regarding their meditation practice and reasons for practicing.

First results from this study will be presented at the International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology in Leuven, Belgium in July 2026.