What percentage of people do not have a will?

It varies by country, but the pattern is consistent. In the United States, only 24% of adults said they had a will in the Caring.com 2025 study. In the UK, Canada Life found 50% of adults have no will. In Australia, Finder put the figure at 60% (about 12 million people), and in Canada the Angus Reid Institute found 50% have no will. In short, roughly half or more of adults in these markets are not documented.

How much wealth will pass between generations?

Cerulli Associates projects $124 trillion will transfer in the United States through 2048, with about $105 trillion going to heirs and $18 trillion to charity. Globally, UBS estimates $83.5 trillion will move over the next 20 to 25 years, and in Australia the Productivity Commission estimated about A$3.5 trillion will change hands by 2050.

Are estate disputes actually increasing?

In England and Wales, yes. DNA Legal reported a record 1,217 disputed probate cases at the High Court in 2025, a 12.7% rise on 2024, and probate caveats have grown roughly 79% since 2010. Cited drivers include frozen inheritance tax thresholds, more blended families, and rising dementia rates.

What happens to digital assets and crypto when someone dies?

They do not always transfer automatically. Access usually depends on credentials and platform policy. Cryptocurrency is the starkest case: Chainalysis has estimated around 1.8 million bitcoin sit in likely-lost wallets, and if a private key is gone the asset is effectively unrecoverable regardless of any will. Keeping an access plan and inventory is increasingly part of estate planning.

What happens if you die without a will?

You die intestate, and a statutory formula decides who inherits. If no traceable blood relatives exist in England and Wales, the estate can pass to the Crown via the Bona Vacantia Division, which reported net income of £77 million in 2023-24. Claims against such estates can be made up to 30 years after death, but with interest only on claims within 12 years of administration being completed.

How many people die each year worldwide?

About 61.6 million people died globally in 2023, according to the United Nations World Population Prospects (2024 revision) as compiled by Our World in Data. In the United States alone, the CDC recorded 3,090,964 deaths in 2023. Each death represents an estate, and survey evidence suggests roughly half were never documented in a will.

Wills and estate planning statistics 2026: a global snapshot

Verifiable, source-linked numbers on who has a will, the wealth set to change hands, digital assets after death, and rising estate disputes across the US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, and the wider world.

Reviewed: 29 June 2026 · Figures are third-party data, each linked to its source · General information, not legal or financial advice

Most adults around the world have not written a will, even as the largest transfer of wealth in recorded history begins to move between generations. The figures below are drawn from named, reputable sources (national statistics offices, major insurers, research houses, and government departments), each linked so you can check it yourself. Numbers are quoted as the source published them; where a country uses its own survey method, that method is noted.

This page is general information about publicly reported data, not legal or financial advice. Every statistic is third-party data attributed to its publisher; none of it is Afterlife AI™'s own research.

How many adults have no will

The headline finding across mature markets is remarkably consistent: roughly half or more of adults have no valid will.

In the United States, only 24% of adults said they had a will in the Caring.com 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, conducted with YouGov among more than 2,500 adults. That is down from 32% in the same study a year earlier, a multi-year low. (Caring.com, 2025)
In the United Kingdom, research published by Canada Life in March 2024 found that half (50%) of UK adults do not have a will. (Canada Life, 2024)
In Australia, a nationally representative Finder survey found that 60% of Australians, equivalent to about 12 million adults, do not have a will. (Finder, 2024)
In Canada, the Angus Reid Institute found that half (50%) of Canadians have no last will and testament, with only about 35% holding one that is up to date (online survey of 1,610 adults). (Angus Reid Institute, 2023)

The most common reasons people give are strikingly similar across borders: they have not gotten around to it, or they believe they do not own enough to justify a will. Caring.com reported that the leading barriers were that a will is low on the to-do list and a feeling of having too few assets, while Canada Life found 26% of UK respondents said they lacked enough assets or wealth to warrant a will.

Younger adults are least prepared

The gap widens sharply by age. Angus Reid found that 84% of Canadians aged 18 to 24 have no will, and that even among those aged 45 to 54, about half still do not. (Angus Reid Institute, 2023) Finder reported a similar split in Australia, with around 79% of Baby Boomers holding a will compared with far fewer younger adults. (Finder, 2024)

The great wealth transfer

The scale of wealth about to change hands is the reason estate planning has moved from a niche concern to a mainstream financial topic.

Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion in wealth will transfer in the United States through 2048, with roughly $105 trillion flowing to heirs and about $18 trillion going to charity. (Cerulli Associates, 2025)
Cerulli also estimates that nearly $100 trillion of that total, around 81%, will come from Baby Boomer and older households. (Cerulli Associates, 2025)
Looking globally, UBS estimates that $83.5 trillion of wealth will be transferred over the next 20 to 25 years, of which roughly $9 trillion moves horizontally between spouses, much of it eventually to women who outlive their partners. (UBS Global Wealth Report 2024)
In Australia, the Productivity Commission estimated that about A$3.5 trillion in assets will change hands by 2050, with annual inherited assets expected to roughly quadruple from about A$120 billion to nearly A$500 billion a year over 25 years. (Productivity Commission, 2021)

This is the central tension of the data: trillions are set to move, yet around half of the people holding that wealth have not documented who should receive it.

Estate disputes are rising

Where documentation is missing or contested, families end up in court more often.

In England and Wales, a record 1,217 disputed probate cases were filed at the High Court in 2025, the highest annual total on record and a 12.7% rise on 2024, according to analysis by DNA Legal. (DNA Legal, 2026)
Probate caveats, the formal applications used to pause an estate, topped 11,300 for a second consecutive year, having grown roughly 79% since 2010. (DNA Legal, 2026)
Contributing factors cited include a long freeze on inheritance tax thresholds, more blended families (almost 30% of UK marriages are now second or subsequent marriages), and rising rates of dementia, with about 982,000 people in the UK living with the condition and numbers climbing. (DNA Legal, 2026)

Intestacy and unclaimed estates

Dying without a will (intestacy) does not pause the question of who inherits; it hands the decision to a statutory formula, and sometimes to the state.

In England and Wales, the government's Bona Vacantia Division administers the estates of people who die without a will and without traceable blood relatives. The Treasury Solicitor's accounts reported net income of £77 million for 2023-24, up from £67 million the year before. (HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor, 2024)
Claims against unclaimed estates can be made up to 30 years after death, but interest is only paid on claims brought within 12 years of the estate administration being completed. (GOV.UK, Bona Vacantia)

Digital assets after death

More of every estate now lives online, from photos and email to investment and crypto accounts that can be lost forever without access details.

Cryptocurrency is the clearest example. Chainalysis has estimated that around 1.8 million bitcoin, roughly 8.5% of supply, sit in wallets that have not moved since 2014 or earlier and are likely lost. (Chainalysis, via NewsBTC) If a private key is gone, the asset is effectively gone, regardless of any will.
A 2017 study widely cited since estimated that as many as 3.79 million bitcoin may be permanently lost. (Chainalysis, via Fortune, 2017)

Unlike a house or a bank account, digital assets often do not transfer automatically; access depends on credentials and platform policy, which is why inventories and access planning have become part of modern estate conversations.

Deaths per year, the underlying baseline

Every statistic above sits on top of a steady global mortality figure.

An estimated 61.6 million people died worldwide in 2023, according to the United Nations World Population Prospects (2024 revision), as compiled by Our World in Data. (Our World in Data / UN WPP)
In the United States alone, the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics recorded 3,090,964 resident deaths in 2023. (CDC NCHS, 2024)

Each of those deaths represents an estate, planned or not, and on current survey evidence roughly half were never documented in a will.

Why these numbers matter for your own planning

Read together, the data tells a single story. Wealth and digital life keep growing, mortality is constant, and yet only about half of adults in most surveyed countries have written down their wishes. The result shows up downstream as rising court disputes and estates that pass to the state for want of a will or a traceable heir.

How Afterlife AI™ fits in

Afterlife AI™ does not write your will and is not a substitute for a solicitor, lawyer, or financial adviser. What it does is help you capture the part of your legacy that paperwork tends to miss: your memories, your story, and a consent-based voice you create while alive. You build your Persona free (60 memories and 100 conversations, no card and no time limit), set up a Trusted Contact, and complete your Executor Lock™ so your wishes about who can access what are settled and unchangeable after death. The figures on this page are third-party research, not Afterlife AI™ data; they simply explain why getting your affairs (legal and personal) in order matters. If you decide listening is part of your legacy, paid plans start at Free, then Legacy at $14.99 per month and Eternal at $29.99 per month.

Frequently asked questions

The questions below summarise the most common things people ask about these statistics. Sources for every figure are listed at the foot of the page.

Sources

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