MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine Daily Inquirer remains the No. 1 English newspaper in the country, with an average daily readership of 564,000 on weekdays in 45 cities and towns, according to a global market research company.

In its latest nationwide survey that covered four months to December 2009, Synovate found the Inquirer ahead of Philippine Star, which had an average daily readership of 450,000 and Manila Bulletin which had 404,000.

The Inquirer dominated the Greater Manila area with an average weekday readership of 457,000, followed by Star with 397,000 and Bulletin with 348,000.

The Greater Manila area covered by the survey was made up of 15 cities in Metro Manila?Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Manila, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Quezon City, San Juan, Taguig and Valenzuela?and the only municipality in the metropolis, Pateros.

The area also included Meycauayan City in Bulacan, Antipolo City and Cainta in Rizal, Bacoor in Cavite, and San Pedro in Laguna.

Outside the Greater Manila area (the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao), the Synovate study also found that the Inquirer has the highest weekday readership at 108,000, followed by Bulletin at 56,000 and Star at 53,000.

The rest of Luzon consists of the cities of Angeles, Baguio, Batangas, Calapan, Dagupan, Laoag, Legazpi, Naga, Olongapo, San Fernando and Santiago.

In the Visayas, the survey covered the cities of Bacolod, Cebu, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Lapu-lapu, Mandaue, Tacloban and Tagbilaran. In Mindanao, the study was conducted in the cities of Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, General Santos and Zamboanga.

The Inquirer was the preferred English daily on weekdays among members of Class AB, enjoying a 35-percent readership among the country?s elite. Star was read by 33 percent and Bulletin by 23 percent.

In the upper classes, 62 percent read any kind of newspaper. Readership of English dailies was at 34 percent, according to Synovate.

Newspaper readership was placed at 48 percent among members of Class C+ and 38 percent among those of Class C-. Readership of English dailies, however, was low among the middle classes: Class C+ (18 percent) and Class C- (11 percent).

Newspaper readership further declined among the lower classes?26 percent in Class D and 21 percent in Class E. As for English dailies, readership in Class D was at 6 percent and in Class E at 4 percent.

Across age groups, 35 percent of those aged 35-44 and 55-64 were newspaper readers. Thirty-four percent among those aged 25-34 years old read newspapers, compared to 33 percent among those aged 45-54, and 28 percent among those aged 15-24.

Eleven percent of those aged 25-34, 35-44 and 55-64 years old were newspaper readers, compared to only 10 percent of those aged 45-54, and 8 percent of those aged 15-24.

More men (36 percent) read any newspaper than women (29 percent), according to Synovate. Eleven percent of men read any English daily, compared with 9 percent of women.

More readers personally bought their newspapers in the latest survey (28 percent, up from 22 percent in the previous study, which covered seven months to May 2009).

More people also borrowed another person?s copy (27 percent, up from 18 percent).

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews and computer-assisted telephone interviews with 8,059 respondents aged 15 to 64. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.

Synovate provides research solutions and services to clients in more than 60 countries.