Record-high 83% of Filipinos say religion ‘very important’ – SWS

MANILA, Philippines — A record-high 83 percent of adult Filipinos regard religion as “very important” in their lives, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released Sunday showed.

The survey also revealed that seven percent of Filipinos deem religion as “somewhat important” while three percent think it is “not very important”, and seven percent said it is “not at all important.”

The survey was conducted from December 13 to 16, 2019, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide, with sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages.

“The opinion that religion is very important has been dominant in all SWS surveys since December 2015. The latest figure of 83% is a new record-high that surpassed the previous record of 82% in December 2016,” SWS said.

The same survey disclosed that 45 percent of Filipinos attend religious activities weekly, 32 percent attend monthly, 22 percent attend occasionally, and 0.7 percent said they never attend religious services.

“Since 2013, only minorities of adult Filipinos attend religious services weekly, ranging from 43% to 47% in annual averages,” SWS noted.

The polling firm recalled that the annual average of weekly attendance at religious services used to be at 66 percent when they first surveyed it in 1991.

It fell below the 50 percent mark in 2013 “and has since then stayed at minority levels”, SWS said.

“The 43% annual average weekly attendance at religious services in 2019 is the lowest since the 46% annual average in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017,” SWS pointed out.