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MANILA, Philippines – The number of Filipinos who believe that religion is “very important” in their lives has decreased by 10 percentage points, from an all-time high of 83% in December 2019 to 83%, as shown by a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) from November 21 to 25, 2020.
The results of the previous survey were released in April 2020, but the survey was conducted in December 2019, or before the COVID-19 pandemic hit normalcy and ushered in a massive economic crisis around the world.
Still, the latest figure is higher than the 69% recorded in June 2019, SWS noted.
“The National Social Climate Survey from November 21 to 25, 2020 found that 73% of Filipino adults say that religion is very important in their lives, 9% somewhat important, 3% not very important and 15 % nothing important, “SWS said in its report released Wednesday.
“The view that religion is very important has been dominant in all SWS surveys since SWS began tracking these responses in December 2015. The latest 73% figure is 10 points below the record 83% in December. 2019, but 4 points above 69% in June 2019 ”, he added.
But aside from the decline in the number of people who view religion as “very important,” the SWS also found that people who view faith as unimportant grew.
In 2019, 7% said that religion “is not important at all.” Fast forward to 2020, and the figure for the same category increased to 15%.
Furthermore, participation in religious activities has been declining steadily: by 2020, 46% of respondents said they attended religious services weekly, 34% said they did so monthly, and 27% said occasionally.
But SWS said that when they started this survey, the percentage of respondents who attended religious services was 66%.
Weekly attendance at religious services, averaged throughout the year, started with a majority of 66% when SWS first surveyed it in 1991. It dropped to 58% in 1994, the following year with data, and mostly it remained somewhat above 50% until 2012, except in 2008 when it fell to a minority of 47%, ”said the SWS.
“It fell to an average of 46% in 2013 and has stayed at less than half since then,” he added. “The annual average weekly attendance of 44% at religious services in 2019 is the lowest since the annual average of 46% in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017.”
Most of the decreases in perceived importance are attributed to Christian beliefs, as among Catholics (84% to 71%) and other Christians (78% to 71%).
There was almost no change among Filipino Muslims, with 93% saying religion was “very important” compared to 94% in 2019.
Meanwhile, the belief that religion is “important” increased among members of Iglesia ni Cristo, from 69% to 88%.
Mindanao, where the majority of the country’s Muslims live, had the highest respect for religion at 88%.
“The percentage of those who consider religion as very important is highest in Mindanao (88%), followed by Metro Manila and Balance Luzon (70% each), and Visayas (64%),” said the SWS.
“Compared to December 2019, those who say that religion is very important fell in Visayas (below 85%), in Balance Luzon (below 82%) and in Metro Manila (below 81%). They barely changed in Mindanao, going from 85% in December 2019 to 88% in November 2020, ”he added.
The Philippines has suffered several calamities since 2020, starting with the Taal volcano eruption, the COVID-19 crisis, and successive storms between October and November that wreaked havoc in Luzon and parts of Visayas and Mindanao.
According to 2020 figures, the country’s gross domestic product was at its worst since statisticians and economists tracked the number, shrinking 9.5% year-on-year.
This SWS survey was also conducted during the first use of face-to-face interviews despite the COVID-19 pandemic: 1,500 adults were interviewed, segregated in terms of population density, of which 600 came from Balance Luzon and 300 each from Metro Manila. Visayas and Mindanao.
The SWS maintains sampling error margins of ± 2.5% for national percentages, ± 4% for Balance Luzon and ± 6% for Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao.
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