Weekly church attendance down, but more Pinoys say religion ‘very important’ —survey

The average number of Filipinos who go to church weekly dropped to the lowest level in two years in 2019, even as more individuals said they consider religion as very important in their lives.

According to the results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, only 43% of the respondents attended weekly religious services last year, a drop from 66% in the first survey in 1991.

"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 said in a statement.

The fourth quarter SWS was conducted from December 13 to 16, 2019, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide—300 each in Metro Manila, balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

It had sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The proportion of those who attend religious services weekly was highest among Muslims at 97%, followed by members of the Iglesia ni Cristo at 78%, other Christians at 62%, and Catholics at 39%.

The same survey revealed that a record-high 83% of respondents said religion is very important in their lives, the highest so far recorded on the survey.

"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," said SWS. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News