SWS: Religion important for 8 in 10 Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - Eight of every 10 Filipinos believe that religion is important, a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The survey that was conducted from March 25 to 28 with the results released on Thursday showed that 85 percent of the 1,200 respondents believe that religion is important (78 percent very important, seven percent rather important).

The remaining 15 percent said religion is not important.

The proportion of those who say religion is important was highest among members of Iglesia Ni Cristo (96 percent), followed by Catholics and other Christians (both at 85 percent) and Muslims (71 percent).

The latest figure was five points below the 90 percent religious importance rating obtained in a similar survey conducted in December. In April 2016, 86 percent of Filipinos said that religion is important.

Meanwhile, the latest SWS survey also showed that 48 percent of the Filipinos attend religious services every week.

Thirty-four percent said they attend religious services once a month, while 17 percent said they occasionally attend religious services.

Among the respondents, it was the members of Iglesia ni Cristo (90 percent) who mostly said that they attend religious services every week. They were followed by Muslims (81 percent), other Christians (71 percent) and Catholics (41 percent).

The survey was conducted among 1,200 adult Filipinos. It has an error margin of +/- three percent.

The breakdown of the respondents based on their religions were 79 percent Catholics, 13 percent other Christians, four percent Muslims and three percent Iglesia ni Cristo.