Catholics still Pinoy majority, but see slight dip in number

By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario

THE share of Catholics in the country fell to 78.8 percent in 2020, according to the latest data from the Census of Population and Housing released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Data showed that in 2015, Catholics comprised 79.5 percent of the population. This is 0.7 percentage points higher than in 2020.

T he same data on religious affiliations also showed the share of Iglesia ni Cristo members has also declined to 2.6 percent from 2.7 percent in 2015. However, the share of Muslims in the population increased to 6.4 percent in 2020 from 6 percent in 2015.

T hree religions—Roman Catholicism with 85.645 million members; Islam, 6.98 million; and Iglesia ni Cristo, 2.8 million‚were considered as the top religious affiliations in the Philippines in 2020.

O ther religious affiliations such as Seventh Day Adventist and Aglipay accounted for 0.8 percent of the population; Iglesia Filipina Independiente accounted for 0.6 percent of the total; and Bible Baptist Church had a share of 0.5 percent.

T he data also showed that 8.954 million Filipinos or 8.2 percent of the population belong to other religious affiliations. Further, 43,931 Filipinos do not have any religious affiliations.

The regions

OF the 17 regions, Region V - Bicol Region posted the highest proportion of Roman Catholics, comprising 93.5 percent of its household population.

It may be noted that three of the top 5 provinces with at least 90 percent of their population being Catholic, are found in the Bicol region.

T hese provinces are led by Albay with a total household population of 1.37 million; 96.2 percent or 1.32 million of these households are Catholic, making the province the most Catholic of all provinces nationwide.

T his is followed by Catanduanes, another province in Bicol. While it