Are more young Filipinos walking away from religion?

Faith continues as a defining trait of Philippine society.

The Philippines remains one of the world’s most religious countries, but a growing body of research suggests that a small yet increasing number of young Filipinos are identifying as atheists, agnostics, or having no religion.

While no official government agency tracks the number of atheists specifically, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Pew Research Center, the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), and local academic studies all point to the same trend: non-belief is growing, particularly among urban youth and young professionals.

The PSA’s 2020 Census of Population and Housing recorded 43,931 Filipinos—or about 0.04% of the population—as having no religious affiliation. However, because the census does not include separate categories for atheists or agnostics, researchers say the official figure likely understates the size of the country’s non-believing population.

A 2024 study in Psychology and Education journal estimate that around 1% of Filipinos—or roughly 1.1 million people—identify as non-believers. The studies also found that this growth is concentrated among younger Filipinos, particularly college students and young professionals.

Researchers attribute the shift partly to greater internet access, which has made discussions about religion, skepticism, and secularism more accessible while allowing non-religious Filipinos to connect through online communities.

The founding of the Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS) in 2011 is also viewed by scholars as a milestone in the country’s growing secular movement, providing a community for atheists, agnostics, humanists, and freethinkers.

Despite these developments, the Philippines remains overwhelmingly religious. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 99% of Filipino adults still believe in God, while data from the International Social Survey Programme consistently rank Filipinos among the people with the strongest certainty in God’s existence worldwide.

Government figures likewise show that Roman Catholics continue to comprise the vast majority of the population, although their share declined from 79.5% in 2015 to 78.8% in 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The trend contrasts sharply with developments elsewhere. In its report “How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020,” the Pew Research Center found that people with no religious affiliation rose by 270 million, reaching 1.9 billion. It accounted for 24.2% of the world’s population, making them the fourth-largest demographic group after Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists.

Although the evidence points to a gradual increase in the number of Filipino non-believers, researchers emphasize that they remain a very small minority. For the foreseeable future, faith continues to be a defining characteristic of Philippine society, even as more young Filipinos appear to be questioning organized religion.

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