More than half of household population in CAR are Roman Catholics

Of the 1,791,121 household population in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in 2020, 1,106,409 were Roman Catholics. This was equivalent to 61.8 percent of the household population which was 2.3 percentage points lower than the Roman Catholics recorded in 2015 with 64.1 percent (1,104,051 household population).

This was followed by Episcopal Church of the Philippines and United Church of Christ in the Philippines with 104,455 household population (5.8 percent) and 47,776 household population (2.7 percent), respectively. Moreover, a total of 1,660 household population (0.1 percent) in the region had no religious affiliation and 40 household population (0.0 percent) did not report their religious affiliation.

Meanwhile, Jesus the Anointed One Church accounted the least number of household population by religious affiliation reported with only 7 household population followed by Faith Tabernacle Church (Living Rock Ministries) with 10 household population. The Jireh-Evangel Church Planting Philippines, Inc. and Things to Come each recorded a household population of 11.

Abra has highest proportion of Roman Catholics

Among all provinces and Highly Urbanized City (HUC) in CAR, Roman Catholic had the highest proportion of household population. Abra, Kalinga, and Baguio City posted higher proportions of Roman Catholics than the proportion recorded in the region. Specifically, Abra recorded the highest with 83.0 percent (207,681 household population). The City of Baguio posted the second highest proportion with 70.6 percent (256,551 household population) followed by the province of Kalinga with 62.6 percent (143,598 household population). These were21.2 percentage points, 8.8 percentage points and 0.8 percentage points higher than the recorded proportion in the region, respectively.

On the other hand, Mt. Province recorded the least proportion with 41.9 percent (66,196 household population). This was 19.9 percentage points lower than the recorded proportion in the region.

The Episcopal Church in the Philippines posted the second highest proportion in Mt. Province, Kalinga, Benguet, and the City of Baguio with 23.4 percent (36,897 household population), 9.2 percent (21,097 household population), 5.6 percent (25,690 household population), 4.8 percent (17,250 household population), respectively. Meanwhile, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines posted the second highest proportion in Apayao with 7.6 percent (9,454 household population), Other Evangelical Churches in Ifugao with 7.3 percent (15,178 household population), and Aglipay in Abra with 2.6 percent (6,628 household population).

Moreover, Iglesia ni Cristo accounted the third highest proportion in Apayao with 4.9 percent (6,086 household population), City of Baguio with 3.8 percent (13,705 household population), and Abra with 2.4 percent (6,050 household population). The Assemblies of God accounted the third highest proportion in Benguet with 4.6 percent (20,949 household population), Other Protestants in Ifugao with 4.1 percent (8,509 household population), Christian and Missionary Alliance Church of the Philippines in Mt. Province with 4.1 percent (6,535 household population), and United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Kalinga with 3.2 percent (7,359 household population).

(SGD)
VILLAFE P. ALIBUYOG
Regional Director

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TECHNICAL NOTES

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) conducted the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (2020 CPH) in September 2020, with 01 May 2020 as the reference date.

The 2020 CPH was the 15th census of population and the 7th census of housing undertaken in the Philippines since the first census in 1903. It was designed to take an inventory of the country's total population and housing units and collect information about their characteristics.

The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC), as of March 2022 was used to disaggregate geographic levels of the 2020 CPH.

For the 2020 CPH, data on the Religious Affiliation of all household members were collected by asking the respondents, “What is ____’s religious affiliation?”.

Household is a social unit consisting of person or a group of persons who sleep in the same housing unit and have a common arrangement in the preparation and consumption of food.

Household population refers to all persons who are members of the household.

Religious affiliation refers to a particular system of beliefs, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors constituting man’s relationship with the powers and principalities of the universe. Moreover, religion is either defined as:

(a) religious or spiritual belief of preference, regardless of whether or not this belief is represented by an organized group or

(b) affiliation with an organized group having specific religious or spiritual tenets