More S’pore residents have no religion in 2025 than in 2020

SINGAPORE – About one in four Singapore residents now has no religious affiliation, up from one in five in 2020.

This upward trend has been continuing for more than a decade, according to numbers on Singapore’s religious diversity tracked by the Department of Statistics (SingStat).

Its latest General Household Survey 2025, released on June 30, showed that 23.9 per cent of residents did not have religious affiliation in 2025, up from 20 per cent in 2020. The figure was 17 per cent in 2010.

The 3.9 percentage point uptick in the non-religious was the most notable change in the data on religion in Singapore.

The survey also noted a general decline in the proportions of those identifying with Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam among residents aged 15 and above.

The only one bucking the trend was Hinduism, which grew from 5 per cent to 5.4 per cent.

The General Household Survey, published by SingStat between the population censuses, provides a snapshot of Singapore’s population and household trends. The last survey was released in 2015.

Population censuses are carried out every 10 years, with the most recent taking place in 2020.

Statistics from the General Household Survey show Singapore’s religious composition as 30.9 per cent Buddhist, 7.3 per cent Taoist, 17.1 per cent Christian, 15 per cent Muslim and 5.4 per cent Hindu.

Those with no religious affiliation increased across all educational attainment levels, regardless of whether individuals had below-secondary school qualifications or university degrees.

Among those with university qualifications, the proportion of Christians saw the most significant decline, from 28.3 per cent in 2020 to 24.9 per cent in 2025.

Younger residents were more likely than older ones to have no religion: 26.8 per cent of those between 15 and 24 identified as having no religious affiliation, compared with 19.4 per cent of those aged 55 and over.

The most significant increase in the proportion of residents with no religion was among those aged between 35 and 44 years, rising 6.7 percentage points from 22.3 per cent in 2020 to 29 per cent in 2025.

Those with no religion also increased considerably among Chinese residents, from about one in four in 2020 to around one in three in 2025.

Among the Chinese ethnic group, Buddhism remained the most commonly practised religion.

Among Malay residents, the proportion of Muslims remained near universal at 98.6 per cent in 2025, while Hinduism was still the most common religion among Indian residents at 58.8 per cent.

Drop in Chinese dialect use

English was the most frequently spoken language in Singapore homes, and this trend was more prevalent among younger residents and those with higher qualifications.

Close to six in 10 residents aged five and above spoke English most frequently at home, up from 48.3 per cent in 2020.

In that same period, the proportions of residents who spoke other languages and dialects – including Mandarin, Malay and Tamil – most frequently at home declined.

For example, those who said they spoke Chinese dialects most frequently at home decreased from 8.7 per cent in 2020 to 4.9 per cent in 2025.

However, bilingual literacy, or the ability to read in English and at least one mother tongue language, increased across the three major ethnic groups.

Questioning the necessity of faith

Explaining the rise in the non-religious resident population, Mathew Mathews, principal research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, said some may feel that identifying with a religion implies a deeper level of belief or commitment than they are prepared to claim.

“If they do not meet that standard in their own minds, they may be less likely to identify with a religion, even if they retain some cultural or ritual connection to it,” said Mathews.

The share of those identifying as Christians among residents aged 15 and above dropped for the first time in over two decades of SingStat’s records.

Mathews said in earlier decades, the faith may have appealed to some as it was “seen as a more text-based, organised and intellectually coherent religious tradition”.

But younger and better-educated residents may question the necessity of committing to any formal faith tradition at all, he said.

On the growth in the proportion of Hindu adherents, Mathews suggested it may be because of an increase in Indian migrants and permanent residents, who are more likely to identify as Hindu, but noted that the rise was “modest”.

Assistant professor of sociology Shannon Ang at Nanyang Technological University noted the non-religious population is diverse, and may include people who still maintain a sense of personal spirituality.

The non-religious resident population is now the second-largest religion identification category in Singapore, after Buddhism, noted Ang.

It is crucial to think about who will represent their interests on moral issues, he said, adding: “We need to listen better to this group, which is going to become increasingly important.”

Mathews said that in the longer term, views in areas such as marriage, family and public values may be shaped less by formal religious authority.

“This does not mean religion will become unimportant, but it does mean that Singapore’s public conversations will need to account for both religious and non-religious sources of meaning and morality,” he said.