Religion is growing in importance across most Singaporeans, according to an Institute of Policy Studies’ (IPS) study. However, the IPS Working Paper, Religious Identity and Practice Among Singaporeans, released on Wednesday (20 August 2025), also found that the importance of religion diminishes among those who are younger, better-educated and wealthier.

And while Christians are more likely to draw meaning and identity from their religion, the study, based on IPS’ 2024 Survey on Race, Religion and Language – spanning a nationally representative sample of 4,000 Singapore residents – also found that weekly service attendance and daily prayer are on the decline among Christians.

However, more Christians are reading, watching or listening to religious media, according to the study, which also compared these findings against previous editions conducted in 2013 and 2018.

You can read the full IPS Working Paper here.

Here are 10 findings from the IPS study released in August 2025:

1. The older you are, the more likely you are to find religion important.

Respondents above the age of 65 were generally more likely to consider their religion to be important to their sense of identity, with 73.8% saying it was “important” or “very important” to their overall identity, compared to 63.6% of those aged 18 to 35 years, and 61.9% of those aged 36 to 50 years.

2. The better educated and richer you are, the less likely you are to find religion important.

Around half (50.9%) of those earning S$7,000 or more view religion as important, compared to 74.4% of those earning less than S$2,000. Two-thirds (66.3%) of those living in private property say religion is important, compared to  78.4% of those in 1-3 Room HDB flats.

Similarly, 53.1% of degree holders view religion as important, compared to 77.4% of those with secondary or lower qualifications.

3. Most Christians draw meaning and identity from their faith.

More than three-quarters of all respondents (78%) agree that their ideas about religion are crucial to their lives – up from 75.3% in 2018. This is even more pronounced among Christians, among whom the large majority (93.9%) said their religious beliefs significantly influence their perspectives.

Most Christians (92.6%) say their faith beliefs “give meaning to life’s joys and sorrows”, compared to 73.9% across all religions. In fact, 87.4% of Christians say daily life would be “meaningless” without religion, compared to 62.4% across all religions.

4. Christians are more likely than those in other faiths to allow their religion to influence their work and life choices.

Most Christians (93.1%) say their religion has a “considerable influence” in how they view their work, compared to 75.4% of respondents across all religions.

Similarly, 92.3% of Christians say that when facing decisions about life choices, they will try to find out what God thinks is best for them to do, compared to 68.2% across all religions.

5. Christians are more likely to want to know more about their religion.

The proportion of respondents who tried to find out more about their own religion has increased slightly in the same period, from 70.6% in 2018 to 73.1% in 2024, across all religions.

Among Christians, 88.6% saying they have tried to find out more about their own religion in 2024, slightly up from 87.9% in 2018.

6. Christians are more likely to feel they belong to their religious group, and to accept what their leaders teach them.

Nationwide, 70.8% “feel a strong sense of belonging” to their religious group in 2024, up from 67.9% in 2018. Among Christians, this figure spikes to 89.9% in 2024, up from 88.2% in 2018.

In 2018, 78.6% of Christians said they “accept what my religious teachers tell me about how I should live my life”. This rose to 85.6% in the 2024 survey, which is also higher than the 62.1% across all religions.

7. More Christians would prefer the faith to stay “pure/traditional” than to adapt to the times.

In the survey, respondents were asked whether religions should adapt to changing secular realities, or if religions should be kept “as pure/traditional as possible”.

In 2024, 20.6% of overall respondents said religions should adapt, while on the other end of the spectrum, 34.2% said that religions should remain relatively unchanged. This reflects a more conservative view than in 2018, when 23.3% preferred religions to remain adaptable, and 31% favoured the traditional view.

When narrowed down to Christians, 17.3% said religious should adapt to changing realities in 2024 – down from 19.9% in 2018 – while 45.3% said their religion should be kept as pure/traditional as possible, up from 44.8% in 2018.

8. Christianity is the most likely religion to see regular attendance of religious services – but weekly attendance is on the decline.

Three-quarters (75%) of Christians say they attend religious services at least once a month – unchanged from 2018. This is also far higher than the 35% across all religions, and the highest among all religions surveyed in 2024.

In 2024, about three-fifths (61.6%) of Christians say they attend services weekly, down from 65.9% in 2018 and 71.4% in 2013.

Older respondents were more likely to report frequent attendance of religious services compared to younger respondents. In 2024, among Christians aged 18 to 35, 48.8% say they attend services most weeks, compared to 69.5% of those above 65 years old.

9. Fewer Christians say they pray daily now, compared to earlier years.

Christians are almost twice as likely to pray compared to the national average, with 61.9% saying they pray on a personal basis (when not in a place of worship or other religious settings) at least once a month, compared to 34.2% across all religions in 2024.

In the 2024 study, three in 10 Christians (31.1%) say they pray “most days” – down from 39.1% in 2018 and 49.3% in 2013.

10. More Christians are reading, watching, or listening to religious media.

In 2024, 32.8% of all respondents say they read religious literature, up from 29.8% in 2018. Christians are the most likely among all religions to read faith-based literature, with a much higher proportion – 73.5% – saying they read religious literature at least once a month, and 35.6% saying they do so “most days” in 2024, slightly up from 34.7% in 2018.

It is worth noting that younger respondents were least likely to report reading religious literature frequently. While 33.4% of those aged 51 to 65 years old say they read religious literature at least weekly, just 19.1% of those aged 18 to 35 years old report the same frequencies.

Moving from reading to watching or listening to religious media: In 2024, 36.6% of all respondents say they watch or listen to religious media, up from 33.2% in 2018.

Among Christians this number doubles to 73% who watch/read religious media at least once a month in 2024 – an increase from 65.4% in 2018. About 3 in 10 (28.3%) of Christians say they do so daily  in 2024, compared to 12.7% across all religions.