75% of Pinoys competent in Filipino language, 47% in English – SWS survey

Three in four Filipinos said they were proficient in the Filipino language, while nearly half of the adult population expressed competence in using English, a survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) has found.

The 1987 Constitution provides that the national language is Filipino, but ”for purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English.” 

Conducted from March 26 to 29, 2023, the poll results showed 75% of Filipinos are competent in the Filipino language and 47% in the English language.

Ninety-six percent of the 1,200 respondents said they can read in Filipino; 93% understand spoken Filipino; 93% write in Filipino; 87% speak Filipino; 75% think in Filipino; and 1% do not apply any of these skills.

Meanwhile, 80% of Filipinos said they can understand spoken English; 80% can read; 69% can write; 55% can speak; and 47% think using the language, while 9% do not apply any of these skills.

”Usage of the Filipino and English languages has been at its highest since September 2000,” SWS said.

Fifty-three percent of the respondents said they fully use Filipino; 29% fairly use it; 15% partially use it; and only 4% almost do not use the language.

On English, 9% of the respondents answered that they fully use it; 35% fairly use it; 41% partially use it; and 14% almost do not use it.

SWS interviewed household heads for this survey, which has a sampling error margin of ± 2.8%.