Fifty percent (50%) of adult Filipinos nationwide support the legalization of divorce for irreconcilably separated couples, based on the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

Based on the Social Weather Survey conducted from March 21 to 25, 50 percent agreed (28 percent strongly agree and 22 percent somewhat agree) that “married couples who have already separated and cannot reconcile anymore should be allowed to divorce so that they can get legally married again.”

Meanwhile, 31 percent disagreed (12 percent somewhat disagree and 20 percent strongly disagree), and 17 percent were undecided on the matter.

The survey results, posted on May 31 and released on Saturday, June 1, showed a net agreement score (percent agree minus percent disagree) of +19, classified by SWS as “moderately strong.”

However, this is “down” from the moderately strong +27 (55 percent agree, 27 percent disagree) in June 2023 and the record-high very strong +44 (65 percent agree, 21 percent disagree) in March 2023.

The First Quarter 2024 Social Weather Survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide: 600 in Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila) and 300 each in Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

SWS uses face-to-face as the “standard” interviewing method except early in the pandemic when there were movement restrictions and mobile phone interviews were conducted.

In November 2020, SWS resumed normal face-to-face field operations. The sampling error margins are ±2.5% for national percentages, ±4.0% for Balance Luzon, and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

To obtain the national estimates, SWS said the area estimates were weighted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) medium-population projections for 2024.