44% Pinoys say life will improve in next 12 months — SWS

At least 44 percent of adult Filipinos are optimistic that their lives will improve in the next 12 months, according to the latest Social Weather Survey (SWS).

In the survey conducted from December 8 to 11, 2023, 44 percent say that there will be no changes in lives while five percent believe life will get worse in the coming months. The remaining 7 percent, meanwhile, did not give an answer.

The resulting Net Personal Optimism score is +39 (optimists minus pessimists), which is classified by the SWS as very high.

"The December 2023 Net Personal Optimism score was slightly down from the excellent +42 in September 2023," according to the survey that was conducted through face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide with sampling error margins are ±2.8% for national percentages, and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The SWS question on whether the people expect a change in their quality of life has been fielded 151 times since April 1984.

"Out of the 151 surveys, the Net Personal Optimism score was negative only 11 times, reaching a historic low of -19 in May 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. It has since trended back upwards to pre-pandemic levels," says SWS.

Background

The 3-point decline in the Optimism score between September 2023 and December 2023 was due to a decrease in Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside of Metro Manila) and a slight decline in the Visayas, combined with a steady score in Mindanao and an increase within in Metro Manila.

Compared to September 2023, the Optimism score is ranked excellent in Balance Luzon, although the figure is down by 10 points from +50 to +40.

In the Visayas, the rating dropped from very high to high or down by 3 points from +30 to +27. In Mindanao, however, Optimism remained at +43 or excellent rating.

In Metro Manila, the rating increased from very high to excellent or up by 17 points from +30 to +47 or excellent among junior high school graduates, very high among college graduates and elementary graduates, and High among non-elementary graduates.

Compared to September 2023, Net Personal Optimism fell from excellent to very high among those who either graduated from college or took post-graduate studies, down by 8 points from +46 to +38.

The score remained excellent - from +46 to +45 - among junior high school graduates, those who had some vocational schooling, senior high school, finished senior high school, completed vocational school, or attended college.

It stayed very high among those who either finished elementary or had some high school education, barely moving from +38 to +36.

It fell from very high to high among those who either had no formal education or some elementary education, down by 6 points from +30 to +24. — BAP, GMA Integrated News