SWS: 39% of Filipinos consider quality of life better vs last year

A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released Thursday showed that 39% of Filipino adults consider the quality of their lives “better” than in the past 12 months.

The survey, conducted from June 23 to July 1, 2024, also found that 23% of Filipinos are saying that their lives got worse, while 37% are saying it was the same as a year ago.

Combining all the percentages, the SWS said the survey gave a Net Gainers score of +15%, which it classified as “high” or within the range of +10% to +19%.

The polls agency said the June 2024 Net Gainer score was 10 points up from “fair”  +5% in March 2024 and December 2023.

It was only three points below the “very high” +18% in December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The survey question on the respondents’ assessment of their change in quality of life in the past 12 months has been fielded 153 times since April 1983,” SWS said.

The exact phrasing of the question asked to respondents was:

“Kung ikukumpara ang uri ng inyong kasalukuyang pamumuhay sa nakaraang 12 buwan, masasabi ba ninyo na ang uri ng inyong pamumuhay ay MAS MABUTI KAYSA NOON, KAPAREHO NG DATI, o MAS MASAMA KAYSA NOON? (Comparing your quality of life these days to how it was 12 months ago, would you say that your quality of life is BETTER NOW THAN BEFORE, SAME AS BEFORE, or WORSE NOW THAN BEFORE?)”

The Second Quarter 2024 SWS survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 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.

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.

The SWS said Net Gainer score was generally negative until 2015 when it rose to positive numbers until the sharp decline beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

“It has since trended back upwards but has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels,” it said.

The survey also found that Net Gainer scored highest in Balance Luzon at “excellent” +26, followed by Metro Manila at “very high” +16, Mindanao at “high” +7, and the Visayas at “high” +1.

“The 10-point rise in the nationwide Net Gainer score between March 2024 and June 2024 was due to increases in all areas, especially in Mindanao,” the SWS said.

Compared to March 2024, Net Gainers rose from “very high” to “excellent” among college graduates, up by 11 points from +10 to +21.

It stayed “very high” among junior high school graduates, although up by seven points from +12 to +19.

It rose from “fair” to “very high” among elementary graduates, up by 18 points from -4 to +14.

It stayed “fair” among non-elementary graduates, hardly moving from -1 to net zero.

The SWS said it employs its own staff for questionnaire design, sampling, fieldwork, data processing, and analysis and does not outsource any of its survey operations. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News