45% expect life to improve in a year

MANILA, Philippines — The number of Filipinos who expect the quality of their lives to improve in the next 12 months has reached its highest since the start of the COVID pandemic, results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Monday night showed.

SWS’ fourth quarter survey conducted from Dec. 12 to 16 found that 45 percent of the 1,440 respondents expect a better quality of life within a year.

It was 12 points higher than the 33 percent obtained in a similar survey conducted in September 2021, and the highest since the pre-pandemic level of 48 percent in December 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of those who expect their lives to worsen in the next 12 months dropped from seven to three percent, while those who said it would stay the same remained at 42 percent.

The remaining nine percent of the respondents did not give an answer, SWS said.

The latest survey resulted in a “net optimism” score of +42, classified as “excellent” by the polling firm. It was up 16 points from the “high” +26 obtained in September.

The “net optimism” score is obtained by subtracting those who said their lives would worsen from those who said their lives would improve in the next 12 months.

Due to the pandemic, the country recorded its historic low net optimism score of -19 in May 2020, with 24 percent expecting their lives to improve while 43 percent saying it will worsen in the next 12 months.

It slightly improved in July 2020 at -10 (26 percent optimist, 36 percent pessimist) and bounced back to positive scores in the succeeding surveys.

Compared to the most recent survey in September, the latest poll showed improvements in the “net optimism” score in across all areas and education groups.

It was highest among those in Balance Luzon at +48 (from +28), followed by Metro Manila at +47 (from +24), Mindanao at +46 (from +30) and the Visayas at +20 (from +18).

SWS also noted that optimism for a better life is higher among those who said their lives improved in the past 12 months compared to those whose lives worsened or remain unchanged.

Earlier, the survey firm said that 24 percent of the respondents in the December survey said their lives improved in the past year. Forty percent said it worsened, while 36 percent said it was the same.

The survey has a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percent for the national percentages.