SWS: 46% of Filipinos believe quality of life will improve in a year

The remaining 5 percent of the 1,500 respondents did not give an answer. (Pexels Photo)

MANILA – Forty-six percent of Filipinos are optimistic that their lives will improve over the next 12 months, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results released on Thursday.

The poll, conducted from June 28 to July 1, 2023, also found that 44 percent of adult Filipinos said their quality of life will improve, while only 5 percent said it will worsen over the next 12 months.

The remaining 5 percent of the 1,500 respondents did not give an answer.

The net personal optimism score was +41, classified by SWS as “excellent.”

The pollster said the June 2023 net personal optimism score was 3 points above the very high +38 in March 2023, noting that the 3-point rise was due to increases in the Visayas and Balance Luzon combined with a steady score in Metro Manila and a decline in Mindanao.

SWS noted that the net personal optimism score was negative only 11 times since the survey on the respondents’ prediction of their quality of life change was fielded in 1984, 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,” the SWS said.

The survey also noted that net personal optimism was “excellent” among college graduates and junior high school graduates, “very high” among elementary graduates, and “high” among non-elementary graduates.

It showed that net personal optimism was higher among non-hungry families and households who rated themselves as not poor.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults nationwide. It had sampling error margins of ±2.5 percent for national percentages, ±5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao, and ±4.0 percent for Balance Luzon.