29% of Filipinos say quality of life got better in past 12 months

FILE: Commuters queue for a public transport to arrive in Philcoa along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City on Thursday (August 11, 2022). The minimum fare in public utility jeepneys has been increased to PHP11. (PNA photo by Alfred Frias)

MANILA – Twenty-nine percent of adult Filipinos said that their quality of life improved over the past 12 months, according to a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The survey, conducted from March 26 to 29, 2023, revealed that 25 percent of the respondents felt that their lives got worse, while 46 percent said their lives remain “unchanged” compared to a year ago.

SWS said this resulted in a net gainer score of +5, which was computed by subtracting the percentage of losers from gainers and was classified as “high”.

The pollster pointed out that the March 2023 net gainer score was 3 points below the “high” +8 recorded in December 2022.

SWS further added that the current national net gainer score is also 13 points below the” very high” +18 in December 2019, noting that it still has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

In Metro Manila, net gainers dropped from very high to high, down by 16 points from +18 in December 2022 to +2 in March 2023.

The net gainer score also fell from very high +10 to high +6 in Mindanao, and from fair -4 to mediocre -14 in Visayas.

Balance Luzon, on the other hand, slightly climbed by two points from +10 to +12.

The First Quarter 2023 Social Weather Survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults aged 18 and above nationwide — 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

The sampling error margins are ±2.8 percent for national percentages, ±5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.