The Filipino youth’s quality of life saw a little improvement last year as the country inched up to the 77th spot on the Youth Progress Index.

The Youth Progress Index is an initiative by the European Youth Forum and Social Progress Initiative that measures the quality of life of young people around the world.

According to the index, the Philippines scored 71.43 points out of 100 in terms of young people’s quality of life, higher by just 0.5 points compared to the 71.34 recorded in 2021.

Of the dimensions measuring the index, the country scored 79.7 for basic human needs or the country’s ability to provide essential needs; 70.58 for foundation of well-being; and 64 for opportunity or the country’s ability to provide opportunity to all individuals.

Among the 10 South East Asian regions, excluding Brunei Darussalam, the country was placed in the 6th place; while Singapore acquired the top spot with 87.19 points and ranked 14th place overall.

Meanwhile, the index ranked Norway as the country where young people had the best quality of life with a score of 90.51 out of 100.

Completing the top five countries are Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, and Finland each scoring 90.48, 90.41, 90.22, and 89.84, respectively.

On the other hand, South Sudan was ranked the lowest in terms of youth’s quality of life with a score of 32.68 out of 100.

It is followed by the Central African Republic with 34.97 points, Afghanistan with 37.2, Chad with 37.68, and Somalia with 42.54.

The Youth Progress Index is an initiative by the European Youth Forum and Social Progress Initiative that measures the quality of life of young people around the world.

More youth optimistic quality of life will improve

In 2021, around 77 percent of Filipino youths aged 15 to 30 are optimistic that their "quality of life will improve," based on a survey.

According to the National Youth Survey 2021 by the Youth Leadership for Democracy and the Social Weather Stations, this result was higher than the 46 percent net optimism score in April 1996.

However, 18 percent of the participants said their lives will stay the same, while four percent said their lives will worsen.

The Filipino youth’s most important aspirations and life goals include helping parents and sibling/s financially at 38 percent, living independently from parents at 11 percent, getting a college degree at nine percent, starting their own business at eight percent, having meaningful work at seven percent, and having a job that earns a lot of money at 6 percent.

In the Labor Force Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the youth population aged 15 to 24 is estimated at 20.150 million as of August 2023.

The youth unemployment rate dropped to 12.2 percent from 14 percent in July, but higher compared to the 10.8 percent recorded a year earlier.

The youth underemployment rate, meanwhile, saw a significant decrease to 9.7 percent from 12.5 percent a year earlier and 14.8 percent in July.