
Ninety-six percent of Filipinos are entering the New Year “with hope rather than fear,” while 3 percent are facing it “with fear,” a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from Dec. 8 to 11 showed.
“This is a point above the 95 percent in 2022 and the highest since the pre-pandemic 96 percent in 2019,” SWS said in its report released on Thursday, Dec. 28.
“Hope for the New Year was 87 percent when first surveyed by SWS at the end of 2000. It was in the 80s at the end of 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2009. It was in the 90s at the end of 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, and from 2010 to 2023,” it added.
Meanwhile, the 3 percent who expressed fear about the coming year was down from 5 percent in 2022.
SWS said hope for the coming New Year rose slightly from 93 percent to 97 percent in Metro Manila and from 93 percent to 96 percent in Mindanao compared to the end of 2022.
However, it stayed at 97 percent in Balance Luzon, while it fell slightly from 95 percent to 93 percent in the Visayas.
In comparison to the end of 2022, hope for the New Year also rose slightly across educational levels—from 92 percent to 93 percent among non-elementary graduates, from 95 percent to 97 percent among elementary graduates, from 95 percent to 96 percent among junior high school graduates, and from 96 percent to 98 percent among college graduates.
The Fourth Quarter 2023 SWS Survey had 1,200 respondents nationwide.