Almost half of Filipinos say life 'unchanged' in the past 12 months - SWS survey
By Dhel Nazario
Forty-six percent of Filipinos believe that their quality of life stayed the same in the past 12 months, the first quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released on Monday, May 29 showed.
The survey, conducted from March 26 to 29 among 1,200 adults aged 18 and above also found that 29 percent said that their quality-of-life got better than twelve months before (“Gainers”), while 25 percent said it got worse (termed by SWS as “Losers”).
SWS said that the resulting Net Gainers score is +5 classified by SWS as high.
It added that the March 2023 Net Gainer score was just 3 points below the high +8 in December 2022. However, it is still 13 points below the pre-pandemic level of very high +18 in December 2019.
"The survey question on the respondents’ assessment of their change in quality of life in the past 12 months has been fielded 148 times since April 1983," the pollster said.
"The Net Gainer score was generally negative until 2015 when it rose to positive numbers until the drastic deterioration beginning with the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. It has since trended back upwards but still has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels," it added.
Compared to December 2022, SWS said that Net Gainers fell from very high to high in Metro Manila, down by 16 points from +18 to +2.
It also fell from very high to high in Mindanao, down by 4 points from +10 to +6.
It also fell from fair to mediocre in the Visayas, down by 10 points from -4 to -14.
It stayed very high in Balance Luzon, up by 2 points from +10 to +12.
Meanwhile, Net Gainers were at high levels among Non-Hungry families (+5), Overall Hungry families (+1), and Moderately Hungry families (+4). However, it was at a mediocre -18 among Severely Hungry families.
According to SWS, Net Gainers score has been historically lower among the Poor than among the Borderline Poor and Not Poor. This means the Poor have more Losers and fewer Gainers than the Borderline Poor and Not Poor.
Net Gainers were at very high levels of +16 among the Not Poor and +13 among the Borderline Poor, compared to the fair -5 among the Poor, down from +1 to -5.