A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found that slightly fewer Filipino families expect their quality of life to improve in the coming months.
The independent survey, which was conducted from Dec. 8 to 11, 2023 but released on Feb. 6, revealed that 44 percent of adult Filipinos believe their quality of life will improve, 44 percent believe it will remain unchanged, and 5 percent believe it will worsen in the next 12 months.
The remaining 7 percent did not give an answer.
SWS categorizes individuals as “optimists” who believe their quality of life will improve, and “pessimists” who believe it will worsen, resulting in a net personal optimism score of +39 (percentage of optimists minus percentage of pessimists), indicating a “very high” level of optimism.
However, SWS pointed out that “the December 2023 Net Personal Optimism score was slightly down from the ‘excellent’ +42 (48 percent optimists, 6 percent pessimists) in September 2023).”
The following are the classifications of net personal optimism scores: “excellent” is applied to scores at +40 and above; “very high” to scores between +30 and +39; “high” to scores between +20 and +29; “fair” to scores between +10 and +19; “mediocre” to scores between +1 and +9; “low” to scores between –9 and zero; and “very low” to scores between –10 and below.
Net optimism decreases in Balance Luzon, Visayas
SWS attributed the three-point decline in the national net personal optimism score between September 2023 and December 2023 to the decrease in optimism in Balance Luzon and a slight decline in the Visayas, combined with a steady score in Mindanao and an increase in Metro Manila.
Compared to September 2023, net personal optimism stayed excellent in Balance Luzon, although it went down to +40 from +50.
It fell from very high to high in the Visayas, down from +30 to +27, while it stayed at an excellent +43 in Mindanao.
Meanwhile, it rose from very high to excellent in Metro Manila, up from +30 to +47.
Moreover, compared to September 2023, SWS said net personal optimism fell from excellent to very high among those who either graduated from college or took post-graduate studies, down from +46 to +38.
It stayed excellent among those who finished junior high school, had some vocational schooling, had some senior high school, finished senior high school, completed vocational school, or attended college, hardly moving from +46 to +45.
It also stayed very high among those who either finished elementary or had some high school education, barely moving from +38 to +36.
However, it fell from very high to high among those who either had no formal education or some elementary education, down from +30 to +24.
The Fourth Quarter 2023 SWS survey was conducted from Dec. 8 to 11 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.
The sampling error margins are ±2.8 percent for national percentages, and ±5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.