48% of Filipinos optimistic quality of life to improve in a year

By Filane Mikee Cervantes | Philippine News Agency

Forty-eight percent of adult Filipinos are optimistic that their lives will get better over the next 12 months, according to a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The poll from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, 2023 also found that 4% of the respondents believe that their quality of life will stay the same, while only 6 percent said it will worsen.

The remaining 7% did not give an answer.

The net personal optimism score was +42, which was classified as “excellent” by SWS.

The pollster attributed the 1-point rise in the latest net personal optimism score from June 2023’s +41 to the increases in Balance Luzon and Mindanao, along with decreases in Metro Manila and the Visayas.

The SWS said the latest net optimism score was 6 points below the “excellent” +44 recorded in December 2022, noting that the 6-point drop was due to decreases in all areas.

Compared to June 2023, optimism was up by 6 points from +44 to +50 in Balance Luzon, and up by 7 points from +36 to +43 in Mindanao.

Meanwhile, optimism fell by 11 points from +41 to +30 in Metro Manila, and down by 9 points from +39 to +30.

The survey showed that net personal optimism stayed “excellent” among those who either graduated from college or took post-graduate studies, although down by 4 points from +50 to +46.

It also stayed excellent among those who either finished junior high school, had some vocational schooling, had some senior high school, finished senior high school, completed vocational school, or attended some college, hardly moving from +47 to +46.

The September 2023 survey also found that net personal optimism was higher among households who rated themselves as not poor at +46; +43 among those who consider themselves as borderline families; and +39 among those who consider themselves poor.

The survey was done using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide. It had sampling error margins of ±2.8 percent for national percentages, ±5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.