Most Filipinos will welcome the New Year with hope rather than fear, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

Eighty-nine percent of those interviewed by the SWS from December 5 to December 10 expressed hope for 2010, while 11 percent said they harbored fear for the coming year.

SWS asked its respondents: ?Is it with hope or fear that you enter the coming year??

The figure of hopeful Filipinos was slightly lower than in previous three years (91 percent in both 2006 and 2007, and 92 percent in 2008), the SWS said Monday in its media release.

Nevertheless, the number of hopeful Filipinos has remained high since 2000 when the SWS first conducted a poll on hope and fear about the New Year.

Hope for the New Year among Filipinos reached its highest at 95 percent in December 2002 and posted its lowest at 81 percent in December 2004, according to the SWS.

In Germany, where the survey on hopes for the New Year originated, the percentage of hopeful citizens never exceeded 58 percent since 1991, despite the fact that it is one of the world?s richest countries.

In contrast, hope for the New Year remained high in all areas in the country: 90 percent in Luzon outside Manila, 88 percent in the Visayas, and 87 percent in both Metro Manila and Mindanao.

Compared to 2008 figures, hope for the New Year hardly changed in Metro Manila (89 to 87 percent) and Luzon outside Metro Manila (92 to 90 percent).

Meanwhile, hope fell in the Visayas (from last year?s 94 percent to 88 percent) and Mindanao (from 92 percent to 87 percent) as fear for the coming year increased in both the Visayas (from 6 percent to 11 percent) and Mindanao (from 8 percent to 13 percent).

Among classes, hope for the New Year was slightly higher among ?middle-to-upper? classes ABC (91 percent) than among the ?masa? class D (89 percent) and ?very poor? class E (87 percent), the SWS said in its statement.

Last year?s figures were 92 percent for class ABC, 92 percent for class D, and 90 percent for class E.

Among its Muslim respondents, 31 percent said they would enter the New Year with fear, the SWS said. This figure was three times more than the Christians (10 percent) and the Roman Catholics (10 percent).

The survey question on hope and fear about the New Year was patterned after polls conducted annually by the Allensbach Institute of Demoskopy, a pioneering opinion research center in Germany.

The noncommissioned survey was conducted nationwide among 2,100 adults, using face-to-face interviews. It has a margin of error of plus-minus 2.2 percent. Lawrence de Guzman, Inquirer Research