Percentage of Filipinos expecting ‘happy’ Christmas highest since 2002

MANILA, Philippines — A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released Tuesday showed 79 percent of Filipinos are expecting a “happy” Christmas this year — the highest since 2002.

The holiday optimism rating is only 3 percent behind the record-high 82 percent in 2002, but it’s higher than the 77 percent rating in 2017.

Two percent of Filipinos, meanwhile, are expecting a sad Christmas this year. This is lower than the 5 percent rating in 2017 and surpassed the previous record low of 3 percent in 2002.

“Except for the record-high 11% in 2011, and the 10% in 2009 and 2004, expectation of a sad Christmas has been at single-digits, ranging from 2% to 9%,” SWS said.

The expectation of a happy Christmas is highest in the Visayas at 82 percent, followed by Mindanao at 80 percent, Balance Luzon at 79 percent, and Metro Manila at 70 percent.

Better to give than to receive

Meanwhile, 76 percent of Filipinos said it would be “better to give” rather than to receive this Christmas.

The proportion of those who said it would be “better to give” is highest in Metro Manila at 82 percent, followed by Balance Luzon at 81 percent, Mindanao at 75 percent, and the Visayas at 63 percent.

The survey was conducted from Dec. 13 to 16, 2019 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide, with sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages.

/atm