SWS: 39% of Filipinos believe quality of life improved

MANILA, Philippines — Four out of 10 Filipinos believe that their lives have improved in the last 12 months, according to the fourth quarter 2019 survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released on Tuesday.

Based on its nationwide survey conducted from Dec. 13 to 16, 2019, SWS reported that the lives of 39 percent of Filipinos have improved, while 21 percent of Filipinos say theirs have worsened in the past 12 months.

This translates to a net gainers score of +18, which SWS classified as “very high”

It is higher than the +11 in September, +13 in June and +17 in March, all classified as Very High (+10 to +19).

The pollster said that the seven-point increase in the national net gainers score in December 2019 was due to increases of 10 points in Balance Luzon, 7 points in the Visayas, 4 points in Metro Manila, and 1 point in Mindanao.

Since 1983, only 9 percent of net gainers scores are within “very high” range or better, SWS noted.

Net Gainers score rose from Net Zero (fair) in September 2019 to +8 (high) in December 2019 among Filipinos who consider themselves poor. Meanwhile, net gainers score among self-rated non-poor also rose from +18 (very high) in September 2019 to +30 (excellent) in December 2019.

The survey also found out that 47 percent of adults were optimistic that the Philippine economy will improve in the next 12 months and 9 percent believe it will worsen.

The survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adult responders nationwide, 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

It has a sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.