Despite pandemic, more Filipinos think quality of life will improve in 2021 – SWS

MANILA, Philippines — More Filipinos believe that their quality of life would improve next year, according to research firm Social Weather Stations (SWS) which registered considerably higher net personal optimism in its latest survey compared to one conducted earlier in 2020.

According to the latest SWS survey, 44 percent of Filipinos expect a better life by 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, while only 9 percent think it would worsen. Meanwhile, 36 percent say nothing would change and 11 percent had no answer.

This generated a net personal optimism score of +35 — 33 points higher than the +2 score in the September survey and significantly higher than the -19 and -10 scores registered last March and July, respectively.

However, this net personal optimism score is slightly lower than the +44 score recorded in December 2019, or about three months before the COVID-19 pandemic affected the country.

“The 33-point recovery in the national net personal optimism score is due to increases in all areas from September 2020: 48 points in Mindanao, 39 points in the Visayas, 27 points in Balance Luzon, and 25 points in Metro Manila,” SWS said.

“In November 2020, net personal optimism is higher in Mindanao (excellent +40) and Balance Luzon (very high +39) than in Metro Manila (very high +30) and the Visayas (high +25),” it added.

The latest survey also showed that the net personal optimism scores were high regardless of whether those surveyed considered themselves as poor or not poor in the previous SWS survey.

“Among adults who belong to families who consider themselves as ‘Not Poor’, net personal optimism is very high +36. Similarly, the score is very high among the self-rated poor at +31,” SWS shared.

“Meanwhile, among those at the borderline, the score is excellent +42,” it noted.

This survey was conducted along with the Nov. 21 to 25 surveys that used face-to-face interviews for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic reached Philippine shores,

The 1,500 adult Filipino respondents, divided into 600 from Balance Luzon and 300 each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, were asked about their opinion on whether their life in the next 12 months would be better, same, or worse.

SWS maintains sampling error margins of ±2.5% for national percentages, ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±6% for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

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