Filipinos remain optimistic of better life, says SWS

Filipinos remain optimistic about their quality of life and expect positive changes in the country’s economy in the coming months, results of a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) in June show.

Thirty-six percent of Filipinos expect their life would improve, while 9 percent expect their life to get worse, resulting in a “high” net personal optimism score (optimistic minus pessimistic) of +27 points, SWS said.

The figure is 3 percentage points up from March’s “high” net personal optimism score of +24 (35 percent optimistic, 11 percent pessimistic).

A record “very high” net personal optimism score of +36 points (41 percent optimistic, 5 percent optimistic) was posted in June 2010, when President Aquino assumed office. [This kind of survey has been conducted in the country since July 1985.]

The survey, conducted on June 3-6, asked 1,200 respondents nationwide, “In your opinion, what will be the quality of your life in the coming 12 months?” They were presented with three possible answers: (It) “will be better,” “same” or “will be worse.”

Filipinos’ outlook on the economy also improved as 29 percent of respondents said it would get better in the next 12 months, while 16 percent said it would get worse, resulting in a net economic optimism score of +14 points.

The net score is an improvement from March’s figure of +4 points (27 percent optimistic minus 24 percent pessimistic). A record of 39 points net economic optimism score was posted in June 2010.

Quality of life

Asked about their quality of life over the previous 12 months, 33 percent of the respondents claimed it had worsened (losers), while 22 percent said it had improved (gainers), resulting in a net score (gainers minus losers) of -11 points. The figure was 2 points up from the previous figure of -13 points posted in March.

Personal optimism rose 10 points in Luzon outside Metro Manila (+27 in June from +17 in March) and 4 points in Metro Manila (+34 from +30). It, however, fell 5 points in the Visayas (+28 from +33) and 3 points in Mindanao (+22 from +25).

By socioeconomic group, personal optimism rose 18 points in Class ABC (+39 from +21) and by 2 points among Class D (+29 from +27). It remained unchanged among Class E at +17 points.

On the other hand, economic optimism rose 18 points in Luzon outside Metro Manila (+15 from -3), 7 points in the Visayas (+12 from +5), 2 points in Mindanao (+11 from +9) and a point in Metro Manila (+15 from +14).

By socioeconomic group, an improvement of 13 points was posted in Class D (+14 from +1) and 11 points in Class ABC (+14 from +3), while it remained the same in Class E at +11 points.

The noncommissioned survey used face-to-face interviews. It has a sampling error margin of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. Lawrence de Guzman, Inquirer Research