9 of 10 Pinoys face new year with hope - survey

MANILA, Philippines - Despite continuing economic difficulties, about nine in 10 Filipinos still look to 2012 with hope, a latest survey by Pulse Asia revealed yesterday.

“Optimism is the majority sentiment as regards the coming New Year, with 88 percent of Filipinos saying they will face 2012 with hope,” Pulse Asia said in its November 2011 Ulat ng Bayan Survey.

The survey, conducted from Nov. 10 to 23, found overwhelming majorities in every geographic area (80 to 93 percent) and socio-economic class (85 to 89 percent) expressing this sentiment, Pulse Asia said.

Less than one in 10 Filipinos (six percent) will face next year either with apprehension or without hope and without apprehension, it said.

“The figures recorded at the national level and across geographic areas and socioeconomic classes remain basically unchanged between October 2010 and November 2011,” Pulse Asia said.

Meanwhile, the survey also found fewer Filipinos who expect a more prosperous Christmas season this year.

Three in 10 respondents (32 percent) say they look forward to a more prosperous Christmas season this year while 15 percent state a contrary view on the matter.

“The figures recorded across geographic areas and socioeconomic classes do not differ significantly from the respective national figures,” Pulse Asia said.

Pulse Asia said the majority sentiment among Filipinos is that the coming Christmas will not be any different from last year.

“A little over half of the Filipino population (52 percent) feels that this year’s Christmas season will be the same as last year – a sentiment shared by majorities in all socioeconomic classes (52 to 56 percent) and geographic areas (55 to 58 percent), with the exception of Mindanao,” the pollster said.

In Mindanao, almost the same percentages expect this year’s Christmas celebration to be either the same or more prosperous than last year (42 percent versus 37 percent), according to Pulse Asia.

Compared to October 2010, Pulse Asia said there is a decline in the percentage of Filipinos who are expecting a more prosperous Christmas season this year (minus seven percentage points).

It said figures declined by even bigger margins in the poorest Class E (-14 percentage points) and the Visayas (-24 percentage points).

On the other hand, the percentage of Visayans expecting no change in the coming Christmas season increased between October 2010 and November 2011 (+16 percentage points).

“Only marginal changes were noted in the other figures – both at the national level and across geographic areas and socio-economic groupings,” it said.

Pulse Asia’s non-commissioned survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 representative adults 18 years old and above. It has sampling error margin of plus or minus three percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.