SWS: Half of Filipinos expect life to improve

MANILA, Philippines — Half of Filipinos expect their quality of life will get better, the Social Weather Stations first quarter survey showed.

The poll, conducted from March 28 to 31, found 50% of the 1,440 respondents expecting their personal quality of life to improve in the next 12 months. Only 4% are expecting it to get worse.

This yields a net personal optimism score of “excellent” +47—seven points higher than the “excellent” +40 in December 2018.

SWS explained net personal optimism was “excellent” +42 in Metro Manila, “excellent” +52 in Balance Luzon, “excellent” +47 in Mindanao and “very high” +37 in March.

It was also “excellent” among class D and class ABC, with scores of +48 and +51, respectively. Net personal optimism rose in class C from “very high” +35 in December last year to “very high” +39 in March this year.

The same survey found that 38% of adult Filipinos said their lives improved, while 21% said their lives worsened last year.

This brought the net gainers score to “very high” +17.

“The net gainers score continues to improve for two quarters in a row after dropping to -2 (fair) in September 2018. It went up to +12 (very high) in December 2018 and up again to +17 (very high) in March 2019,” SWS noted.

Optimism about economy

The March 2019 survey also found that 45% of Filipinos are positive the Philippine economy will improve, only 10% are expecting it to deteriorate.

The net optimism about the economy is classified as “excellent” at +32. This is three points above the “excellent” +32 in December 2018 and the highest since the “excellent” +42 in December 2017.

SWS noted the three-point rise in the net economic optimism score was due to increases in Metro Manila and Balance Luzon, and decreases in Visayas and Mindanao.

It was “excellent” +44 in Mindanao, “excellent” +36 in Balance Luzon, “excellent” +30 in Metro Manila and “excellent” +25 in Visayas.

Net economic optimism also rose among class ABC to “excellent” +27 and class D to “excellent” +34. It, however, went down among class E to “excellent” +28.

The first quarter survey was conducted on March 28-31, 2019 using face-to-face interviews of 1,440 adults nationwide: 360 each in Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao. It has sampling error margins of ±2.6% for national percentages, and ±5% each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.