SWS: 44% of Pinoys convinced quality of lives would improve

THE March 21-25 survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that 44 percent of Filipinos are optimistic or believe that the quality of their lives would improve in the next 12 months while an equal number of people said it would stay the same.

This is unchanged from the December 2023 ratings of 44 percent optimists and 44 percent no change.

The survey, which involved 1,500 adult respondents with a margin of error of ±2.5 percent, also showed that 7 percent were pessimistic and said their lives would worsen (up from 5 percent) while 6 percent did not give an answer.

This resulted in a Net Personal Optimism score of +37 (percent of Optimists minus percent of Pessimists), which the SWS classified as very high. This is lower than the December net score of +39.

SWS classifies a net personal optimism score of +40 or more as “Excellent;” between +30 and +39 as “Very High”; between +20 and +29 as “High”; between +10 and +19 as “Fair”; between +1 to +9 as “Mediocre”; between –9 and net zero as “Low”; and–10 and below as “Very Low”.

The polling firm said the net personal optimism rating fell the most in Mindanao by 11 points or +32 in March from +43 in December but rose by four points in Luzon with +44 from +40.

It also dropped by five points in the National Capital Region with +42 from +47 and by three points in the Visayas with 24 from +27.

The net personal optimism score was highest among college graduates with +44 (up from +38), followed by high school graduates with +43 (down from +45), elementary graduates with +32 (down from +36) and non-elementary graduates with +19 (down from +24).

SWS also found that the net personal optimism score was highest among those who do not consider themselves as poor with +49 (up from +47) followed by those who consider themselves on the borderline (not poor and not non-poor) with +43 (from +44), and the poor with +28 (down from +33).

It was also the highest among the gainers or those who said that their lives improved in the past 12 months with +68 (up from +62), followed by those whose quality of lives did not change with +31 (down from +33), and the losers or those whose lives worsened in the past 12 years with +11 (down from