The national Social Weather Survey (SWS) found 62% of adult Filipinos saying their quality-of-life got worse (termed by SWS as “Losers”), 24% saying it was the same (“Unchanged”), and 14% saying it got better (“Gainers”), compared to a year ago.
The resulting Net Gainers score is -48 (% Gainers minus % Losers), classified by SWS as extremely low (–49 to –40).
The November 2020 Net Gainer score is up by 28 points from the catastrophic -76 in September 2020, softening SWS’s worst survey trend that started during the Covid-19 crisis when Net Gainers fell to catastrophic levels of -78 in May 2020 and -72 in July 2020.
Net Gainers eases to extremely low in Balance Luzon and Mindanao; remains catastrophic in Metro Manila and the Visayas
Compared to September 2020, Net Gainers eased from catastrophic to extremely low in Balance Luzon, up by 32 points from -75 to -43, and in Mindanao, up by 26 points from -74 to -48.
It rose but stayed catastrophic in Metro Manila, up by 21 points from -76 to -55, and the Visayas, up by 24 points from -80 to -56.
Net Gainers eases in all educational levels
Compared to September 2020, Net Gainers eased from catastrophic to extremely low among non-elementary graduates, up by 27 points from -72 to -45, and among college graduates, up by 21 points from -64 to -43.
It rose but stayed catastrophic among elementary graduates, up by 33 points from -83 to -50, and among junior high school graduates, up by 26 points from -76 to -50.
Hunger is greater among Losers
The November 2020 survey found that 16.0% or an estimated 4.0 million families experienced involuntary hunger – hunger due to lack of food to eat – at least once in the past three months (“Fourth Quarter 2020 Social Weather Survey: Hunger eases to 16.0% of families in November,” 16 December 2020, www.sws.org.ph).
Hunger is significantly greater among Losers than among Gainers and Unchanged: involuntary hunger was 19% (15% moderate, 4% severe) among Losers, compared to 12% (10% moderate, 2% severe) among Gainers, and 11% (7% moderate, 3% severe, correctly rounded) among the Unchanged.
Compared to September 2020, Hunger fell by 15 points among Losers (from 34%), by 11 points among Gainers (from 23%), and by 6 points among Unchanged (from 17%).
Net Gainers falls among Self-Rated Poor and Non-poor Filipino families – SWS
The November 2020 survey, the first to be done by face-to-face interviews since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, found 48% of families rating themselves as Poor, 36% feeling Borderline Poor, and only 16% feeling Not Poor. Self-Rated Poverty (SRP) could not be implemented in the SWS mobile phone surveys of May, July and September 2020 since it requires showing the respondents a card with the words MAHIRAP and HINDI MAHIRAP, separated by a LINE, written on it (“Fourth Quarter 2020 Social Weather Survey: Only 16% of Filipino families say they are Not Poor; 48% feel Poor, 36% feel Borderline Poor,” 14 December 2020, www.sws.org.ph).
The Self-Rated Poor are those who belong to households whose heads rated their family as poor or mahirap. This status is then adopted for all members of the household.
The Net Gainers score has been historically lower among the Poor than among the Borderline Poor and Not Poor. This means the Poor have more Losers and fewer Gainers than the Borderline Poor and Not Poor.
However, from December 2019 to November 2020, the Net Gainers score fell for all groups.
Compared to December 2019, among the Poor, the Net Gainers score fell from +8 (high) to -57 (catastrophic). Among the Borderline Poor, it fell from +27 (excellent) to -42 (extremely low). Among the Not Poor, it fell from +30 (excellent) to -37 (extremely low).
Source: SWS