The national Social Weather Survey of March 26-29, 2023 found 45% of adult Filipinos saying their quality of life will improve (termed by SWS “Optimists”), 42% saying it will stay the same (“No Change”), and 6% saying it will worsen (“Pessimists”), in the next 12 months. The remaining 7% did not give an answer.
The resulting Net Personal Optimism score is +38 (% Optimists minus % Pessimists, correctly rounded), classified by SWS as very high (+30 to +39).
The March 2023 Net Personal Optimism score was 6 points below the excellent +44 in December 2022.
The survey question on the respondents’ prediction of their quality of life change over the next 12 months has been fielded 148 times since April 1984. Out of the 148 surveys, the Net Personal Optimism score was negative only 11 times, reaching a historic low of -19 in May 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. It has since trended back upwards to pre-pandemic levels.
Net Personal Optimism decreases in all areas
The 6-point decrease in the national Net Personal Optimism score between December 2022 to March 2023 was due to decreases in all areas.
Compared to December 2022, Net Personal Optimism fell from excellent to very high in Balance Luzon, down by 6 points from +43 to +37.
It fell from very high to high in the Visayas, down by 10 points from +37 to +27.
It stayed excellent in Metro Manila, although down by 4 points from +49 to +45.
It also stayed excellent in Mindanao, hardly moving from +48 to +47.
Net Personal Optimism decreases across education
Compared to December 2022, Net Personal Optimism stayed excellent among those who either graduated from college or took post-graduate studies, although down from +52 to +45 [Chart 4, Table 3].
It stayed excellent among those who either finished junior high school, had some vocational schooling, had some senior high school, finished senior high school, completed vocational school, or attended some college, although down slightly from +46 to +42.
SWS: 45% of adult Filipinos say their quality of life will improve
It fell from excellent to very high among those who either finished elementary or had some high school education, down from +40 to +35.
It fell from very high to high among those who either had no formal education or some elementary education, down from +35 to +28.
Higher Net Personal Optimism among Gainers than Losers
The March 2023 survey found 29% of adult Filipinos saying their quality of life was better than twelve months before (“Gainers”), 25% saying it got worse (termed by SWS as “Losers”), and 46% saying it was the same (“Unchanged”), compared to a year ago.
Net Personal Optimism (% Optimists minus % Pessimists) is higher among Gainers (excellent +61) than among the Unchanged (very high +39) and Losers (fair +11).
Compared to December 2022, Net Personal Optimism fell from +68 among Gainers and from +20 among Losers. It hardly moved from +38 among the Unchanged.
In all surveys from 2019 to 2023, Net Personal Optimism has been higher among Gainers than among Losers and Unchanged.
On the other hand, the scores among the Unchanged have been slightly higher than among the Losers except in May, July, and September 2020, when the gap widened.
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