SWS: 49% of adult Filipinos hopeful life will improve in 2023

The national Social Weather Survey of December 10-14, 2022 found 49% of adult Filipinos saying their quality of life will improve (termed by SWS “Optimists”), 37% saying it will stay the same (“No Change”), and 5% saying it will worsen (“Pessimists”), in the next 12 months. The remaining 8% did not give an answer.

The resulting Net Personal Optimism score is +44 (% Optimists minus % Pessimists, correctly rounded), classified by SWS as excellent (+40 and up).

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The December 2022 Net Personal Optimism score was 4 points above the excellent +40 in October 2022 and the highest since the pre-pandemic score of excellent +44 in December 2019.

The survey question on the respondents’ prediction of their quality-of-life change over the next 12 months has been fielded 147 times since April 1984. Out of the 147 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 rises in Mindanao, hardly changes elsewhere

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The 4-point increase in the national Net Personal Optimism score between October 2022 to December was due to an increase in Mindanao, combined with steady scores in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila), and the Visayas [Chart 3Table 2].

Compared to October 2022, Net Personal Optimism rose from very high to excellent in Mindanao, up by 14 points from +34 to +48.

It stayed excellent in Metro Manila, hardly moving from +50 to +49.

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It stayed excellent in Balance Luzon, hardly moving from +42 to +43.

It stayed very high in the Visayas, barely moving from +36 to +37.

Compared to October 2022, Net Personal Optimism stayed excellent among those who either graduated from college or took post-graduate studies, although down from +57 to +52.

SWS: 49% of adult Filipinos hopeful their life will improve in 2023

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, up from +44 to +46.

It rose from very high to excellent among those who either finished elementary or had some high school education, up from +33 to +40.

It stayed very high among those who either had no formal education or some elementary education, up from +30 to +35.

Higher Net Personal Optimism among Gainers than Losers

The December 2022 survey found 34% of adult Filipinos saying their quality of life was better than twelve months before (“Gainers”), 26% saying it got worse (termed by SWS as “Losers”), and 39% saying it was the same (“Unchanged”), compared to a year ago.

Net Personal Optimism (% Optimists minus % Pessimists) is higher among Gainers (excellent +68) than among the Unchanged (very high +38) and Losers (high +20).

Compared to October 2022, Net Personal Optimism rose from +59 among Gainers. It hardly moved from +37 among the Unchanged. It fell from +28 among Losers.

In all surveys from 2019 to 2022, 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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