AN almost equal number of people said the quality of their lives will either improve or stay the same in the next 12 months, the March 26 to 29 survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.
The survey, which involved 1,200 adult respondents with a margin of error of ±2.8 percent, showed a four-point drop in the number of those who see their lives improving and a five-point increase in the number of people who expect their lives to remain the same.
SWS said 45 percent (down from 49 percent in December 2022) are optimistic the quality of their lives will improve while 42 percent (up from 37 percent) said there will be “no change.”
The poll firm also said that 6 percent (almost unchanged from 5 percent) said they are pessimistic and said their lives will worsen in the next 12 months while 7 percent did not give an answer.
This resulted in a net optimism score (optimists minus pessimists) of +38 (down from +44 in December 2022), which SWS has classified as “very high.” SWS classifies changes in Net Personal Optimism scores as “Excellent” if +40 or more; “Very High” if between +30 and +39; “High” if between +20 and +29; “Fair” if between +10 and +19; “Mediocre” if between +1 to +9; “Low” if between —9 and net zero; and “Very Low” if —10 and below.
SWS also found that net optimism was highest in Mindanao (+47 from +48), followed by those in the National Capital Region with +45 (down from +49), Luzon with +37 (down from +43), and the Visayas with +27 (down from +37).
Net optimism was also higher among the gainers or those whose lives improved in the last 12 months with +61 (down from +68) than the losers or those whose lives got worse with +44 (up from +20).
It was also higher among those who are not poor (+50) than those who said their families are borderline poor (+42) or poor (+32).
SWS said net optimism was also higher among those who claimed their families did not experience hunger (+39) than those who said their families went hungry at least once in the last three months (+33).
Net Personal Optimism was lower among Severely Hungry families
Net optimism also decreased across education with the highest among the college graduates with +45 (down from +52), followed by high school graduates with +42 (down from +46), elementary graduates with +35 (down from +40) and non-elementary graduates with +28 (down from +35).
