(Eagle News) — Almost half of Filipinos, or 46 percent, expect their personal quality of life to improve in the next 12 months, a recent Social Weather Stations survey said.
The SWS said that while the +40 mark yielded by the First Quarter 2018 survey was 6 points below the record-high +46, or 49% of Filipinos, recorded in December 2017, it was still classified as an “excellent.”
“Net Personal Optimism has been excellent (+40 and above) since December 2015, except in March 2017 when it was a very high +36,” the SWS said.
Broken down, the SWS said net personal optimism stayed at excellent in Mindanao (+50) and Balance Luzon (+40), and stayed at very high in the Visayas.
In Metro Manila, net personal optimism fell by one grade, from excellent to very high (from +49 to +37).
Across classes, net personal optimism was also high.
According to the SWS, it stayed at excellent in class ABC, with +42, although down by 17 points from the one recorded in December 2017.
It also stayed at excellent in class D, classified by the SWS as the masa, although this was down by 5 points from the +47 in December 2017.
Net personal optimism was also very high in Class E, with +31, even if this was down by 2 points from the +33 in December 2017.
According to the pollster, 42% of Filipinos were also optimistic that the general Philippine economy next year would get better, with only 12% feeling it would deteriorate.
This, the SWS said, translates to a net optimism score of +31.
While 11 points below the +42 in December 2017, the SWS said this was still classified as “excellent.”
“Net optimism about the economy has been excellent (+20 and above) since December 2015, reaching as high as +56 in June 2016,” SWS said.
The SWS also noted that 41% of Filipinos said their lives improved, with only 21% saying it worsened.
Net gainers score, according to the SWS, was at +20 three points below the +23 recorded in December 2017, but still classified as excellent.