Some 37 percent of Filipinos said they believe their quality of life will improve in the next 12 months amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent survey of the Social Weather Stations showed.
The poll, conducted from June 23 to 26, also showed that seven percent said their quality of life will worsen (pessimists), while 42 percent said it will stay the same. Fourteen percent of the respondents did not give any answer.
SWS said this resulted in a net personal optimism score of +30, which the polling firm considers very high.
It was six points higher than the +24 (high) in May and five points lower than the +35 (very high) in November last year.
“The last three surveys show a continuing recovery from historic lows of -19 in May 2020 and -10 in July 2020,” the SWS said.
The survey also showed that the net personal optimism rose by 12 points in Balance Luzon, and five points in Metro Manila.
For Balance Luzon, the score was +26 in May, then +38 in June while it was +29 for Metro Manila in May, then +34 in June.
These contributed to a six-point rise in the national net personal optimism score from May 2021 (+24) to June 2021 (+30).
The survey results also showed that net personal optimism was at a very high +42 among college graduates and junior high school graduates (+30).
“Scores among all levels of education among respondents rose from May 2021: 10 points among non-elementary graduates, 4 points among elementary graduates, 5 points among junior high school graduates, and 5 points among college graduates,” the SWS said.
The non-commissioned survey was conducted face-to-face among 1,200 adults nationwide, spread out equally at 300 respondents each, in Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon (Balance Luzon), Visayas, and Mindanao.
Sampling error margins are ±3% for national percentages and ±6% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.