4 of 5 Pinoys believe quality of life worsened in past 12 months —SWS

Four out of five adult Filipinos, or 82%, believe their quality of life worsened compared to a year ago, while only 6% believe it got better, according to results of a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

Meanwhile, 11% believe quality of life was the same from a year ago, the SWS said.

"The resulting Net Gainers score in September 2020 is -76 (% Gainers minus % Losers) which is considered by SWS as catastrophic (-50 and below)," the SWS said.

"Losers," according to SWS, refers to those believe the quality of life got worse from a year ago while "gainers" refers to those believe it was better.

The survey, conducted from September 17 to 20, also revealed that the only other time the net gainers score reached catastrophic level was  during rice and oil price hikes in June 2008.

Further, the -76% net gainers rating now is worse than the -72% in July and just slightly better than the -78% rating posted in May.

Based on SWS standards, a net gainers score lower than -50% is considered catastrophic.

The lowest net gainers score of -80% was registered in the Visayas, followed by -76% in the National Capital Region.

The biggest drop of net gainers, compared with July figures, was recorded in Mindanao, which posted a nine-point drop, followed by Visayas (five points), Metro Manila (four points) and Balance Luzon (one point).

The worst net gainers score of -84% was recorded among those hungry families, while those non-hungry families’ net gainers score reached -72%.

In addition, those who experienced severe (often and always) and moderate hunger (only once and  a few times) hunger both tallied a net gainers score of-84%.

The catastrophe is also the worst for those who are non-college graduates.

Net gainers score among those who had some junior high school education is the lowest at -83%, followed by college graduates at -76%.

Those who did not finish elementary school posted a net gainers rating of -72, while college graduates had the highest net gainers score but still at a catastrophic level at -64%.

Moreover, the net gainers score among those with a job and the jobless is almost just the same.

Net gainers rating among those with a job is at -73%, just slightly ahead of those who never had a job at -77%.

Net gainers among those who do not have a job at present but used to have one is at -79%.

The SWS poll was a probability-based survey conducted using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing of 1,249 adult Filipinos aged 18 years old and above nationwide.

Of this number, 309 in Metro Manila, 328 in Balance Luzon, 300 in the Visayas, and 312 in Mindanao.

The sampling error margin is ±3% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila, ±5% for Balance Luzon, ±6% for the Visayas, and ±6% for Mindanao. —KBK, GMA News