91% of Pinoys entering New Year with hope —SWS

Ninety-one percent of adult Filipinos are entering 2021 with hope instead of fear, a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

This is five percentage points down from 96% in 2018 and is the lowest after 89% in 2009, the SWS said.

In a non-commissioned survey conducted from November 21 to 25, the SWS found that 7% will enter the New Year with fear, three percentage points up from 4% in 2019.

The survey was the first face-to-face interviews the SWS conducted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One in two Filipinos expected Christmas to be happy, 15% expected it to be sad, and 33% expected it to be neither happy nor sad, according to the SWS' November survey.

Of those who expected a sad Christmas, 83% are entering the New Year with hope, the pollster said. Even more from those who expected a happy Christmas have hope for 2021.

The SWS also said that 89% of families who rated themselves as poor are entering the New Year with hope. New Year hope among families who identified as "not poor" and "borderline poor" was 94% and 93%, respectively.

It added that New Year hope rose by three percentage points in Mindanao from 90% to 93%, but fell in Balance Luzon (from 99% to 92%), Metro Manila (from 96% to 90%), and in the Visayas (from 97% to 88%).

The SWS said it started surveying New Year Hope at the end of 2000 (87%). The percentage was in the 90s at the end of 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010 to 2020, and in the 80s at the end of 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2009.

The pollster surveyed 1,500 adults nationwide -- 600 in Balance Luzon and 300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. The sampling error margins are ±2.5% for national percentages, ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±6% for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao. —KBK, GMA News