SWS: 31% of Filipinos say quality-of-life worsened in past 12 months

At least 31% of adult Filipinos said that their quality-of-life got worse in the past 12 months, according to the latest poll released by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) on Wednesday.

The latest survey showed that 29% said their life got better and 39% said it was the same compared to a year ago.

According to the SWS, those who said their lives got better were classified as “gainers,” those who said it stayed classified as “unchanged,” and those who said it got worse were classified as “losers.”

The SWS said the resulting net gainers score is -2 (percentage of gainers minus percentage of losers), classified as “fair.”

The second quarter 2022 SWS survey was conducted from June 26 to 29, using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide, of which 300 each in Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao, and 600 in Balance Luzon.

The sampling error margins are ±2.5% for national percentages, ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao, and ±4.0% for Balance Luzon.

The June 2022 net gainer score is similar to the “fair” -2 in April 2022, and still 20 points below the pre-pandemic level of the “very high” +18 in December 2019.

“The survey question on the respondents’ assessment of their change in quality-of-life in the past 12 months has been fielded 145 times since April 1983,” the SWS said.

“The net gainer score was generally negative until 2015 when it rose to positive numbers until the drastic deterioration beginning with the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. It has since trended back upwards but still has not reached the positive range,” it added.

The SWS said the “steady” national net gainer score between April 2022 and June 2022 was due to increases in Metro Manila and Luzon outside Metro Manila or Balance Luzon, combined with decreases in the Mindanao and Visayas.

It also said that compared to April 2022, net gainers fell from “fair to “mediocre”  among non-elementary graduates, down by 3 points from -9 to -12.

It rose from “mediocre” to “fair” among elementary graduates, up by 6 points from -13 to -7.

Hunger

Meanwhile, the June 2022 survey also found out that 11.6% of Filipino families, or an estimated 2.9 million, experienced involuntary hunger – being hungry and not having anything to eat – at least once in the past three months.

The survey said that compared to April 2022, hunger fell from 15.96% among losers, 11.4% among unchanged, and 9.2% among gainers.

The recent survey also showed 48% of Filipino families rating themselves as mahirap or poor, 31% rating themselves as borderline poor by placing themselves on a horizontal line dividing poor and not poor, and 21% rating themselves as hindi mahirap or not poor.—LDF, GMA News