SWS: Pinoys' personal well-being scores dipped to record low in Nov. 2025

The Social Weather Stations on Monday reported a record low in the mean scores of adult Filipinos in the Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA), a personal well-being indicator that includes the best and worst times in a person’s life.

In a statement, the SWS said the mean ACSA score among adult Filipinos fell to +1.72 in its November 24 to 30, 2025 survey, a new record low that surpassed the previous low of +1.97 in May 2021, or at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mean ACSA score was a record high of +2.82 when SWS first measured it in December 2017.

It fell to +1.97 in May 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, before recovering to +2.76 in December 2023.

It then declined to +2.10 in December 2024 and dropped to a record low of +1.97 in November 2025.

The November 2025 survey found 73% of adult Filipinos rating their present life positively, by a number from +1 to +5, 3% rating it by the neutral number 0, and 25% rating it negatively, by a number from -5 to -1.

This yielded a mean ACSA score of +1.72, the SWS said.

This is in comparison to December 2024, during which 79% of adult Filipinos rated their present life positively, while 1% rated it a neutral zero, and 20% rated their present life negatively.

The ACSA scale was developed by Belgian oncologist Dr. Jan Bernheim and was originally used to measure the well-being of cancer patients under treatment.

It is called anamnestic, meaning “based on memory,” because it is anchored on the respondents’ memories of their personal best and worst times in the past.

The fourth quarter 2025 SWS survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao, with a sampling error margin of ±3% for national percentages and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The ACSA survey question specifically asked respondents to place the past two weeks of their present lives on a scale from -5 to +5, where -5 means “As bad as the worst period personally experienced in my life” and +5 means “As good as the best period personally experienced in my life.”

Satisfaction with life, happiness, hunger

The SWS also regularly conducts surveys on satisfaction with life and happiness, or “morale indicators.”

The November 2025 survey found 33% of adult Filipinos who assessed their life in general as very happy, and 28% who said they are very satisfied with life.

The SWS added that the survey results for ACSA, satisfaction with life, and happiness are positively related to each other. 

The mean ACSA was +2.85 among those who are very satisfied with life, +1.75 among those who are fairly satisfied, and +0.15 among those who are dissatisfied.

Meanwhile, the mean ACSA was +2.67 among those who are very happy, +1.68 among those who are fairly happy, and +0.03 among those who are unhappy.

As to the relationship of ACSA scores to hunger, the SWS November 2025 survey found that 20.1% of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger – or being hungry and having nothing to eat – at least once in the past three months.

The mean ACSA score was +2.01 among those who had not experienced involuntary hunger, compared to +0.58 among those who experienced it “only once” or “a few times” (moderate hunger) and +0.70 among those who experienced it “often” or “always” (severe hunger).

Compared to December 2024, the mean ACSA score fell slightly from +2.32 among those who had not experienced hunger, while it fell from +1.62 among those who experienced moderate hunger and +1.11 among those who experienced severe hunger.

This means that the ACSA score is lower among those who experienced involuntary hunger than among those who did not.

The SWS also noted that the November 2025 mean ACSA was highest in Balance Luzon at +2.08, followed by Metro Manila at +1.63, the Visayas at +1.47, and Mindanao at +1.29.

The mean ACSA hardly varied among men (+1.56) and women (+1.89), as well as with age: +1.73 among 18-24-year-olds, +1.57 among 25-34-year-olds, +1.34 among 35-44-year-olds, +2.00 among 45-54-year-olds, and +1.91 among those 55 years old and above.

However, the mean ACSA score for November 2025 was positively related to educational attainment: it was +1.42 among non-elementary graduates, +1.49 among elementary graduates, +1.64 among junior high school graduates, +1.92 among those with some senior high, and +2.40 among college graduates.

Except in Balance Luzon and among 45 to 54-year-olds, mean ACSA scores in November 2025 were lower than in December 2024 across all basic demographics.

In turn, the December 2024 mean ACSA scores were lower than those in December 2023 across all demographics. — JMA, GMA News