A recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found that at least 34 percent of adult Filipinos believe that their quality of life got better compared to a year ago.

According to the national SWS survey conducted from Dec. 10 to 14, 2022 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults, 26 percent of the respondents said their life got worse, while 39 percent said it was the same.

The pollster said the score of the Net Gainers, or those who said their lives improved since last year, is +8 — computed by subtracting the percentage of losers from gainers –and was classified as “high”.

SWS said the December 2022 Net Gainer score was up from the “fair” levels of net zero in October 2022 and -2 in June 2022 and April 2022, but it is still 10 points lower than pre-pandemic level of “very high” +18 in December 2019.

“The 8-point rise in the national Net Gainer score between October 2022 and December 2022 was due to increases in all areas, especially in Mindanao,” the SWS said.

In Metro Manila, Net Gainers rose from high to very high, increasing by nine points from +9 to +18.

Gainers in balance Luzon also climbed by two points from high to very high, or from +8 to +10.

It rose from mediocre to fair in the Visayas, up by 9 points from -13 to -4; while it rose sharply from mediocre to very high in Mindanao, up by 21 points from -11 to +10.

“The survey question on the respondents’ assessment of their change in quality-of-life in the past 12 months has been fielded 147 times since April 1983. 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 recovered to pre-pandemic levels,” the SWS said.

SWS said net gainers were very high among college graduates and junior high school graduates, and fair among non-elementary graduates and elementary graduates.

Meanwhile, net gainers were higher among people whose families were not facing hunger. (PNA)