Most adult Filipinos believe it is better to give than to receive this Christmas season, according to the latest Social Weather Stations survey released on Sunday.
SWS says seven out of every 10 Filipinos it polled or 74 percent said it was better to give gifts this holiday season while the remaining 22 percent believed it was much better to receive.
But the pollster said the latest figure was seven points below the previous record last year.
“The 74 percent in 2018 who say it is ‘better to give’ rather than to receive Christmas gifts is seven points below the record-high 81 percent in 2017,” SWS said.
“This is a new record-low that surpassed the previous record of 75 percent in 2006, 2014 and 2016.”
SWS said the proportion of those who said it was better to give Christmas gifts was highest in Metro Manila at 84 percent, followed by Balance Luzon at 76 percent, Mindanao at 72 percent and the Visayas at 67 percent.
The seven-point decline in the nationwide preference for giving from 2017 to 2018 was due to decreases of 16 points in the Visayas, eight points in Balance Luzon and a point in Metro Manila, combined with a 3-point increase in Mindanao, SWS said.
Meanwhile, the proportion of those who said it was better to give gifts fell by 16 points in the Visayas from the record-high 83 percent in 2017 to a record-low 67 percent in 2018. It also fell by eight points in Balance Luzon, from the record-high 84 percent in 2017 to a record-low 76 percent in 2018.
But the proportion declined by only a point in Metro Manila, from 85 percent to the previous 84 percent. However, it rose by roughly three points in Mindanao, from 69 percent in 2017 to a record-high 72 percent in 2018.
In the socio-economic classes, the proportion of “it’s-better-to-give” believers was highest in the class ABC at 77 percent, followed by class D at 75 percent and class E at 72 percent.
The said survey, conducted from Dec. 16 to 19, used face-to-face interviews of 1,440 adults nationwide.
It had margins of error of ±2.6 percent for national percentages and ±5 percent each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.
