Majority of Filipinos are optimistic in welcoming 2019 with hope rather than fear, an independent pollster revealed on Monday.
In its latest survey, the Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) said nine out of 10 Filipino adults at 92 percent are entering the new year full of hope.
“This is four points below the record-high 96 percent in 2017, and the same as the 92 percent in 2008, 2012, and 2015,” the SWS said.
“On the other hand, eight percent will enter the New Year with fear. This is up by four points from the previous four percent in 2017,” the pollster added, noting that hope for the New Year has always been high, starting at 87 percent when SWS first surveyed it in 2000.
According to the pollster, the 4-point decline in the overall New Year hope from 2017 to 2018 was due to declines in all areas, especially in the Visayas.
New Year hope fell by 16 points in the Visayas, from 95 percent in 2017 to a record-low 79 percent in 2018, surpassing the previous record-low of 83 percent in 2000 and 2001, the SWS said.
Hope meter for the New Year also fell by two points in Metro Manila from 96 percent in 2017 to 94 percent in 2018.
Both Balance Luzon and Mindanao experienced a 1-point drop.
It fell by a point in Balance Luzon, from 97 percent to 96 percent while it also fell from 95 percent to 94 percent in Mindanao.
Meanwhile, in socio-economic classes, hopefulness for the New Year declined.
“It fell by seven points in class ABC, from 97 percent in 2017 to 90 percent in 2018. This is the lowest since the 88 percent in 2007,” the SWS said.
“It fell by four points in class D or the masa, from 96 percent in 2017 to 92 percent in 2018. This is the same as the 92 percent in 2007, 2008, and 2015,” the pollster continued.
“It fell by three points in class E, from a record-high 94 percent in 2017 to 91 percent in 2018,” it added.
The SWS then revealed that they patterned the survey question on hope versus fear about the coming year to the polls conducted annually by the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, which they referred to as one of the most well-known and respected opinion and market research institutes in Germany.
The said survey, conducted from December 16 to 19, 2018, used face-to-face interviews of 1,440 adults. It has sampling error margins of ±2.6% for national percentages, and ±5% each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.