At least 39 percent of adult Filipinos believe their quality of life is better compared to 12 months before while 23 percent said their life got worse, and 37 percent said their lives remain the same compared last year, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
The score of the Net Gainers or those who believe the quality of their life is better was pegged at +15 percent and was classified as “high” (range from +10 to +19).
The June 2024 Net Gainer score was 10 points up from fair +5 in March 2024 and December 2023. It was just three points below the very high +18 in December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey question on the respondents’ assessment of their change in quality of life in the past 12 months has been fielded 153 times since April 1983.
The Net Gainer score was generally negative until 2015 when it rose to positive numbers until the sharp decline beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. It has since trended back upwards but has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Compared to last year, Net Gainers rose from high to very high in Metro Manila, up by seven points from +9. It rose from fair to high in Mindanao, up by 15 points from -8 and it also rose from fair to high in the Visayas, up by 3 points from -2.
Meanwhile, the June 2024 survey found that 17.6% of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger—being hungry and not having anything to eat—at least once in the past three months. Hunger rises to 17.6 percent in June 2024 from 14.2 percent in March 2024.
Net Gainers were very high at +18 among Non-Hungry families and very high +12 among Moderately Hungry families, compared to mediocre -17 among Severely Hungry families.
Compared to March 2024, the Net Gainers score rose from high to very high among the Non-Hungry families, up by 11 points from +7.
It rose from fair to very high among Moderately Hungry families, up by 14 points from -2. However, it stayed mediocre among Severely Hungry families, hardly moving from -15.
The June 2024 survey also found 58 percent of Filipino families rating themselves as ‘mahirap’ or poor, 12 percent rating themselves as Borderline (by placing themselves on a horizontal line dividing Poor and Not Poor), and 30 percent rating themselves as ‘hindi mahirap’ or not poor.
58 percent of Filipino families feel Poor, up from 46 percent in March 2024.
The Self-Rated Poor are those who belong to households whose heads rated their family as poor or mahirap. This status is then adopted for all members of the household.
The Net Gainers score has historically been lower among the Poor than the Borderline and Not Poor. This means the Poor have more Losers and fewer Gainers than the Borderline and Not Poor.
