At least 40 percent of Filipinos said their quality of life has worsened over the last 12 months, according to the latest survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
The survey also showed that 24 percent of 1,440 the respondents nationwide said their lives got better, while 36 percent said it remains unchanged compared to a year ago.
The SWS survey was conducted from December 12 to 16. Sampling error margins are ±2.6% for national percentages and ±5.2% for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
The 40 percent whose lives worsened were referred to by the SWS as the “losers” while those whose lives improved were the “gainers.”
The resulting “net gainers” score is -16 (percentage of gainers minus percentage of losers)—classified by SWS as “mediocre.”
“The December 2021 Net Gainer score is 28 points up from the extremely low -44 in September 2021, but still 34 points below the pre-pandemic level of the very high +18 in December 2019,” the SWS said.
The pollster noted that the grade “excellent” is applied to scores at +20 and above; “very high” to scores between +10 and +19; “high” to scores between +1 and +9; “fair” to scores between –9 and zero; “mediocre” to scores between –19 and –10; “Low” to scores between –29 and –20; “very low” to scores between –39 and –30; “extremely low” to scores at –49 to –40; and “catastrophic” to scores –50 and below.
“Compared to September 2021, net gainers eased from catastrophic to mediocre in Metro Manila, up by 40 points from -51 to -11. It eased from extremely low to mediocre in Mindanao, up by 32 points from -47 to -15,” the SWS said.
“It also eased from extremely low to mediocre in Balance Luzon, up by 30 points from -41 to -11. It eased from extremely low to very low in
the Visayas, up by 15 points from -46 to -31,” the SWS added.