A new poll by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) found that nearly a third of Filipinos believe their quality of life has improved in the last 12 months, while a quarter think otherwise.

The survey, which was conducted from March 26 to 29, 2023, revealed that 29% of the 1,200 adult participants stated their lives had improved from the previous year, while 25% answered the opposite.

Meanwhile, 46% of the respondents said that it was unchanged from a year before. 

The net gainers score is therefore +5 (% gainers minus % losers, correctly rounded), which is considered high (+1 to +9) by SWS.

The March 2023 net gainer score was 3 points below the high +8 in December 2022 but still 13 points below the pre-pandemic level of a very high +18 in December 2019.

“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,” SWS said. 

For this survey, SWS interviewed 300 individuals each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The sampling error margins were ±2.8% for national percentages, ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The poll results were released to the public on Monday.