SWS: Number of Filipinos hopeful for 2019 declines

MANILA, Philippines — Fewer Filipinos are welcoming 2019 with hope than when the country ushered in 2018, the latest Social Weather Stations poll showed.

The SWS poll showed that 92 percent of Filipinos are entering the new year with hope. The number is 4 percent points lower than last year, where 96 percent—a record high—of Filipinos were hopeful for the new year.

More Filipinos are also facing 2019 with fear than last year at 8 percent. The number is 4 percentage points higher than in 2017.

A total of 1,440 adults were asked by the poll body from December 16-19. They were asked: “Is it with hopes or with fears that you enter the coming year?”

Visayas has biggest drop

The SWS noted that hope for the New Year has always been high, starting at 87 percent when the SWS first conducted the survey in 2000.

It was in 2010 when the survey has recorded a consistent rating of above 90 percent, with 2017 posting the record-high of 96 percent.

The latest survey, however, showed that hope for the coming year declined in all areas with the Visayas recording the biggest drop as it posted a record-low of 79 percent. This is 16 percentage points lower than in 2017 when the region posted 95 percent. It also surpassed its previous record-low of 83 percent in 2000 and 2001.

In Metro Manila, 94 percent are hopeful for the New Year, but this was 2 percentage points lower than the 96 percent in 2017.

Hope also fell in Balance Luzon by 1 percentage point to 96 percent from 97 percent in 2017.

In Mindanao, it also dropped 1 percentage point to 94 percent in 2018 from 95 percent in 2017.

Hope down in all socio-economic classes

The poll body also noted that hope for the coming year fell across all socio-economic classes.

Ninety percent from Class ABC were hopeful for 2019. The number fell by 7 percentage points from 97 percent in 2017 and is also the lowest since the 88 percent posted in 2007.

Meanwhile, 92 percent of Class D or the “masa” are hopeful for 2019, but this number also showed a decline from 96 percent in 2017.

Hope for next year also fell by 3 percentage points among the Class E to 91 percent from the record-high of 94 percent in 2017.