Study finds Pinoys can be happy despite being poor

MANILA, Philippines — An Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) study on the impact of income to happiness provided further proof of poor but happy Filipinos.

The “Income and Happiness: A Philippine Context” research conducted by ADMU economics professor Rosalina Palanca-Tan supports previous claims that Filipinos can be happy even with incomes below the regional or national minimum wage.

In the study, Tan investigated the relationship between income and happiness among a sample of households in the 27 barangays of Koronadal City in South Cotabato.

While household income is used to measure economic welfare, self-reported or subjective happiness was used as measure of happiness.

Study results generally indicate that income had minimal impact on happiness. The latest research supported previous results that an increase in income increases happiness only marginally – but there is also a certain threshold level; a monthly income of about P20,000 impacts on happiness.

However, any income amount beyond P20,000 ceases to increase happiness.

“The research shows that people in Koronadal, a low-income, semi-urban city in Mindanao, are generally happy even with low incomes, which is consistent with the happy poor image of the Filipino poor. As they are already happy and content with their lives to begin with, the increase in happiness due to income is marginal and yet somewhat negligible in the practical sense,” Tan said.

The survey found that on a scale of 0 to 10, the average reported happiness is 6.75, which is above the neutral score of 5. Even the lowest income group, those with a monthly household income of less than P10,000, which is actually below the subsistence income level, have surprisingly a mean happiness score of 6.31.

Participants in the study are household heads, or the member traditionally making expenditure decisions in the family. They had an average monthly household income of P19,444, which is reasonably close to the regional average household income of P20,229, but substantially lower than the Philippine Statistics Authority’s national average of P26,112.

Other factors that significantly contribute to happiness such as the number of bedrooms, ownership of mobile phones, savings, loans and membership in cooperatives were also looked into.

Results suggest that more than the level of income, financial security and stability, such as having savings and not having outstanding loans to worry about and being a member of a credit cooperative to which people can run to in case of financial need, also contribute to people’s relative well-being.

Notably, a look at the effect of the conditional transfer program of the national government, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a direct income transfer, was found to have no significant influence on happiness in Koronadal.

Overall, the results suggest that other programs, for instance, increasing accessibility and affordability of goods and services that make daily life more convenient and comfortable, as well as free of financial uncertainties and worries, may be more effective in raising people’s life satisfaction or well-being than direct income-augmenting programs.