SWS: Life the same for most Filipinos, worse since last year for 31%
MANILA, Philippines — More than a quarter of respondents in a Social Weather Stations survey said their quality of life got worse in the last year, a trend amid the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More respondents, 39%, said they believe that their quality of life remains unchanged, while only 29% said that things got better for them compared to a year ago.
The June 2022 survey showed a Net Gainer score of -2, unchanged from the -2 logged in April 2022.
"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," the survey notice read.
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It also added that while the country’s net gainer score has improved since the pandemic, dropping to as low as -78 in May 2020, it has yet to reach positive levels. This means that while the quality of life for Filipinos might have gotten better, the quality of life in the country still has to return to pre-pademic levels.
READ: 83% of Pinoys feel life worse in past year
In December 2019, just before the pandemic hit, the net gainer score stood at +18.
Meanwhile, the quality of life in Metro Manila and other Luzon areas last year were ranked “high,” Mindanao ranked “fair,” and Visayas was rated “mediocre.”
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) previously reported that over 2 million more Filipinos ended up poor in 2021 compared with three years ago. After a survey of 165,029 families across the country, the agency said 19.99 million Filipinos were living below the poverty line last year, more than the 17.67 million logged in 2018, possibly due to the effects of the pandemic.
As of last year, the country’s poverty rate stood at 18.1%, an increase from the 16.6% in the comparable year.
READ: Pandemic pulls more Filipinos back to poverty in 2021
The survey also showed that nearly half or 48% of Filipino families rated themselves poor, 31% are “borderline poor,” and 21% said they do not consider themselves as poor.
Meanwhile, it also noted that hunger “is significantly higher” in respondents whose life got worse in the past year.
RELATED: SWS: Around 2.9 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in Q2
The SWS completed its latest survey from June 26 to 29. It was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults aged 18 years old and above, with 300 respondents each from Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao on top of 600 more participants from other regions in Luzon. — with a report from Ramon Royandoyan
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