Fewer Pinoys expect more prosperous Christmas

MANILA, Philippines — While most Filipinos say they are ready to face the coming year with hope, only one in three anticipates a “more prosperous” celebration of the holiday season, a recent survey conducted by Pulse Asia showed.

Results of the Dec. 3 to 7 survey released yesterday showed that only 30 percent of the respondents expect their holiday celebrations to be “more prosperous” than last year.

It was down 13 points from the 43 percent who expected a “more prosperous” celebration ahead of the holidays last year.

Meanwhile, those who expect their celebrations to be “poorer” than last year increased from six percent to 13 percent.

More than half or 57 percent said they expect their celebration this year to be the same as last year. It was composed of 41 percent who described their celebration last year as prosperous and 16 percent who said it was not prosperous.

Those who expect their holiday celebration to be “more prosperous” this year were highest among those in the Visayas – at 42 percent (down from 66 percent last year), followed by those in Mindanao at 31 percent (from 46 percent), balance Luzon at 29 percent (from 35 percent), and Metro Manila at 18 percent (from 32 percent).

Meanwhile, those who expect “poorer” celebrations was highest among those in Mindanao at 30 percent (from two percent), followed by those in the Visayas at 18 percent (from two percent), Metro Manila at 10 percent (from four percent) and the rest of Luzon at four percent (from nine percent).

The same survey also found that 92 percent of respondents expect to face the coming year with hope, similar to the results in November 2022.

Only one percent said they would enter 2024 without hope (from 0.1 percent), while seven percent said they could not say if they would face it with or without hope.

Across areas, those saying they were ready to face the coming year with hope were mostly from the Visayas at 95 percent (from 99 percent), followed by those in balance Luzon at 94 percent (from 89 percent), Metro Manila at 92 percent (from 94 percent) and Mindanao at 84 percent (from 89 percent).

None of the respondents in Metro Manila, rest of Luzon and the Visayas said they would face the coming year without hope, but five percent from Mindanao said they would (from zero last year).

The survey had 1,200 respondents and a margin of error of plus/minus 2.8 percent.