73% of Filipinos expect ‘happy’ Christmas in 2023 – SWS

A new poll released by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) on Saturday showed 73% of Filipinos expect to have a ‘’happy’’ Christmas this year, unchanged from 2022.  

Of the 1,200 adult respondents interviewed between December 8 and 11, 2023, 6% expect Christmas to be sad, and 21% expect it to be neither happy nor sad.

According to the SWS, the percentage of respondents expecting a happy Christmas this year is six points lower than the pre-pandemic score of 79% in 2019 and 23 points higher than the record low of 50% in 2020, when the COVID-19 crisis struck. 

‘’The expectation of a happy Christmas was a record-high 82% when first surveyed by SWS in 2002. It fell to 77% in 2003 and dropped to a 62–69% range from 2004 to 2013, before [rising] to a 71–79% range from 2014 to 2019. It fell to a record-low 50% in 2020 before rising to 65% in 2021 and 73% in 2022 and 2023,” it added.

The survey also found that 51% of Filipinos are most thankful for good health, followed by family (29%), being alive (16%), job/career/income (10%), and food to eat (8%).

The other responses include coping with daily hardships (8%), prosperity (5%), all the blessings (3%), education (3%), peace and safety (3%), and God (2%).

Obtaining 1% were responses about love life/spouse, motorcycle/vehicle, surviving an illness or surgery, happy life, house, financial support, having no worries or problems, and material things.

Less than 1% of respondents indicated being able to help others (0.3%), while the rest of the other responses comprised 1%. Two percent of the respondents did not give an answer.

A respondent may provide up to two answers.

The poll has sampling error margins of ±2.8% for national percentages and ±5.7% each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao. — VBL, GMA Integrated News