The Social Weather Station’s latest survey showed half of Filipinos said their quality of life “got worse” over the past 12 months.

Out of 1,500 adult Filipinos interviewed from March 24 to 31, 50 percent were “Losers” or said their quality of life worsened, 26 percent were “Unchanged” or said their lives were the same, and 23 percent were “Gainers” or said their quality of life improved.

Photo from SWS

This gives a Net Gainers score of -26, computed by subtracting the Losers from the Gainers. This is 19 points down from the -7 in November 2025.

The March Gainers is also “the lowest in over four years” since September 2021.

SWS said the net Gainers score was lowest in Mindanao and Metro Manila, both with -31, categorized as “very low.” Visayas followed with “low” -25, while the rest of Luzon recorded “low” –23.

Following the war sparked by the United States and Israel’s attacks on Iran in February this year, the Philippines saw diesel prices doubling and food prices spiking.

The Philippine Statistics Authority war-driven inflation quickened to 4.1 percent in March.