Adult Filipinos posted their lowest recorded score in a personal well-being survey at the end of 2025, according to the Social Weather Stations.
In its November 24 to 30, 2025 survey, SWS said the mean score in the Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment, or ACSA, dropped to +1.72 — the lowest since the survey was first conducted in 2017.
The latest figure surpassed the previous record low of +1.97 recorded in May 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ACSA score had reached a record high of +2.82 in December 2017 and later recovered to +2.76 in December 2023 before declining again.
The ACSA measures how respondents assess the past two weeks of their lives on a scale of -5 to +5, with -5 meaning “as bad as the worst period” of their lives and +5 meaning “as good as the best period.”
The November 2025 survey found that 73% of adult Filipinos rated their present life positively, 3% gave a neutral score of zero, and 25% rated their life negatively, resulting in the +1.72 average score.
This was lower than the December 2024 findings, when 79% rated their life positively and the national mean score stood at a higher level.
SWS said the well-being score was closely linked to satisfaction with life, happiness and hunger.
Among respondents who described themselves as “very satisfied” with life, the mean ACSA score was +2.85. The score fell to +1.75 among those who were “fairly satisfied” and to +0.15 among those who were dissatisfied.
Similarly, those who considered themselves “very happy” registered a mean ACSA score of +2.67, compared with +1.68 among those who were fairly happy and +0.03 among those who were unhappy.
The survey also showed a sharp gap between those who experienced involuntary hunger and those who did not.
Families that did not experience hunger in the past three months posted a mean ACSA score of +2.01. In contrast, the score dropped to +0.58 among those who experienced moderate hunger and +0.70 among those who experienced severe hunger.
The survey found that 20.1% of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the previous three months.
Regionally, Balance Luzon recorded the highest ACSA score at +2.08, followed by Metro Manila at +1.63, the Visayas at +1.47 and Mindanao at +1.29.
The score also rose with educational attainment. College graduates posted the highest mean ACSA score at +2.40, while non-elementary graduates recorded the lowest at +1.42.
The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide and had a margin of error of ±3% for national figures.
