Manila: Filipinos will greet the New Year with hope rather than fear according to an independent survey conducted earlier this month.

A poll conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) between December 3-7 said 95 per cent of adult Filipinos welcome the New Year with hope rather than with fear (4 per cent).

Although Filipinos typically welcome the New Year with a positive attitude, the 95 per cent record chalked up in the Fourth Quarter Social Weather Survey had been unmatched since 2002.

This record of optimism is "also 2 points higher than the 93 per cent who entered 2011 New Year with hope." SWS said in a statement.

The survey question was patterned after polls conducted annually by the Allensbach Institute of Demoskopy in Germany.

Most hopeful in Mindanao, Manila

Hope with the coming year is widespread in all areas, with record-highs in Mindanao and Metro Manila.

Compared to 2010, New Year hope increased by five points in Mindanao, from 89 per cent to 94 per cent, a record-high for that area that was first reached in 2002.

It stayed at record-high 96 per cent in Metro Manila. It hardly changed in the Visayas, from a record-high 97% in 2010 to 96 per cent in 2011, and in Balance Luzon, from 94 per cent to 95 per cent.

The very poor

New Year hope is also high in all socio-economic classes, with a new record-high set among class E.

Compared to 2010, New Year hope rose by four points among the very poor class E, from 89 per cent to a new record-high 93 per cent. This surpasses the previous record-high of 91 per cent in 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007.

New Year hope stayed at record-high 97 per cent among the middle to upper classes ABC.

It hardly changed among the masses or class D, from 95 to 96 per cent.

New Year Hope and Happiness with Christmas

New Year hope is higher among those who expected a happy 2011 Christmas than among those who expected a sad Christmas.

Face-to-face interviews

The December 2011 Social Weather Survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults in Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

"The Social Weather Survey items discussed here are non-commissioned, and were included on SWS's own initiative and released as a public service," it said.

"SWS employs its own staff for questionnaire design, sampling, fieldwork, data-processing, and analysis, and does not outsource any of its survey operations."