Around 86 percent or majority of Filipinos remain stressed out because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over half feeling “great stress,” according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Saturday.

The July 3 to 6 poll found that the coronavirus crisis has brought “great stress” to 51 percent and “much stress” to 35 percent of adult Filipinos.

The latest figure is 3 points lower than the 89 percent logged in a similar survey in May 2020.

Meanwhile, those who felt “little or no stress” rose by 14 percent, which is 3 percent higher from the previous poll.

In the SWS survey, those who said they experienced great stress was at 55 percent among those who lost or never had a job, compared to 46 percent among those who have jobs.

The SWS said that 56 percent of those living in Metro Manila and the Visayas experienced great stress, compared to 49 percent in Balance Luzon and 46 percent in Mindanao.

The non-commissioned survey also revealed that those with much less education were more stressed out by the crisis. The condition is also similar among men and women, which is 52 percent and 49 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the most affected age group were people between 25 and 54 years old, followed by those 55 and older, and the 18 to 24 range.

Survey results released earlier in the week showed that some 5.2 million people have experienced involuntary hunger or lack of food in the past 3 months, according to the pollster.

Of the families who experienced involuntary hunger, 62 percent felt great stress, 28 percent much stress and 10 percent little to no stress during the pandemic.

The SWS said the poll was conducted using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviews with 1,555 respondents.

It had sampling error margins of ±2 percent for national percentages, ±6 percent for Metro Manila and ±5 percent each for Balance Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao./Stacy Ang