Social Weather Stations

What Social Weather Stations does

Social Weather Stations (SWS) is an independent, non-stock, non-profit social research organization founded in 1985 and headquartered in Quezon City, Philippines. It conducts nationally representative, face-to-face public opinion surveys on social, economic, political, and governance issues facing Filipino adults, producing a quarterly Social Weather Report that tracks proprietary longitudinal indicators including Hunger, Self-Rated Poverty, Self-Rated Food Poverty, Net Personal Optimism, Gainers-Losers, Happiness, Satisfaction with Life, the Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) well-being measure, and satisfaction ratings for the President, Vice President, Congress, Supreme Court, and other institutions. All survey operations — questionnaire design, sampling, fieldwork, data processing, analysis, and archiving — are performed in-house without outsourcing.

SWS's product surface comprises three core offerings: the Social Weather Report (quarterly public-interest surveys released freely), commissioned custom survey services for institutional sponsors, and the annual SWS Survey Review event that synthesizes the prior year's findings with academic and policy expert reactions. Its client base is concentrated among Philippine government agencies (notably Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), policy think tanks (Stratbase Consultancy, Stratbase ADR Institute), and academic institutions (UP Los Baños, UP-Diliman, PIDS, Manila Observatory). Distribution occurs through sws.org.ph, social media, email newsletters, earned media coverage, public 'Kapihan sa SWS' forums, and a regular opinion column in Inquirer.net authored by Mahar Mangahas.

The organization is privately structured as a non-profit and does not disclose revenue. Its scale is small (11–50 employees) and its market is single-country (Philippines). Its competitive position rests on 40+ years of longitudinal data, methodological independence, brand credibility, and vertical integration of survey operations — characteristics that make its historical dataset effectively non-replicable by new entrants but constrain its growth and expansion to the Philippine market.

Name

Social Weather Stations

Legal name

Social Weather Stations

Website

https://sws.org.ph

Company type

Private

Founded year

1985

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Social Weather Stations is an independent Philippine non-profit founded in 1985 that conducts nationally representative face-to-face public opinion surveys, producing quarterly Social Weather Reports and commissioned surveys for government agencies, think tanks, and academic institutions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Public Opinion Research

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Quantitative Research & Survey Analytics (Survey Design, Sampling, Statistical Modeling) (MPAAALAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Fieldwork & Data Collection (Online Panels, CATI/CAPI, Fieldwork) (MPAAALAD)

Keywords

• Public opinion research
• Social survey services
• Commissioned survey research
• Social climate indicators
• Philippine polling

Headquarters

HQ city

Quezon

HQ country

Philippines

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Commissioned Survey Services: SWS conducts survey research commissioned by government agencies, research institutions, and private organizations. Examples include Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on financial account ownership and Stratbase Consultancy on political/governance topics.
2. Public Service Surveys: Self-initiated surveys released as public service, tracking social indicators like hunger, poverty, optimism, and governance satisfaction. These are non-commissioned and released freely to the public.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Social Weather Stations conducts face-to-face public opinion surveys across the Philippines, tracking social, economic, and political indicators. Its core offerings include the quarterly Social Weather Report (covering Hunger, Self-Rated Poverty, Personal Optimism, Gainers-Losers, Happiness, Satisfaction with Life, and governance ratings), commissioned custom survey services for institutional sponsors such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Stratbase Consultancy, and the annual SWS Survey Review presentation. All survey operations (questionnaire design, sampling, fieldwork, data processing, analysis, archiving) are handled in-house without outsourcing.

Product overview

Social Weather Stations (SWS) operates as a survey research organization offering a single unified product: the Social Weather Report, which comprises periodic public opinion surveys tracking social and economic well-being indicators across the Philippines. The organization conducts face-to-face surveys on various topics including hunger, self-rated poverty, personal optimism, happiness, life satisfaction, and government satisfaction. SWS provides both commissioned survey services for sponsors and non-commissioned public-interest surveys released as a public service. The organization handles all survey operations in-house, from questionnaire design through data processing and analysis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Social Weather Report: Quarterly survey reports tracking social indicators including hunger, poverty, personal optimism, happiness, and satisfaction ratings

Products and services

• Social Weather Report

Quantifiable outcome

• SWS Hunger index is used as reference for government policy discussions and poverty measurement
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 June 2026Dr. Vicente Paqueo, Research Fellow of PIDS, provided reactions during the 2026 SWS Survey Review presentation alongside other academic experts.
• Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 May 2026BSP commissions survey items from SWS on financial account ownership among Filipino families. SWS confirms March 2026 survey items on financial account ownership for BSP, covering bank accounts, e-money accounts, NSSLAs, cooperatives, and MF NGOs. The survey helps BSP understand financial inclusion levels in the Philippines.
• University of the Philippines Los Baños - College of Public Affairs and Development (CPAf)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 March 2026SWS presented 'The 2026 SWS Survey Review on Politics, Governance, and Public Life' at a virtual forum organized by UP Los Baños CPAf. The forum was moderated by CPAf faculty with closing remarks from CPAf Institute for Governance and Rural Development.
• Manila ObservatoryminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 February 2026Dr. Antonio G.M. La Viña, Associate Director of Climate Policy and International Relations at Manila Observatory, provided expert reactions during the 2026 SWS Survey Review.
• Stratbase ConsultancycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 December 2024Stratbase Consultancy commissions SWS to conduct surveys on public trust in government officials and political topics. December 2024 survey covered public trust in Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte, and impeachment complaints against VP Sara Duterte.
• Stratbase Albert Del Rosario (ADR) InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 July 2021ADR Institute sponsored survey questions on West Philippine Sea public opinion in SWS June 2021 survey. The research was presented at a virtual town hall entitled 'State of Philippine Governance: A Five-Year Review of the Duterte Presidency.'

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Ipsos: Ipsos is a global market research and public opinion firm with strong polling operations across Asia-Pacific. It operates at broader scale than SWS but competes for the same institutional and government research commissions in the Philippines.
• Nielsen: Nielsen is a global measurement and data analytics firm with consumer research operations across Asia-Pacific. While primarily focused on audience and consumer measurement, it competes for institutional research budgets in the Philippines.
• Kantar: Kantar is a global market research and insights firm with operations in the Philippines. It overlaps with SWS in consumer research, brand tracking, and social indicator measurement for institutional clients.
• Pew Research Center: Pew is a non-profit, non-partisan public opinion research organization with a similar independent research model to SWS. Both produce authoritative reports on social, political, and economic indicators with strong methodological rigor.
• Gallup: Gallup is the global leader in public opinion polling with decades of longitudinal survey data across multiple countries. SWS plays a similar role at the national level for the Philippines that Gallup plays globally.

Emerging players

• YouGov: YouGov is a digital-first public opinion and market research firm using online panels. It represents the methodological alternative to SWS's face-to-face survey approach and competes for the same commissioned research work.
• Asian Barometer Survey: Asian Barometer is an academic, cross-national public opinion research program covering multiple Asian democracies including the Philippines. It conducts comparable face-to-face surveys on governance, democracy, and social indicators.

Direct peers

• Pulse Asia Research: Pulse Asia is the Philippines' other major independent, non-profit public opinion polling organization and the most direct competitor to SWS. Both conduct regular national surveys tracking political, economic, and social indicators with face-to-face methodology.

Others

• World Values Survey: World Values Survey is a global academic research network that conducts cross-national public opinion surveys on values, beliefs, and social indicators. It includes the Philippines as a member country and uses comparable face-to-face survey methodology to SWS.
• Philippine Statistics Authority: PSA is the Philippine government's central statistical agency that produces official data on poverty, employment, and social welfare indicators. It is an institutional user of survey research and a potential partner or competitor for policy-grade social data.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SocialWeatherPH
• Facebookfacebook.com/SocialWeatherStations
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/social-weather-stations
• Instagraminstagram.com/socialweatherstations
• TikToktiktok.com/@socialweatherstations

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Social Weather Stations