MANILA, Philippines -- The gap between rich and poor in the Philippines is widening, with the richest 10 percent of families raking in more than a third of the country's total income, according to government data released Saturday.

The richest 1.74 million families earned 36 percent of the total 2006 family income of just over P3 trillion ($74 billion), the National Statistics Office said in a statement.

The data placed the average family income at $12 a day, with few families having any savings.

The government says a Filipino family has about four members on average.

It said the survey indicated "a movement towards a widening income disparity among families" as suggested by the Gini coefficient, a global standard on measuring income equality within a population.