Statistics show rich-poor gap widest in Visayas, Mindanao

MANILA — The income gap between rich and poor is widest in the Central Visayas (Region 7), Eastern Visayas (Region 8), the Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9) and Northern Mindanao (Region 10), the National Statistical Coordination Board (NCSB) reported yesterday.

According to NSCB, the top 30 percent of earners in these regions earn around eight times more than the bottom 30 percent.

The same report said the richest of the rich among Filipinos are in the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila, but they are also in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) and in the Cordillera Administrative Region or CAR.

In NCR, the top 10 percent of earners averaged P309,122 in annual income in 2009, the latest reference year for the NSCB report. In Calabarzon and CAR, the average income of the highest income brackets in 2009 were P202,748 and P194,703, respectively.

This was the result of special computations made by the NSCB technical staff using the 2006 and 2009 Family Income and Expenditure Survey of the National Statistics Office. /INQUIRER