10.9M Filipino families felt ‘poor’ in Q1 of 2022 – SWS survey

SLUM COMPLEX = Residents of a small apartment building in Tondo, Manila, do their house chores outside their units. A Philippine household needs to earn more than P12,082 a month to meet its members’ basic needs. (REUTERS FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — An estimated 10.9 million Filipino families considered themselves “poor” in the first quarter of the year, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

 A survey conducted from April 19 to 27 showed that 43 percent of Filipinos rated themselves as “poor” while 34 percent felt “borderline poor.”

Twenty-three percent, meanwhile, considered themselves “not poor,” according to the survey, which was released Wednesday.

The SWS said these levels are similar to those in December last year, when 43 percent of families felt “poor,” 39 percent considered themselves as “borderline poor” while 19 percent felt “not poor.”

“The estimated numbers of Self-Rated Poor families are 10.9 million in April 2022 and 10.7 million in December 2021,” the SWS said.

 ‘Poor’ families rise in Metro Manila, Mindanao

 “The steady Self-Rated Poor between December 2021 and April 2022 was due to increases in Mindanao and Metro Manila, combined with decreases in the Visayas and Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila),” the SWS explained.

 According to the survey, the “self-rated poor” families increased in Mindanao, from 43 precent in December 2021 to 60 percent in April 2022.

 In Metro Manila, it increased from 25 percent to 32 percent.

 The percentage of “self-rated poor” families, however, was reduced from 59 percent to 48 percent in Visayas and 41 percent to 35 percent in Balance Luzon.

 Meanwhile, families who rated themselves as “borderline poor” rose in Visayas from 33 percent to 46 percent, the survey showed.

 But in Mindanao, it fell from 48 percent to 33 percent. It also decreased from 34 percent to 28 percent in Balance Luzon and 47 percent to 42 percent in Metro Manila.

“At the same time, Not Poor rose in Balance Luzon from 25% to 37%. However, it fell in the Visayas from 8% to 6%, in Mindanao from 9% to 7%, and in Metro Manila from 28% to 26%,” the SWS said.

 ‘Newly poor’ 

 The SWS survey also showed that of the 10.9 million estimated “self-rated poor” families, 1.5 million were “newly poor.” 

“The April 2022 survey asked the Self-Rated Poor if they ever experienced being non-poor (either not poor or borderline) in the past,” the SWS said.

 “The total percentage of poor families consists of 6.1% who were non-poor 1-4 years ago (“Newly Poor”), 4.5% who were non-poor five or more years ago (“Usually Poor”), and 32.2% who never experienced being non-poor(“Always Poor”),” it added.

According to SWS, 4.7 million of the 14.6 million “self-rated non-poor” families in April 2022 were “newly non-poor.” Some 3 million were “usually non-poor” while 6.9 million were “always non-poor.”

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