SWS: 14M Filipino families rate themselves ‘poor’

More than half of Filipino families rated themselves as “poor” while 39 percent considered themselves “food poor,” according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from March 26 to March 29.

Results of the latest survey found that 51 percent or 14 million Filipino families consider themselves “poor,” similar to the 51 percent or 12.9 families in December 2022.

Meanwhile, 30 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as “borderline” poor, placing themselves on a horizontal line dividing “poor” and “not poor.” Only 19 percent rated themselves as “not poor.”

The steady nationwide self-rated poverty scores between December last year and this March were due to increases in Metro Manila (from 32 percent to 40 percent) and the Visayas (from 58 percent to 65 percent), combined with a decline in Luzon outside of Manila (from 49 percent to 43 percent) and a steady score in Mindanao (from 59 percent to 62 percent).

The First Quarter SWS also asked respondents, “Based on the type of food eaten by your family, where would you place your family on this card?” SWS results showed 39 percent or 10.6 million Filipino families consider themselves “food poor,” an increase from the 34 percent or 8.7 million in December 2022.

The survey also revealed that 35 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as “borderline food poor,” placing themselves on a horizontal line dividing food poor and not food-poor, and 26 percent rated themselves as “not food poor.”

Increases in all areas

The rise in self-rated food poor percentage from December last year up to this March was due to increases in all areas, more significantly in the Visayas (from 38 percent to 45 percent) and Mindanao (from 45 percent to 52 percent) than in Metro Manila (rose slightly from 29 percent to 33 percent) and Luzon outside Metro Manila (rose slightly from 28 percent to 31 percent).

The survey used in-person interviews with 1,200 adults and had a margin of error of plus-minus 2.8 percent for national percentages. —Inquirer Research INQ

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14 million Filipino families consider themselves poor — SWS