11M families still poor, says survey

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ABOUT 11 million Flipino families remained poor in the third quarter of the year, while an estimated 7.8 million households considered themselves “food-poor,” according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The SWS poll, conducted from Sept. 3 to 5, the results of which were first published in BusinessWorld, showed 50 percent rating themselves poor, against the 51 percent, or 11.2 million families, which rated themselves such in June.

The poll also found the proportion of families that said they were food-poor to be at a record low of 35 percent, the same figure posted in August 2012, against the 37 percent (8.1 million) posted in June.

In the previous 20 surveys conducted during the Aquino administration, self-rated poverty hit beyond 50 percent 13 times. The record-high 55 percent was posted four times (March 2012, December 2013, June and September 2014) while the record low 45 percent was registered in December 2011.

Meanwhile, self-rated food poverty went beyond 40 percent seven times, posting the record high 45 percent in March 2012.

The SWS asked household heads to pick a showcard which best described their family: not poor, on the line, or poor. Similar showcards were used asking about the type of food they eat.

Across geographical areas, self-rated poverty went up by 8 points in the Visayas (66 percent from 58 percent), declined in the rest of Luzon (38 percent from 43 percent) and Metro Manila (32 percent from 33 percent), and remained unchanged in Mindanao (70 percent).

Self-rated food poverty slightly went down in Mindanao (54 percent from 58 percent), the rest of Luzon (27 percent from 29 percent) and Metro Manila (22 percent from 23 percent) and remained unchanged in the Visayas (40 percent).

The survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents. It had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.