Self-rated poverty significantly went down in Mindanao, where some of the country’s poorest provinces are, according to a December survey of the Social Weather Stations.
The sharp decline in self-rated poverty in Mindanao, from 70 percent in September to 51 percent in December, was offset, however, by increases in Metro Manila, the Luzon areas outside Metro Manila and the Visayas, resulting in a steady self-rated poverty in the country during the fourth quarter, the SWS said.
Nationwide, self-rated poverty was unchanged between September and December with one in every two Filipino families considering themselves poor, but results showed 2015 recorded the lowest full-year self-rated poverty in four years, according to SWS.
Of the 1,200 household heads interviewed from Dec. 5 to 8, 50 percent, or about 11.2 million families, rated themselves poor.
This was about the same as the one recorded in September (50 percent or an estimated 11 million), bringing the 2015 average to 50 percent, the lowest since the 49 percent recorded in 2011. Compared to 2014, last year’s average was down four points.
The survey also found 33 percent, or around 7.4 million families, saying they were poor in terms of food, slightly down from 35 percent, or around 7.8 million families, in September.
The December self-rated food poverty is also the lowest since the record-low 31 percent seen in March 2010.
For the full-year 2015, self-rated food poverty went down by six points, from 41 percent in 2014 to 35 percent.
The survey, published in the Business World newspaper Wednesday, used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points for national percentages and plus-or-minus 6 percentage points for area percentages.
On self-rated poverty, the household heads were asked to plot their family on a card with indicators stating “not poor,” “on the line” and “poor.”
Self-rated poverty fell by 19 points in Mindanao, from 70 percent to 51 percent. It increased in Metro Manila by five points, from 32 percent to 37 percent; in the Visayas it also increased by five points, from 66 percent to 71 percent; and in Luzon areas outside Metro Manila by eight points, from 38 percent to 46 percent.
The median self-rated poverty threshold, which is the monthly budget that would satisfy the poorer half of the poor households, rose to a record high in Metro Manila, from P15,000 in September to P20,000 in December. The P20,000 median self-rated poverty threshold in Metro Manila was also seen in June 2015 and December 2014.
It stayed at P10,000 in the rest of Luzon and the Visayas and dropped from P10,000 to P8,000 in Mindanao.