Self-rated poor Filipinos increase in Q3 survey—SWS

More Filipino families rated themselves poor in a recent survey by SWS. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

More Filipino families consider themselves poor, a recent survey revealed.

In a Social Weather Station’s (SWS) third quarter 2017 survey, 47 percent, or about 10.9 million, of Filipino families think they are “mahirap” or “poor,” about three points above the 44 percent, or about 10.1 million, in June 2017.

READ: SWS: 10.1M Pinoys rate themselves poor

The survey also disclosed that 32 percent, or about 7.4 million families, rated their food as “mahirap” or “poor,” described by the SWS as “food-poor.” It declined from the 35-percent rate in June 2017 but similar to the 32-percent rate in March this year.

The proportion of self-rated poor families increased from 44 percent in December 2016 to 50 percent in March 2017. Before this, it had been either steady or declining for nine consecutive quarters, from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the fourth quarter of 2016.

Self-rated food poverty, on the other hand, averaged 31 percent in 2016 and 35 percent in 2015.

The survey was conducted from September 23 to 27 using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults nationwide: 600 in Balance Luzon, and 300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. It has sampling error margins of plus-minus 2.5 percent for national percentages, plus-minus 4 percent for Balance Luzon, and plus-minus 6 percent each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The recent survey also found that three-fourths or 36 percent of self-rated poor families have always considered themselves as poor.

It found that one-fourth of self-rated poor families, or 11 percent of families overall, were not poor sometime in the past. Of these 11 percent, 6 percent are newly poor, meaning they became poor sometime in the last four years, and 5 percent are usually poor, meaning they became poor 5 or more years ago. /jpv