The poor in urban areas live in shanties like these along the Manggahan floodway in Pasig City. — INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network): More than half of Filipino families rated themselves as “poor” while 39 per cent considered themselves “food poor,” according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from March 26 to March 29.
More than half of Filipino families rated themselves as “poor” while 39 per cent 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 per cent or 14 million Filipino families consider themselves “poor,” similar to the 51 per cent or 12.9 families in December 2022.
Meanwhile, 30 per cent of Filipino families rated themselves as “borderline” poor, placing themselves on a horizontal line dividing “poor” and “not poor.” Only 19 per cent 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 per cent to 40 per cent) and the Visayas (from 58 per cent to 65 per cent), combined with a decline in Luzon outside of Manila (from 49 per cent to 43 per cent) and a steady score in Mindanao (from 59 per cent to 62 per cent).
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 per cent or 10.6 million Filipino families consider themselves “food poor,” an increase from the 34 per cent or 8.7 million in December 2022.
The survey also revealed that 35 per cent of Filipino families rated themselves as “borderline food poor,” placing themselves on a horizontal line dividing food poor and not food-poor, and 26 per cent rated themselves as “not food poor.”
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 per cent to 45 per cent) and Mindanao (from 45 per cent to 52 per cent) than in Metro Manila (rose slightly from 29 per cent to 33 per cent) and Luzon outside Metro Manila (rose slightly from 28 per cent to 31 per cent).
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.
