By: Margaret Padilla
According to a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) on self-rated poverty, nearly half of Filipino families, or approximately 10.9 million people, continue to believe they are poor.
This reflects an increase from the 10.7 million people reported in December 2021.
The report, which was released on Wednesday, also explained that the national median self-rated poverty threshold (SRP Threshold) – or the average monthly budget required for a family to not consider itself poor – increased from ₱12,000 to ₱15,000.
Metro Manila had the lowest rate of self-rated poverty at 32%, followed by Luzon at 35% (down from 41%), while Mindanao had the highest rate at 60% (up from 43%), followed by the Visayas at 48%. (down from 59 percent ).
Moreover, it also stated that of the estimated 10.9 million self-rated poor families in April, 1.5 million were “newly poor,” 1.1 million were “usually poor,” and 8.2 million were “always poor.”
The SWS said that the “threshold has remained sluggish for several years despite significant inflation, indicating that poor families’ quality of life or living standards have been reduced.”
Furthermore, the ratio of Filipinos who considered their families to be “food poor” – or who rated themselves as poor based on the food they ate – remained at 31%.