AROUND 12.9 million Filipino families or 46 percent have rated themselves as poor, the first quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) held from March 21 to 25 showed.
This is almost unchanged from the 47 percent (estimated 13 million Filipino families), who rated themselves as poor in December 2023 or the last quarter of last year.
The survey, which involved 1,500 adult respondents with a margin of error of ±2.5 percent, showed that 30 percent rated their families as borderline poor or those in between the poor and not poor (down from 33 percent in December) while 23 percent said they are not poor (up from 20 percent).
Self-rated poor is highest in the Visayas with 64 percent (up from 58 percent), followed by Mindanao with 56 percent (down from 61 percent), Luzon with 38 percent (statistically unchanged from 39 percent) and the National Capital Region or NCR with 33 percent (down from 37 percent).
SWS said the national median or Self-Rated Poverty Threshold (SRP Threshold) stayed at P15,000. The SRP Threshold is the minimum monthly budget needed by a family for home expenses in order not to consider themselves as self-rated poor.
In NCR, the threshold rose to P25,000 from P20,000 while it stayed at P15,000 in Luzon and the Visayas. It fell to P10,000 from P15,000 in Mindanao.
SWS also found that 33 percent or 9.3 million (almost unchanged from 32 percent or 8.9 million) rated their families as food poor while 36 percent (down from 41 percent) said they are food borderline or between food poor and not food-poor. Thirty-one percent rated themselves as not food-poor (up from 28 percent).
The survey firm said those who rated their families as food poor were highest in the Visayas with 46 percent (up from 38 percent), followed by those from Mindanao with 44 percent (from 43 percent), NCR with 28 percent (up from 24 percent) and Luzon with 24 percent (down from 27 percent).
It added that the national median Self-Rated Food Poverty Threshold (SRFP Threshold), or the monthly amount a family needs for food so as not to be considered food-poor, stayed at P8,000.
The SRFP in Metro Manila stayed at P10,000 while it rose to P9,000 (from P8,000) in Luzon, rose to P10,000 (from P6,000) in the Visayas, and went down to P5,000 (from P8,000) in Mindanao.
