AROUND 14 million Filipino families, or 51 percent, say they are “poor,” unchanged from the last quarter of 2022, according to the March 26 to 29 survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
The survey, which involved 1,200 adult respondents nationwide and had a margin of error of ±2.8 percent, also showed that 30 percent rated their families as “borderline poor,” or belonging to the line between poor and not poor, which is statistically unchanged from 31 percent in December 2022.
On the other hand, the percentage of families who think they are “not poor” was unchanged at 19 percent.
The SWS survey also found out that majority of the people living in Visayas and Mindanao rated their families as poor, at 65 percent (up from 58 percent) and 62 percent (up from 59 percent), respectively.
Four out of 10 or 40 percent (up from 32 percent) in Metro Manila, and 43 percent (down from 49 percent) in Luzon rated their families as poor.
Likewise, SWS said the national median Self-Rated Poverty Threshold (SRP Threshold), or the minimum amount that you need to spend in a month so you will not be considered as poor, remained at P15,000.
The amount, which does exclude money spent for work-related expenses such as transportation fare, has been at the same level for the past five quarters.
The national median Self-Rated Poverty Gap (SRP Gap) rose from P5,000 in December 2022 to P6,000 in March 2023. This refers to the amount that a family still needs or lacks to reach the SRP threshold.
In Metro Manila, both the median SRP Threshold and the median SRP Gap rose to P20,000 (from P15,000) and P10,000 (from P6,000).
In Luzon and the Visayas, the median SRP Threshold stayed at P15,000, while the median SRP Gap rose in Luzon to P6,000 (from P5,00), but stayed at P7,000 in the Visayas.
In Mindanao, both the median SRP Threshold and SRP Gap stayed at P10,000 and P5,000, respectively.
