The incidence of poverty, or the proportion of Filipinos whose per capita income is not sufficient to meet their basic needs, rose to 23.7 percent in the first half of 2021, higher than the 21.1 percent in the same period in 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Friday.
The PSA said this translates to 26.14 million Filipinos, higher than 22.26 million in the first semester of 2018, who lived below the poverty threshold estimated at P12,082, on the average, for a family of five per month in the first semester of 2021.
On the other hand, subsistence incidence among Filipinos, or the proportion of Filipinos whose income is not enough to meet even the basic food needs, stood at 9.9 percent or about 10.94 million Filipinos in the first semester of 2021.
On the average, the monthly food threshold for a family of five for the same period was estimated at P8,393, higher than P7,374 in the first semester of 2018.
Among families, the first semester 2021 poverty incidence was estimated at 18.0 percent, higher than 16.2 percent in the first semester of 2018, which is equivalent to around 4.74 million poor families.
Meanwhile, the subsistence incidence among families was recorded at 7.1 percent from 6.2 percent in the first semester of 2018, or around 1.87 million food-poor families in the first semester of 2021.
At the regional level, the regions with the lowest poverty incidence among families in the first semester of 2021 continued to be the National Capital Region and CALABARZON with 5.2 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao consistently figured with the highest poverty incidence among families at 39.4 percent in the first semester of 2021.
Nine out of 17 regions posted significant changes in poverty incidence among families from first semester 2018 to first semester 2021.
ARMM/BARMM had the highest significant improvement from 55.9 percent in the first semester 2018 to 39.4 percent in the first semester of 2021.
At the provincial level, the provinces which belonged to the group with the least poverty incidence among families from first semester 2018 to first semester 2021 continued to include Benguet, Capiz, Cavite, Davao del Sur, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Laguna, Pampanga, Quirino, Rizal, and Siquijor. The other provinces that joined this roster of least poor clusters in the first semester of 2021 were Batanes, Batangas and Lanao del Sur.
On the other hand, the provinces that were consistently included in the cluster with relatively high poverty incidence among families in the first semesters of 2018 and 2021 were Basilan and Sulu.
New entrants in the poorest cluster of provinces in the first semester 2021 were Agusan del Sur, Cotabato City, Sarangani, Tawi-tawi, and Zamboanga del Norte.