Poverty incidence was highest among Indigenous Peoples, fisherfolk and farmers in 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said based on poverty data for 11 basic sectors under the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act.
The PSA said in a statement it included indigenous peoples in the 2023 poverty estimates for the first time.
It also released poverty estimates for the newly-established Negros Island Region (NIR) for 2018, 2021 and 2023, requiring adjustments to 2018 and 2021 figures for Western Visayas and Central Visayas to reflect the updated regional composition.
The PSA said that in 2023, poverty incidence was 32.4 percent among indigenous peoples, 27.4 percent among fisherfolk and 27.0 percent among farmers, the PSA said, indicating the percentage of individuals in families living below the poverty threshold.
Conversely, senior citizens (7.8 percent), formal labor and migrant workers (8.3 percent), and urban residents (10.3 percent) had the lowest poverty incidences.
Poverty incidence declined across all sectors from 2021 to 2023, the PSA said, with the national poverty incidence also falling by 2.6 percentage points.
Children (9.29 million) and women (8.66 million) had the highest number of individuals in poor families, the PSA said, adding these sectors also saw the largest declines in poor individuals from 2021 to 2023.