At least 51 percent or about 12.9 million Filipino families have rated themselves poor in the fourth quarter of 2022, slightly higher than the 49 percent recorded in the previous quarter, a survey by the Social Weather Stations showed.
The SWS Survey on Self-Rated Poverty, which was conducted in December, showed that the number of families that rated themselves “borderline” at 31 percent—slightly up as well from the 29 percent in October 2022.
The number of families that rated themselves as “not poor” went down slightly to 19 percent from October’s 21 percent.
Of the 12.9 million self-rated poor families, 8 percent said they were non-poor one to four years ago (newly poor), 5.8 percent were non-poor five or more years ago (usually poor), and 37 percent who never experienced being non-poor (always poor).
The increase in the nationwide figure was due to a hike in self-rated poor families in Balance Luzon, from 36 percent in October to 49 percent in December.
The survey also showed the estimated number of self-rated food poor families was at 8.7 million in both December 2022 and October 2022,.
At least 34 percent of families rated themselves as food-poor, 38 percent food borderline, and 28 percent not food-poor.
The survey had sampling error margins at ±2.5% for national percentages and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.