Nearly half of the Filipino families are finding themselves poor and 1.8 million others feel they are “newly poor,” said the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
The SWS survey of June showed that 48 percent of Filipino families rate themselves as poor, 29 percent are borderline poor, and 23 percent are not poor. The results were released on Sunday after the survey was conducted from June 23 to 26 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide, composed of 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Findings were similar to that of May this year when 49 percent of surveyed families said they felt poor, 33 percent were borderline poor, and 17 percent said they don’t feel poor, noted the SWS.
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The percentage of self-rated poor families composed of seven percent who are “newly poor” or those who were not poor one to four years ago, 4.1 percent who are “usually poor” or those who were not poor five or more years ago, and 36.2 percent who were “always poor”, added the survey.
The poll body stated that of the estimated 12 million poor families in June 2021, 1.8 million were newly poor, 1 million were usually poor, and 9.1 million were always poor.
The survey further showed that the number of self-rated poor was highest in the Visayas where 70 percent of surveyed families rated themselves as poor, 24 percent said they are borderline poor, and 7 percent said they are not poor.
In the Visayas families feeling poor rose [from 56 percent in May to 70 percent in June].
In Mindanao 51 percent said they are poor, 42 percent were borderline poor, and seven percent said they are not poor.
Also in Metro Manila, 43 percent of families reported that they were poor, 19 percent are borderline poor, and 38 percent are not poor.
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Excluding Metro Manila in Luzon 38 percent see themselves as poor, 28 percent as borderline poor, and 34 percent as not poor.
On self-rated food poverty (SRFP), the SWS survey found that 32 percent of families rate themselves as “food-poor,” 38 percent say they are “borderline food-poor,” and 29 percent were “not food-poor.”
It further reported that the national median self-rated poverty threshold (SRP threshold) rose to P15,000 in June from P13,000 in May 2021, while the median SRP gap rose to P6,000 from P5,000. As per SWS SRP threshold is a minimum monthly budget that self-rated poor families need in order not to consider themselves as poor while SRP gap is the amount that poor families lack in their minimum monthly budgets.
For the survey sampling error margins are ±3 percent for national percentages and ±6 percent for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao were also factored in. (AW)
