The self-rated poverty rate in the country has gone down from 50 percent in 2015 to 44 percent last year – the lowest in 29 years.
In the December 3 to 6 poll by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), an average of 44 percent of respondents identified their families as “poor,” six points below 2015’s average and, SWS noted, “a new record-low annual average that surpassed the previous record low of 47 percent in 1987.”
The SWS survey, first published by BusinessWorld, had sampling error margins of ±3 points for national percentages, ±4 points for Balance Luzon, and ±6 points for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Self-rated poverty was highest in the Visayas at 56 percent and lowest in Metro Manila at 31 percent or five points down from the previous quarter’s 36 percent.
The proportion of Filipinos who said their families were “food-poor” – or those who rated themselves as poor based on the food that they eat – also reached an all-time low of 32 percent. It surpassed the previous record-low 35 percent recorded in 2015, SWS said.
In Malacañang, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar attributed the record-low poverty readings to the public’s confidence in President Rodrigo Duterte’s vow to bring about “change” in society.
“We take note of the survey finding that self-rated poverty rose in Balance Luzon. We thus factor in stronger-than-usual typhoons that hit Luzon towards the latter part of the year, which may have affected the perception of our respondents. Typhoon ‘Karen’ damaged thousands of hectares of agricultural lands in Ilocos, Cordillera Administrative Region, Central Luzon, Calabarzon and Bicol. Typhoon ‘Lawin’ likewise damaged houses and crops and displaced thousands in the northern part of Luzon,” he said.
