More than fifty percent of Filipino households classified themselves as poor in September, according to a new poll conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS),
In the survey issued on Wednesday, October 9, the SWS discovered that 59% of Filipino families consider themselves poor. This amounts to 16.3 million families.
The earlier SWS survey found that self-rated poverty was 58% in June, or 16 million families. This means that almost 300,000 more families have begun to consider themselves impoverished since June.
According to the SWS, self-rated poverty has increased significantly in Metro Manila.
“Compared to June 2024, Self-Rated Poverty increased by a factor of 13 in Metro Manila from 39% to 52% in Balance Luzon. However, it declined marginally by five points in Visayas from 67% and four points in Mindanao from 71%, according to the SWS.
Despite this growth, Metro Manila has the lowest self-rated poverty rate. The current self-rated poverty rate per area is:
Metro Manila: 52%
Balance Luzon: 55%
Visayas: 62%
Mindanao: 67%
Additionally, 13% of Filipino families consider themselves borderline poor as of September, up one point from 12% in June. A total of 28% of Filipino families consider themselves not poor, a two-point drop from June.
The SWS discovered that 9.1% of households are now “newly poor,” which means they used to classify each other as not poor but now do.
Self-rated food poverty within Filipino households stood at 46% in September, similar to June.
The Self-Rated Poverty Threshold or the minimal household income that families claim is required to consider themselves poor, is P12,000. This represents a drop from the steady P15,000 from April 2022 to June 2024.
Between September 14 and 23, the SWS conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,500 persons around the country. In Balance Luzon, 600 people were questioned, while Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao each had 300. The sampling error is ±2.5%.
