Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 11) — Approximately 11.6 million Filipino families considered themselves poor in the last quarter of 2018, down from 12.2 million the previous quarter.
This is according to the latest Self-Rated Poverty survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS), conducted from December 16-19, 2018. The independent pollster conducted face-to-face interviews of 1,440 adults— 360 representatives each from Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.
This is equivalent to 50 percent of Filipino families, 2 points lower than the estimated 52 percent (12.2 million) of families that considered themselves poor in the previous quarter’s results released in September.
The drop comes after a 10-point increase over two consecutive quarters. However, on an annual basis, the rate is still 2 points up from 2017.
“The resulting average Self-Rated Poverty rate of 48% for 2018 is 2 points above the average 46% in 2017, and 4 points above record-low average of 44% in 2016. This is the second consecutive increase in the annual Self-Rated Poverty rate since 2016,” SWS said in a statement.
Among those who rated themselves poor, around 7 percent considered themselves to be “non-poor” 1-4 years ago.
Fewer respondents from Mindanao and Visayas considered themselves poor, down by 16 points to 49 percent and by 6 points to 61 percent respectively.
This was offset by the increase of self-rated poor respondents from Metro Manila and Balance Luzon, which both increased by 4 points to 30 percent and 51 percent respectively.
The survey has a sampling error margin of 2.6 percent for national percentages, and ±5 percent for regional percentages.
