Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 20) — Nearly half of Filipino families consider themselves poor, a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted from end of September to early October revealed.
The nationwide survey conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2, the first under the Marcos administration, showed that 49% of Filipino families considered themselves poor.
SWS estimates this percentage at 12.6 million families — barely an increase from the 49% or 12.2 million families recorded in the group’s similar poll conducted at the end of June.
Around 29% rated themselves as borderline poor, which SWS describes as the “horizontal line dividing poor and not poor,” while 21% ranked themselves not poor.
Self-rated poor families increased in all areas except Balance Luzon (areas outside Metro Manila), the survey showed.
SWS says the 1% increase from the June 2022 survey was caused by the slight increases in Visayas, Metro Manila, and Mindanao, combined with a steady percentage in Balance Luzon.
The survey also showed that families who considered themselves as “food-poor” are at 34%, “borderline food-poor” at 38% and the remaining as “not food-poor.”
SWS’ food-poverty results are based on the type of food the families eat.
The nationwide survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults who are 18 years old and above —300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao, and 600 in Balance Luzon.
The sampling error margins are ±2.5% for national percentages, ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao, and ±4.0% for Balance Luzon.
The area estimates were weighted by the Philippine Statistics Authority medium-population projections for 2022 to obtain the national estimates.
