People cross a street at a popular shopping centre in Manila. AFP FILE PHOTO
Four out of 10 Filipino families in the country considered themselves 鈥減oor鈥� based on the results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
Taken from March 21 to 25, the survey indicated that 46 percent or an estimated 12.9 million Filipino families, rated themselves as 鈥減oor,鈥� 23 percent thought of themselves as 鈥渘ot poor,鈥� and 30 percent considered themselves 鈥渂orderline鈥� (between 鈥減oor鈥� and 鈥渘ot poor鈥�).
READ: SWS: 46% of Filipino families felt poor in March 2024
The results were similar to the findings of the previous survey in December 2023, in which 47 percent, or 13 million families, rated themselves as 鈥減oor,鈥� 20 percent as 鈥渘ot poor,鈥� and 33 percent as 鈥渂orderline.鈥�
In Mindanao, families that felt poor decreased from 61 percent to 56 percent. In Metro Manila, it also went down from 37 percent to 33 percent.
Self-rated poverty was steady in Luzon outside of Metro Manila, declining only slightly from 39 percent to 38 percent.
On the other hand, self-rated 鈥減oor鈥� families rose in Visayas from 58 percent in December 2023 to 64 percent in March. Food-poor rating
The latest survey also found that 33 percent rated themselves as 鈥渇ood-poor,鈥� 36 percent as 鈥渇ood borderline,鈥� and 31 percent as 鈥渘ot food-poor.鈥�
READ: SWS: Involuntary hunger rate hits 12.6 percent in December 2023
Self-rated food poverty is based on the type of food consumed by their families, according to SWS.
The estimated number of self-rated 鈥渇ood-poor鈥� families currently stands at 9.3 million.
The percentage of self-rated 鈥渇ood-poor鈥� families in Visayas rose from 38 percent in December 2023 to 46 percent in the latest survey. There was also an increase in Metro Manila from 24 percent to 28 percent and in Mindanao from 43 percent to 44 percent. There was a slight decrease in Luzon outside of Metro Manila, from 27 percent to 24 percent.
The survey, using face-to-face interviews, asked 1,500 adult respondents where they would place their family on a card on which the words 鈥渕ahirap鈥� (poor) and 鈥渉indi mahirap鈥� (not poor) were separated by a line.
Of the estimated 12.9 million 鈥減oor鈥� families in March, 1.7 million were 鈥渘ewly poor,鈥� 1.5 million were 鈥渦sually poor,鈥� and 9.7 million were 鈥渁lways poor.鈥�
The survey had a sampling margin error of plus-or-minus 2.5 percent for national percentages, plus-or-minus 4 percent for Luzon outside of Metro Manila and plus-or-minus 5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao. 鈥擨nquirer Research