SWS: 51% of families feel poor

MANILA, Philippines — Fifty-one percent of Filipino families consider themselves poor, according to a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The nationwide survey conducted among 1,200 adults from March 26 to 29 revealed that 51 percent of Filipino families rate themselves as “mahirap” or poor.

Thirty-one percent rated themselves as “borderline” by placing themselves in a horizontal line dividing poor and not poor, while 19 percent rated themselves as “hindi mahirap” or not poor.

“This is similar to (the survey conducted in) December 2022, when poor families were at 51 percent, borderline families at 31 percent and not poor families at 19 percent,” SWS said.

It noted that the estimated number of self-rated poor families was at 14 million last March, rising from the 12.9 million in December last year.

“Self-rated poor rose in Metro Manila from 32 percent to 40 percent, and from 58 percent to 65 percent in the Visayas. However, it fell in Balance Luzon from 49 percent to 43 percent while it was statistically steady in Mindanao, moving from 59 percent to 62 percent,” the polling agency said.

Borderline respondents did not statistically change in Metro Manila from 29 percent to 26 percent, in balance Luzon from 30 percent to 32 percent and in Mindanao from 30 percent to 33 percent, but fell in the Visayas from 34 percent to 26 percent.

Filipinos who considered themselves not poor rose in balance Luzon from 20 percent to 25 percent, but fell in Metro Manila from 39 percent to 33 percent and in Mindanao from 11 percent to six percent. It did not change in the Visayas at nine percent.

The minimum monthly budget that self-rated poor families said they need for home expenses to not consider themselves poor has remained sluggish for several years despite considerable inflation.

“This indicates that poor families have been lowering their living standards, i.e., belt-tightening,” SWS said.

The average poor families lack about half of what they need to not consider themselves poor.

Of the families who rated themselves poor, 6.5 percent are considered “newly poor” as they were not poor one to four years ago.

Another 6.7 percent were non-poor five or more years ago, and 37.9 percent were considered “always poor.”

Of the estimated 14 million self-rated families in the March survey, 1.8 million were newly poor, 1.8 million were usually poor and 10.4 million were always poor, according to SWS.

The same survey also found that based on the type of food they eat, 39 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as “food-poor,” 35 percent rated themselves as “borderline food-poor” and 26 percent rated themselves as “not food-poor.”

Compared to December 2022, the percentage of food-poor families rose from 34 percent, while borderline food-poor families hardly moved from 38 percent and not food-poor families barely changed from 28 percent.