Around 10.3 million Filipino families consider themselves poor in July 2026 — OCTA

MANILA, Philippines — The number of Filipino families who consider themselves poor climbed to 10.3 million in July 2026, according to a recent report by private polling firm OCTA Research.

OCTA conducted the survey from July 4 to 11 through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 male and female adult Filipinos across the country and found that about 39% of them considered themselves poor.

The self-rated poverty rate observed a 4% increase from the 35%, or around 9.2 million self-rated poor families, recorded in March.

The increase translates to about 1.1 million additional families in the Philippines who felt poor in the second quarter of 2026.

Only 18% of Filipino families categorized themselves as "not poor," while the majority, or 42%, could not say whether they were poor or not.

Meanwhile, the same survey also found that more Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger during the same period.

About 21%, or nearly 5.6 million families, told OCTA that they had experienced hunger in the past three months without having anything to eat.

The second-quarter figure is higher than the 17%, or 4.5 million families, recorded in March.

About 87% of those who rated themselves as hungry said they experienced it only once or a few times.

The report said hunger was most prevalent in Balance Luzon, at 27%.

Most of those affected, or 35%, belonged to Class E, or households with extremely low incomes, followed by 20% who were in Class D, or lower-middle- or working-class segments.

The survey has a ±3% margin of error at a 95% confidence level.