By Filane Mikee Cervantes | Philippine News Agency
A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 53.6% of Filipino families rated themselves as “non-poor” for the first quarter of 2024.
According to the survey, conducted from March 21 to 25 and released on Thursday, self-rated non-poor families consist of 30% borderline and 23% not poor.
Compared to the December 2023 survey, the recent self-rated non-poor figures show that borderline families declined by three points from 33%, while not-poor families increased by three points from 20%.
Meanwhile, the March 2024 survey showed that 46% of families considered themselves poor, which hardly changed from the 47% recorded in the previous survey.
The estimated numbers of self-rated non-poor and poor families were 14.9 million and 12.9 million respectively.
The pollster noted that the one-point decline in the nationwide self-rated poor figure between December 2023 and March 2024 was due to slight decreases in Mindanao and Metro Manila, combined with an increase in the Visayas and a steady score in Balance Luzon.
“As of March 2024, the percentage of Self-Rated Poor families was highest in the Visayas at 64 percent, followed by Mindanao at 56 percent, Balance Luzon at 38 percent, and Metro Manila at 33 percent,” the SWS said.
The survey asked those who were self-rated non-poor if they had ever experienced being poor in the past.
According to the SWS study, the total percentage of non-poor families consisted of 15.6% who were poor one year to four years ago or labeled as the “newly non-poor”, 10.1% who were poor five or more years ago or “usually non-poor”, and 27.8% who never experienced being poor or “always non-poor.”
Of the estimated 14.9 million self-rated non-poor families in March this year, 4.3 million were newly non-poor, 2.8 million were usually non-poor, and 7.7 million were always non-poor.
Among the 46% who identified as poor, 6%, or about 1.7 million families, were considered “newly poor” or those who were non-poor one year to four years ago, while 5.3%, or about 1.5 million families, were usually poor, or classified themselves non-poor five or more years ago.
A total of 34.9%, or 9.7 million families, considered themselves “always poor” or never experienced being non-poor.
The SWS said the national median Self-Rated Poverty Threshold (SRP Threshold), or the minimum monthly budget self-rated poor families said they need not be considered as poor, remained at P15,000 in the past nine quarters.
Meanwhile, the national median Self-Rated Poverty Gap (SRP Gap) fell from P7,000 in December 2023 to P5,000 in March 2024.
This refers to how much self-rated poor respondents say they lack in home expenses relative to their stated SRP threshold.
In terms of self-rated food poverty, the March 2024 survey found 33% of families rating themselves as food-poor, 36% rating themselves as food borderline, and 31% rating themselves as not food-poor.
Compared to December 2023, the percentage of food-poor families hardly changed from 32%, while food borderline families fell slightly from 41%, and not food-poor families rose slightly from 26%.
The estimated number of self-rated food-poor families was 9.3 million in March 2024.
The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 1,500 respondents nationwide.
It has sampling error margins of ±2.5% for national percentages, ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
