Eastern Visayas poverty incidence down

Among the six provinces and one highly urbanized city in the region, an increase in poverty incidence was recorded in Samar with 35.8 percent from 30 percent in 2021 and in Northern Samar with 27.5 percent from 23.1 percent over the same period

TACLOBAN CITY — The Philippine Statistics Authority on Thursday revealed that the poverty incidence in Eastern Visayas went down to 26.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023 even as a third of its population has a per capita income that is not sufficient to buy their minimum basic food and non-food needs.

The PSA said that the percentage of poor is way above the national average of 16.4 percent or 4.51 million poor families in the country that are earning below the poverty threshold of P13,797 per month.

It explained that the average monthly poverty threshold for a family of five in Eastern Visayas in 2023 was estimated at P12,897.

In its report, the PSA Eastern Visayas said the poverty incidence in the region — affecting one in every four families — slightly reduced from 28.9 percent recorded in the first semester of 2021 when the country was still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PSA-8 estimated that 308,800 families in the region are poor in 2023.

Among the six provinces and one highly urbanized city in the region, an increase in poverty incidence was recorded in Samar with 35.8 percent from 30 percent in 2021 and in Northern Samar with 27.5 percent from 23.1 percent over the same period. All the rest recorded a reduction in the number of poor families. Samar also recorded the highest poverty incidence at 35.8 percent, Eastern Samar with 35.6 percent, Northern Samar with 27.5 percent, Leyte — excluding Tacloban City — with 23.8 percent and Southern Leyte with 16.6 percent.

Biliran and Tacloban City recorded similar poverty incidence at 13.2 percent.

The PSA-8 said the data were based on the preliminary results of the first visit of the 2023 Family Income and Expenditure Survey.

On the family level, only one in every four families are poor, over a third of individuals belong to the poor population whose per capita income was not sufficient to buy their minimum basic food and non-food needs, which implies that the family size of poor families is generally bigger than the non-poor.