More Filipino families consider themselves poor in Q3 2023 — SWS
A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Wednesday, Nov. 1 revealed that more Filipino households perceived themselves as poor in the third quarter of this year, up from 12.5 million in June to 13.2 million in September.
In the survey, which was conducted from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, 48 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as “mahirap” or poor, 27 percent rated themselves as “borderline”—by placing themselves on a horizontal line dividing poor and not poor, and 25 percent rated themselves as “hindi mahirap” or not poor.
“Compared to June 2023, the percentage of poor families rose by three points from 45 percent, while borderline families fell by six points from 33 percent, and not poor families rose by three points from 22 percent,” SWS said.
SWS attributed the three-point rise in the nationwide self-rated poverty figure between June and September to the increases in all areas, especially in Mindanao, combined with a decline in Balance Luzon, or Luzon outside Metro Manila.
“Compared to June 2023, self-rated poor rose sharply in Mindanao from 54 percent to 71 percent. It rose slightly in Metro Manila, from 35 percent to 38 percent, and in the Visayas, from 57 percent to 59 percent. However, it fell in Balance Luzon from 39 percent to 35 percent,” it pointed out.
Meanwhile, borderline families rose in Metro Manila from 23 to 29 percent and in the Visayas from 28 to 32 percent.
However, it fell in Balance Luzon from 38 to 25 percent and in Mindanao from 33 to 25 percent.
SWS also found that families who consider themselves not poor rose in Balance Luzon from 23 to 40 percent, while it fell in Metro Manila from 42 to 33 percent, in Mindanao from 13 to 4 percent, and in the Visayas from 15 to 8 percent.
The September 2023 survey asked the self-rated poor if they had ever experienced being non-poor—either not poor or borderline—in the past.
The total percentage of poor families consisted of 6.6 percent who were non-poor one to four years ago (newly poor), 6.1 percent who were non-poor five or more years ago (usually poor), and 35.3 percent who never experienced being non-poor (always poor).