THE share of Filipino families rating themselves as poor jumped to 55% in September from 49% in June, representing an estimated 16.8 million households, up from 13.6 million three months earlier, pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported.
Self-rated food-poor households experienced a steeper surge, escalating 8 percentage points to 44%, or about 13.3 million families, from 36% in June, the SWS said in a statement on Tuesday.
SWS attributed the spike largely to households slipping out of “borderline” status, which fell to 9% from 14% for general poverty and to 9% from 15% for food poverty, while the non-poor share held virtually flat at 36%.
Poverty rates increased across all regions, led by Luzon outside Metro Manila with a 10-point rise to 51%. Overall self-rated poverty remained highest in Mindanao at 64% and the Visayas at 63%, with Metro Manila at 44%. Food poverty reached 52% in Mindanao, 51% in the Visayas, 40% in Balance Luzon, and 31% in Metro Manila.
Higher living expenses raised the national median poverty threshold to P15,000 monthly, with a P6,000 gap, while the food poverty threshold rose to P8,000 with a P3,000 gap. Of the poor households, SWS classified 11.7 million as “always poor,” 2.7 million as “usually poor,” and 2.2 million as “newly poor.”
SWS conducted the non-commissioned survey from Sept. 21 to 27 interviewing adult respondents face-to-face with a ±3% national sampling error margin. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking