MANILA, Philippines — The number of Filipino families who consider themselves poor continued to increase in the second quarter survey conducted by the OCTA Research group.
Results of the July 22 to 26 survey released yesterday found that 50 percent of the respondents consider their families poor, up from 43 percent in a similar poll last March.
The figure represents 13.4 million families, compared to 11.3 million families in the first quarter survey.
Self-rated poverty was only at 41 percent in October 2022.
Based on the latest survey, those who said they are “not poor” dropped to nine percent, from 12 percent in March and 13 percent in October 2022.
Those who cannot say if they are poor or not decreased to 41 percent, from 44 percent in March and 46 percent in October last year.
Some 60 percent of the respondents said the country’s state of poverty was the same as before, with 21 percent saying it improved and 17 percent saying it worsened.
According to OCTA, the rise in self-rated poverty was due to the significant increase in the Visayas and Mindanao, along with the slight increase in Metro Manila and steady rate in the rest of Luzon.
Self-rated poverty was highest among respondents in Mindanao at 59 percent (from 45 percent), followed by those in the Visayas at 57 percent (from 37 percent), Balance Luzon at 46 percent (from 47 percent) and Metro Manila at 40 percent (from 36 percent).
Meanwhile, those who said their families are “not poor” was highest among respondents in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon at 13 percent (from 18 percent and 26 percent, respectively), followed by those in Mindanao at seven percent (from eight percent) and the Visayas at one percent (from four percent).
Hunger
The same survey also found that 15 percent of the respondents or an estimated 3.9 million families experienced hunger in the second quarter of the year.
It was almost similar to the 16 percent obtained in the March survey and still higher than the 12 percent in October 2022.
Some 58 percent said they experienced hunger only once, while 26 percent said it happened a few times. Twelve percent said it happened often, while four percent said always.
Across areas, respondents who said their families experienced hunger were highest among those in the Visayas at 19 percent (from 26 percent), followed by those in Mindanao at 15 percent (from 13 percent), Metro Manila at 14 percent (from 10 percent) and the rest of Luzon at 14 percent (same as in March).
Some 59 percent of the respondents said the state of hunger in the country stayed the same as before, 22 percent said it improved, while 16 percent said it worsened.
The survey had 1,200 adult respondents and a margin of error of +/- three percent for national percentages.