SWS: 49% of Filipinos feel poor, 33% 'borderline' poor

Forty-nine percent of Filipino families feel they are poor, a survey by the Social Weather Stations showed.

According to the results of the national Social Weather Survey conducted from April 28 to May 2, 33% rated themselves as borderline poor and 17% of Filipino families rated themselves as not poor.

The SWS said that the results were similar to a survey conducted in November 2020, which found that only 16% rated themselves as not poor, 48% rated themselves as poor, and 36% rated themselves as borderline poor.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adult Filipinos nationwide.

It has a sampling error of ±3% for national percentages and ±6% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The area estimates were weighted by the Philippine Statistics Authority medium-population projections for 2021 to obtain the national estimates.

Results of the survey showed that 30% of Filipino families in Metro Manila rated themselves as not poor, 31% rated themselves as borderline poor, and 39% rated themselves as poor.

“Metro Manila is the only area where the proportion of families feeling Not Poor fell. The proportion feeling Borderline Poor rose (from 14% to 31%), along with a decline in both the proportions feeling Not Poor and feeling Poor,” the SWS said.

Meanwhile, 45% of Filipino families n Luzon rated themselves as poor, 31% as not poor, and 24% as borderline poor.

In the Visayas, 56% rated themselves as poor, 39% as borderline poor, and 5% as not poor while 59% rated themselves as poor in Mindanao, 35% rated themselves as borderline poor, and 6% rated themselves as not poor.

According to the SWS, 32% of Filipinos families said they are food poor, 23% said they are non-food poor, while 45% said they are borderline food poor.

The agency noted that the number of families which said they were food poor rose in Mindanao while those that answered that they were not food poor decreased in Metro Manila.

The survey found that 44% of families in Mindanao said they were food poor, 48% said they were borderline, while 8% said they were not food poor.

In Metro Manila, 31% rated themselves as food poor, 39% as borderline, and 31% rated themselves as not food poor.

Meanwhile, 25% of families in Balance Luzon said they are food poor, 42% said they are borderline, and 33% said they are not food poor while 35% rated themselves as food poor in the Visayas, 53% as borderline, and 12% as not food poor. —NB, GMA News