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13.1 million families consider themselves poor in Q4 2019 —SWS

An estimated 13.1 million families rated themselves as "mahirap" or poor, according to the Fourth Quarter 2019 Social Weather Survey.

The latest Self-Rated Poverty (SRP), which found 54% of families considering themselves as poor, is the highest since the 55% in September 2014. 

The figure is also 12 percentage points higher than the 42% in September 2019, which accounts for 10.3 million families.

In March 2019, the proportion of Self-Rated Poor Families was 38% and in June 2019, it was 45%.

By area, the Self-rated Poverty rates are 67% in the Visayas, 64% in Mindanao, 47% in Balance Luzon, and 41% in Metro Manila, polling firm Social Weather Stations (SWS) said.

The survey was conducted from December 13-16 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao (sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao).

The SWS survey questions about self-rated poverty and self-rated food-poverty are directed to household heads. It was non-commissioned.

According to SWS, Self-Rated Poverty is measured "by the proportion of respondents rating their family as poor or mahirap."

"The Self-Rated Poverty Threshold (SRPT) is the minimum monthly budget poor families need for home expenses in order not to be poor. The national median SRPT, the amount that the poorer half of the poor need for home expenses, was P12,000 in December 2019," SWS added.

Self-rated food poverty

The survey found that Self-Rated Food Poverty rose by 6 points to 35% in December 2019.  

Those who rated themselves as "food-poor" were 6 points higher than the 29% in its September 2019 survey.

This figure of Food-Poor families translates to 8.6 million families in December and 7.1 million families in September.

In March 2019, the proportion of Food-Poor families was 27% and 35% in June.

Newly poor

Of the 54% Self-rated poor families, 7% said they used to be non-poor one to four years ago, or what SWS calls as the "newly poor."

According to SWS, of the estimated 13.1 million poor families in December, 1.6 million are Newly Poor, 1.8 million are Usually Poor, and 9.7 million are Always Poor.

The December 2019 survey also found that of the 46% Self-Rated Non-Poor families, 10% used to be poor 1-4 years ago (“Newly Non-Poor”), and 15% used to be poor five or more years ago (“Usually Non-Poor”). The remaining 21% have never experienced poverty (“Always Non-Poor”).

Self-rated poverty up nationwide

SWS said that the quarterly 12-point rise in nationwide Self-Rated Poverty was a result of "sharp increases" in all areas.

 It was up by 16 in Metro Manila, 13 in Balance Luzon, 11 in Mindanao, 8 in the Visayas.

In Metro Manila, SRP rose from 25% in September to 41% in December.

In Balance Luzon, it rose from 34% in September to 47% in December.

In Mindanao, it rose from 53% in September to 64% in December.

In the Visayas, it rose from 59% in September to 67% in December. —LDF, GMA News