OCTA: Self-rated poverty down to 42% in April 2025 from 50% in November 2024

Self-rated poverty and self-rated food poverty in April 2025 from November 2024, the latest Tugon ng Masa survey by OCTA Research showed.

In its survey conducted from April 10 to 16 among 1,200 respondents nationwide, OCTA found that 42% or an estimated 11.1 million Filipinos considered themselves poor. This is an eight-percentage-point drop from 50% or some 13.2 million families in November 2024.

The same survey showed 35% or about 9.2 million families considered themselves food poor, a dramatic 14-percentage-point decrease from the 49% or 12.9 million families recorded in November 2024.

The decline translates to approximately 3.7 million fewer families experiencing food poverty.

OCTA said self-rated hunger remained statistically unchanged from Q4 2024, but a nominal decline was observed in the April 2025 TNM survey.

Self-rated hunger in April 2025 was 13% or around 3.4 million families, compared to 16% or about 4.2 million families in November 2024.

"While the 3-percentage point drop represents roughly 791,800 fewer families experiencing hunger, this change falls within the survey's ±3 percentage point margin of error. Therefore, hunger levels remained statistically the same, though the downward trend is still notable," OCTA said.

This survey has a ±3% margin of error at a 95% confidence level.

OCTA said subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey had the following margins of error at a 95% confidence level: ±6% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. 

For self-rated poverty, the respondents were asked where they would place their respective families: not poor, can't say if poor or not poor, or poor. 

For self-rated food poverty, the respondents were asked where they would place their respective families based on the food their families ate: not poor, can't if poor or not poor, or poor.

For self-rated hunger, the respondents were asked if over the past three months, their respective families experienced hunger and had nothing to eat. —NB, GMA Integrated News