MANILA: Nearly half of Filipino families still considered themselves poor, according to the latest self-rated poverty poll of the Social Weather Survey (SWS).
Based on a national survey SWS conducted from June 25 to 29, the SWS found that 49 per cent of Filipino families rated themselves as poor, only one percentage point from the 50 per cent reported in April.
According to the survey, 10 per cent of respondents rated themselves as “borderline” and 41 per cent thought of themselves as not poor. Those who rated themselves as not poor also declined from 50 per cent in April.
SWS estimated the number of self-rated poor families by applying the survey results to the medium-population projection for 2025 of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The June 25 to June 29, 2025 survey found the percentage of Not Poor families at 41 per cent, just 1 point below the record-high 42 per cent in April 23 to April 28, 2025. It was 13 per cent when first recorded in July 1985, and reached its record low of eight per cent in July 1991.
SWS said the one-point decline in the nationwide ratings was due to declines in the Visayas and Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila), combined with increases in Mindanao and Metro Manila.
Self-rated poverty was highest in Mindanao at 69 per cent, followed by the Visayas at 60 per cent, Balance Luzon at 38 per cent and Metro Manila at 36 pe rcent.
It was worse in July 1985 when the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference found that 74 per cent of survey respondents considered themselves poor, SWS said in its website.
In the SWS surveys from May 1986 to the present, it reached as high as 72 per cent in February 1992 and as low as 38 per cent in March 2019, the pollster added.
Compared to the April results, SWS said self-rated poverty fell by 7 points from 67 per cent in the Visayas and 5 points from 43 percent in Balance Luzon.
However, it rose by 8 points from 61 per cent in Mindanao and 3 points from 33 per cent in Metro Manila.
On the other hand, the percentage of borderline families rose from six to eight per cent in Metro Manila, six 10 per cent in Balance Luzon and nine to 12 per cent in the Visayas. It stayed at 10 per cent in Mindanao.
At the same time, Not Poor rose from 24 per cent to 28 per cent in the Visayas, while it fell from 60 to 57 per cent in Metro Manila and from 29 per cent to 21 per cent in Mindanao. It hardly moved from 51 per cent to 52 per cent in Balance Luzon. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
