About 48 percent or 12.2 million Filipino households considered themselves “poor” in the second quarter of 2022, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Tuesday, August 2, showed.
The survey conducted from June 26 to 29 with 1,500 respondents found 48 percent of Filipino families rating themselves as “mahirap” or “poor,” 31 percent rating themselves as “borderline poor,” and 21 percent rating themselves as “hindi mahirap” or “not poor.”
“Compared to April 2022, the percentage of poor families rose from 43 percent, while borderline families fell from 34 percent, and not poor families declined from 23 percent,” SWS said in a statement.
It noted that the estimated numbers of self-rated poor families are 12.2 million in June 2022 and 10.9 million in April 2022.
Self-rated poor rises in all areas
SWS explained that the five-point increase in the nationwide self-rated poor between April 2022 and June 2022 was due to increases in the Visayas from 48 percent to 64 percent and Metro Manila from 32 percent to 41 percent, combined with slight increases in Mindanao from 60 percent to 62 percent and Balance Luzon, or Luzon outside Metro Manila from 35 percent to 36 percent.
Meanwhile, borderline poor fell in the Visayas from 46 percent to 26 percent, and in Metro Manila from 42 percent to 22 percent.
It fell slightly in Mindanao from 33 percent to 31 percent, while it rose in Balance Luzon from 28 percent to 36 percent.
SWS also noted that not poor rose in Metro Manila from 26 percent to 37 percent, and in the Visayas from 6 percent to 10 percent.
It stayed at 7 percent in Mindanao, while it fell in Balance Luzon from 37 percent to 28 percent.