The Philippines stood out in a regional study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for reducing all three forms of deprivation it tracked, although Filipinos in rural areas remain more likely to face hardships than their urban counterparts.

In its “Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2026: Measuring Deprivation at Household and Individual Level” report published on Monday, Aug. 31, the Manila-based multilateral lender examined deprivation among adults aged 25 to 49 across 23 Asia-Pacific economies.

“Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, and China stand out as examples of economies that have achieved simultaneous declines across all three categories during the respective survey periods,” the ADB said.

The lender said this “aligned improvement” was consistent with broad-based economic growth accompanied by better service delivery that benefited even the most deprived communities.

Individual hardships measured by the ADB include lack of health insurance or internet access, unfavorable employment conditions, limited ownership of a house or land, lack of access to financial services, low educational attainment, as well as limited participation in household financial and health decisions.

The ADB said adding individual-level measures can uncover hardships that conventional household poverty statistics may miss, as people living under the same roof do not necessarily have equal access to opportunities and resources.

In the Philippines, the latest analysis was based on the 2022 demographic and health survey (DHS), covering 15,994 households and 16,627 individuals included in the final sample. For the Philippines, the individual-level portion of the study covered women aged 25 to 49.

The ADB cautioned against using the results to make precise rankings among economies because survey coverage and available indicators differ. In Bangladesh, the Philippines, Tajikistan, and Türkiye, the individual-level data used in the study covered women only, it noted.

Despite the Philippines’ overall improvement, the ADB found that a significant divide remained between rural and urban areas.

The ADB said the Philippines, alongside China, India, and Indonesia, illustrated how sizable rural-urban gaps can persist even in economies where the overall prevalence of deprivation is moderate or low. Across the 23 economies studied, deprivation was higher in rural areas in 21.

“Where rural-urban gaps are wide, investment in rural development is especially critical,” the ADB said.

The ADB’s findings come just weeks after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released the country’s first official multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which similarly looks beyond income by measuring overlapping deprivations in education, employment, health and nutrition, as well as housing, water, and sanitation.

Based on preliminary results of the 2024 community-based monitoring system (CBMS), the PSA estimated that 12.4 percent of Filipino households were multidimensionally poor, with an average deprivation intensity of 33.9 percent.

The PSA also estimated that 12.8 percent of Filipinos lived in households classified as multidimensionally poor. This individual headcount, however, remains based on the deprivation status of the household, with people living in the same household assigned the same deprivation score.

This differs from the ADB’s approach, which adds a separate individual-level lens to identify people who may personally experience significant hardships even when the households they live in are considered nonpoor.

Across the 23 economies covered by the ADB study, about 31 percent of adults aged 25 to 49 were classified as individually deprived despite living in nonpoor households.

About two-fifths of these individuals, equivalent to 12 percent of the overall age group studied, experienced a high to extreme breadth of deprivation.

The ADB also found that individual deprivation was not confined to poor families, with people experiencing individual-level deprivation present across household wealth groups.

While deprivation generally declined over time, the ADB said progress was slowest in reducing the range of hardships faced by individually deprived people living in nonpoor households, indicating that improvements in household economic conditions alone may not be enough to address their needs.