SWS: 10.7 million Filipino families self-rate as poor by December 2021
By Elaine Diaz
Roughly 43% or an estimated 10.7 million families regard themselves as poor, the December 2021 Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll results revealed on March 21.
The December 2021 poll reported a two-point decline from the previous 45 percent, given a decrease in the number of families rating themselves as poor in Metro Manila and Mindanao. However, slight increases were observed in the Visayas and Balance Luzon.
Furthermore, the poll results showed that 39 percent of the respondents believed themselves to be borderline poor while 19 percent rated themselves as not. Among the self-rated poor families, about 6.9% or 1.7 million are “newly poor,” meaning they regarded themselves as non-poor, one to four years ago.
Meanwhile, the SWS poll results also showed that 31 percent of Filipino families deemed themselves food-poor while 44 percent self-reported as borderline food poor, and 24 percent felt they were not. Compared to the September 2021 data, the one-point increase in the number of food-poor families denotes a rise from 7.5 million in September 2021 to 7.9 million.
The Visayas showed the highest increase in self-rated poor families, 41% from the 30% during the previous survey, followed by Balance Luzon from 26% to 31%. Meanwhile, Mindanao had a drop in statistics, from 40% to 31%, and Metro Manila, from 24% to 21%.
The survey, which was conducted from December 12 to 16, 2021, included 1 440 adult respondents with 360 samples each from the areas of Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. The sampling error margin for national percentages used was ±2.6%, while areas Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao used ±5.2%.
