Monday, April 19, 2010

Self-rated poverty hits record low of 43%

MANILA, Philippines - The number of Filipino families who consider themselves poor dropped to its lowest level since 1987, according to a latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).


The SWS pre-election survey, conducted from March 19 to 22, found that 43 percent or about 8.1 million families rate themselves as “mahirap” or poor, matching the record-low self-rated poverty recorded in March 1987.

On the other hand, the number of Filipino households who consider themselves as food-poor hit a new record-low of 31 percent or about 5.9 million.

The previous record-low self-rated food poverty was 35 percent in June 2004.

The SWS survey also showed that the proportion of families experiencing involuntary hunger declined by three points from 24 percent in December to 21.2 percent or an estimated four million families in March.

“The latest hunger rate was three points below the record-high incidence of 24 percent in December 2009, but still far above the 1998-2010 average of 13.4 percent,” the SWS said.

SWS said the measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of anything to eat.

“The reason why self-rated poverty is relatively low and at the same time hunger is relatively high is because living standards have dropped so low that many families do not rate themselves as poor even if they suffered from hunger recently,” the SWS explained.

The polling firm said that out of the estimated four million households reporting hunger in March 2010, only 2.6 million rated themselves as poor.

“A significant 1.4 million who suffered from hunger did not rate themselves as poor,” the pollster said.

“In March 2010, both poverty and food-poverty thresholds continue to be sluggish despite considerable inflation, indicating falling living standards or ‘belt-tightening,’” it said.

Overall hunger fell by almost 10 points in Metro Manila, from 27 percent (estimated 665,000 families) in December to 17.3 percent (estimated 432,000 families) in March.

It also declined by almost seven points in the Visayas, from 27.9 percent (estimated one million families) to 21.2 percent (estimated 800,000 families).

It hardly changed in Min-danao, from 24.5 percent to 24 percent (estimated one million families), and in balance Luzon, from 21.2 percent to 20.9 percent (estimated 1.7 million families).

Compared to December 2009, the median poverty thresholds for poor households stayed at P12,000 in Metro Manila, P8,000 in balance Luzon, and P6,000 in Mindanao.

It declined by P1,000 in the Visayas to P6,000. These amounts have already been surpassed in the past in those areas, the SWS said.

Source: PhilStar

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