Fifty-one percent or 12.9 million Filipino families rated themselves as poor in the last quarter of 2022, results of a poll by the Social Weather Station (SWS) revealed on Thursday.

According to the survey conducted from December 10 to 14, 2022, 31 percent of Filipinos considered themselves borderline poor and 19 percent as not poor.

Compared to October 2022, the number of poor families slightly increased by 49 percent, while borderline families rose from 29 percent and not poor families declined from 21 percent.

Of the families who rated themselves poor in December last year, eight percent were “newly poor” or not poor four years ago.

A total of 5.8 percent said they were “usually poor” or not poor more than five years ago while 37 percent were “always poor”, SWS said.

In October 2022, 2 million were considered themselves “newly poor”, 1.5 million were “usually poor” and 9.4 million were “always poor”.

SWS said that in the last four quarters, the minimum monthly budget or the national median of Self-Rated Poverty Threshold remained at P15,000 while the Self-Rated Poverty Gap decreased from P6,000 in October 2022 to P5,000 in December 2022.

The poll was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide.

Jaspearl Tan/DMS