More Filipino families identified themselves as poor, according to the Social Weather Station (SWS) survey on Saturday.

SWS found 52 percent of Filipino families rating themselves as poor, one percent higher compared to February 2025’s survey, following a 63 percent result in December 2024 and 50 percent in January 2025.

Self-Rated Poverty is defined by SWS as ‘how individuals perceive their own or their families’ economic status, rather than based on official poverty lines’.

The research firm also found that 12 percent of families rated themselves as borderline poor, down slightly from 13 percent in February 2025.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Not Poor families stayed at a record-high of 36 percent for three consecutive months since January 2025.

The March 2025 survey also found a sharp rise of hunger among the poor.

“The March 2025 survey found that 27.2 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger ? being hungry and not having anything to eat ? at least once in the past three months,” SWS said in a statement.

The non-commissioned survey was conducted from March 15 to 20, 2025 using face-to-face interviews of registered voters, 18 years old and above, nationwide with 1800 participants and a sampling margin of plus minus 2.31 percent. Yzabela Velez-White/DMS