MANILA — In a recent survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), a staggering 53.6% of Filipino families declared themselves as “non-poor” for the first quarter of 2024.

The study, carried out from March 21 to 25, unveiled that within this percentage, 30% were categorized as borderline non-poor, while 23% firmly identified as not poor.

Comparing these figures to the December 2023 survey, there’s a notable decline of 3 points in borderline families, dropping from 33%, while not-poor households increased by 3 points, rising from 20%.

Meanwhile, the survey also highlighted that 46% of families still perceived themselves as poor, a figure barely fluctuating from the previous survey’s 47%.

The estimated count of self-declared non-poor and poor households stands at 14.9 million and 12.9 million, respectively.

Geographically, the survey observed a slight dip in the self-rated poor figure nationwide between December 2023 and March 2024, attributed to marginal decreases in Mindanao and Metro Manila, juxtaposed with an uptick in the Visayas and stable figures in Balance Luzon.

As of March 2024, the Visayas recorded the highest percentage of self-rated poor families at 64%, followed by Mindanao at 56%, Balance Luzon at 38%, and Metro Manila at 33%.

The survey also delved into the experiences of self-rated non-poor families, revealing that among them, 15.6% were previously poor, termed as “newly non-poor,” while 10.1% had experienced poverty five or more years ago, labeled as “usually non-poor.” Astonishingly, 27.8% had never encountered poverty, known as “always non-poor.”

Conversely, among the 46% identifying as poor, 6% or roughly 1.7 million families were categorized as “newly poor,” while 5.3% or about 1.5 million families were labeled “usually poor.” A staggering 34.9% or 9.7 million families perceived themselves as “always poor.”

The SWS reported that the national median Self-Rated Poverty Threshold (SRP Threshold), standing at PHP15,000 in the past nine quarters, remained unchanged. However, the national median Self-Rated Poverty Gap (SRP Gap) decreased from PHP7,000 in December 2023 to PHP5,000 in March 2024, indicating an improvement.

In terms of self-rated food poverty, the survey revealed that 33% of families identified as food-poor, 36% as food borderline, and 31% as not food-poor in March 2024. While these percentages remained relatively stable compared to December 2023, the estimated number of self-rated food-poor families stood at 9.3 million.

The survey, conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,500 respondents nationwide, boasts sampling error margins of ±2.5% for national percentages, ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

(el Amigo/MNM)