Forty-three percent of Filipino families rate themselves as poor, results of the Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) fourth quarter survey showed.
The general poverty numbers in the fourth quarter survey were lower compared with the third quarter results, which found 45 percent of Filipinos rating themselves as poor.
The SWS also found slightly more families rate themselves “food poor,” from 30 percent in the third quarter to 31 percent in the fourth quarter. The number of families that rated themselves “borderline food poor” remained at 44 percent.
The estimated number of self-rated poor families decreased in the fourth quarter survey, from 11.4 million in the third quarter to 10.7 million as of December 2021.
The survey was conducted from Dec. 12 to 16, 2021, before the Omicron surge that forced the government to reimpose stricter mobility restrictions in early 2022.
Sixty-four areas in the country are under Alert Level 1 from March 16-31, which means more industries and establishments are operating at higher capacities. John Ezekiel J. Hirro