THE Social Weather Station (SWS) on Monday said that more than half of the Filipinos have considered themselves as poor.
In a survey released today, the SWS said that the 1,200 Filipino adults that participated in the survey conducted from March 26 to 29, said that 51 percent said that they rating themselves as “mahirap” or poor.
On the other hand, some thirty-one percent claimed that they were borderline poor, while another 19 percent said they were not poor.
According to the SWS, the the estimated number of self-rated poor families is at 14 million in March 2023, up from the 12.9 million in December 2022.
It also showed that many Filipinos in Metro Manila and the Visayas had rated themselves poor in March.
“Self-rated poor rose in Metro Manila from 32 percent to 40 percent and in the Visayas from 58 percent to 65 percent. However, it fell in Balance Luzon from 49 pct. to 43 pct. while it was statistically steady in Mindanao, moving from 59 pct. to 62 pct.,” the SWS noted.
Meanwhile, the borderline poor remained statistically steady in Metro Manila from 29 pct to 26 pct, in Balance Luzon from 30 pct to 32 pct, and in Mindanao from 30 pct. to 33 pct. But it fell in the Visayas from 34 pct to 26 pct.
As for the number of Filipinos who considered themselves not poor, it rose in Balance Luzon from 20 pct to 25 pct.
However, in Metro Manila, it fell from 39 pct to 33 pct. and in Mindanao from 11 pct. to 6 pct.,
It remained steady in the Visayas at 9 pct.
Catherine R. Cueto
