SWS: Pinoy families rating themselves as ‘poor’ rise to 52%

Among the 1,500 respondents, 52 percent or an estimated 12.2 million families rated themselves as poor. (File Photo: Brian Evans/Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

The latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed that more than half or 52 percent of Filipino families consider themselves as “poor.”

In its third Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey, the pollster asked its survey respondents, “Where would you place your family in this card?” referring to a showcard with choices of “Hindi mahirap (not poor), Sa linya (on the line), Mahirap (poor).”

Among the 1,500 respondents, an estimated 12.2 million families rated themselves as poor.

This figure, the SWS said, is a four-point jump from the 48 percent in March 2018 and the “highest” since the same 52 percent recorded in December 2014.

“This is the second consecutive increase in Self-Rated Poverty in 2018. Since the 42% recorded in March 2018, Self-Rated Poverty has increased by 10 points in total,” it noted.

The same survey also found that among the 52 percent Self-Rated Poor families, eight percent of them are “newly poor” or those who used to be non-poor one to four years ago, while six percent of those families are “usually poor” or those who used to be non-poor five or more years ago.

The remaining 39 percent, on the other hand, are “always poor” or those who have never experienced being non-poor.

Meanwhile, of those 48 percent Self-Rated Non-Poor families, the SWS said 10 percent of them are “newly non-poor,” 13 percent are “usually non-poor,” and 25 percent are “always non-poor.”

According to the pollster, the four-point increase in Self-Rated Poverty (SRP) in the third quarter of 2018 was because of the “sharp increase” in Balance Luzon and Mindanao.

The SRP rose in Balance Luzon and Mindanao by 12 points from 35 percent in June 2018 and five points from 60 percent in the same month, respectively.

However, the SWS noted that the SRP dropped by 17 points in Metro Manila from 43 percent in its previous survey.

It was unchanged in the Visayas which is at 67 percent in June and September.

The latest survey, done from September 15 to 23, used face-to-face interviews on its respondents who are 18 years old and above.

It has sampling error margins of plus or minus three percent for national percentages, plus or minus four percent for Balance Luzon, and plus or minus six percent each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.