QUEZON CITY – There were lower poverty statistics results for the first quarter of 2023 presented recently by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Under Secretary Claire Dennis Mapa, Phd, National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Philippine Statistics Authority showed the gathered data based on the average retail prices of food from the different places in the Philippines, and to the first visit of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey which was last conducted in 2021.
The FIES conducted from January to June 2023, surveyed 171,588 families in July 2023. The data provides a reliable estimated level of the percentage of families unable to meet their basic food and non-food needs in the first quarter of the year in the national, regional, provincial, and highly urbanized cities.
Based on the data, the recorded poverty incidence among families was at 16.4 % or 164 out of every 1000 families considered poor in the first six months of 2023. Meanwhile, in the same period of 2021, it was at 18.0%. Moreover, 22.4% of Filipinos faced poverty, with 224 out of every thousand families unable to meet basic needs. This is 1.3% points lower than 2021’s 23.7%, affecting 25.24 million people.
The statistics also gained lower results when it comes to subsistence incidence with 5.9% compared to 7.1% of 2021. This is said to have 1.6 million food poor families, impacting 8.7% of the population.
On average, the poverty threshold for a family with five members in the first six months of 2023 is estimated to be approximately Php. 13,797 national average. This is the minimum income needed to supply their basic food and non-food needs to not be considered as poor. This is 14.2% or Php. 1,715 higher than the poverty threshold in the quarter of 2021 at Php. 12,082.
As for the food threshold, a family of five members needs Php. 9,550 on average per month to cover their basic food needs. This is higher by 13.8% or Php. 1,157 than the recorded food threshold in 2021 with a value of Php 8,393.
In addition, there was a 1.6% decrease in income per capita in the number of poor Filipinos in the country due to the greater increase in the income of families near the poverty threshold compared to the increase in the price of basic food and non-food needs.
Across the country’s provinces, the National Capital Region recorded the lowest poverty incidence among families with 3.3% while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao listed the highest with 34.8% in a 16.4% national average. By Adrian Mas
