Self-rated poverty, hunger drop in Q1

CEBU, Philippines — An estimated 11.1 million Filipino families considered themselves poor in the first quarter of the year, a slight drop from 11.9 million at the end of 2023, a survey conducted by the OCTA Research group showed.

From 45 percent in December 2023, the country’s self-rated poverty dropped to 42 percent in the survey conducted from March 11 to 14. Only 12 percent rated their families as “not poor,” while 47 percent said they cannot say if they are poor or not.

Based on the survey, the decrease in self-rated poverty was due to a 10-point drop among respondents in balance Luzon, combined with a slight increase in Mindanao and stable numbers in Metro Manila and the Visayas.

Self-rated poverty remained the highest among those in Mindanao at 71 percent (from 68 percent), followed by those in the Visayas at 47 percent (similar to previous survey), Metro Manila at 29 percent (from 28 percent) and rest of Luzon at 28 percent (from 38 percent).

The same survey also found that 37 percent of the respondents considered their families as “food-poor” or those who “struggle to obtain a sufficient and healthful diet.”

It went down from the 42 percent obtained in the December 2023 survey.

Only 16 percent rated their families as “not food-poor,” while the remaining 47 percent were on the borderline.

Across areas, self-rated food poverty was highest among respondents in Mindanao at 74 percent (from 71 percent), followed by those in the Visayas at 34 percent (from 48 percent), Metro Manila at 25 percent (from 26 percent) and rest of Luzon at 24 percent (from 30 percent).

Hunger

In terms of involuntary hunger, the survey found that those who experienced not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months before the survey period decreased from 14 percent in December 2023 to 11 percent in March 2024.

This translates to an estimated decrease from 3.7 million to 2.9 million families, OCTA said.

Involuntary hunger was highest among those in the Visayas at 13 percent (from 19 percent), followed by those in Mindanao at 12 percent (from 18 percent) and Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon at nine percent (from eight percent and 11 percent, respectively).

Out of those who said that their families experienced hunger in the past three months, 68 percent of them said they experienced it only once, 21 percent a few times, eight percent often and two percent always.

OCTA’s Tugon ng Masa survey had 1,200 respondents and a margin of error of plus/minus three percent.— (FREEMAN)