About half of all Filipino families see themselves as poor, according to the latest survey from the Social Weather Stations (SWS), the results of which were released to the media over the weekend.
Some 13.7 million families perceived themselves as poor during the second quarter of 2025.
The SWS survey, conducted from June 25-29, polled 1,200 adults. The survey had a margin of error of plus and minus three percent.
It found that one out of 10 Filipino families considered themselves as being on the borderline between ‘poor’ and ‘not poor,’ while 41 percent viewed themselves as ‘not poor.’
SWS pointed out that the 41 percent who see themselves as non-poor were only one percentage point below the record high 42 percent, as seen from the April 23-28 survey.
The 49 percent who said they considered themselves poor in the June survey were one percentage point below the April 23-28 poll, which had a 50 percent score. This translated to 14.1 million families.
In his State of the Nation Address last month, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. acknowledged what he said were the “improving” numbers in inflation and other economic goal posts. But he also said that those numbers were pointless if too many Filipinos continued to struggle.
The one-percentage-point decrease in the nationwide self-rated poverty was due to slides in the Visayas and Balance Luzon — or Luzon outside Metro Manila — “combined with increases in Mindanao and Metro Manila,” according to SWS.
In the June 25-29 survey, self-rated poverty was tops in Mindanao at 69 percent, followed by the Visayas at 60 percent. Balance Luzon was at 38 percent, and Metro Manila at 36 percent.
Self-rated poverty dropped by seven percentage points from 67 percent in the Visayas and five points from 43 percent in Balance Luzon.
SWS also said that poverty rose by eight points from 61 percent in Mindanao and by three points from 33 percent in Metro Manila.
The latest survey also found that of the total percentage of poor families, 7.8 percent — or 2.2 million — were non-poor one to four years ago, which the pollster considered “newly poor.”
Meanwhile, 6.4 percent or 1.8 million families were non-poor five or more years ago or (“usually poor”) and 34.8 percent or 9.8 million never experienced being non-poor (“always poor”).
Among the non-poor families, the SWS said 11.1 percent or 3.1 million were poor one to four years ago, which it tagged as “newly non-poor.”
It also said that 23 percent or 6.4 million of the non-poor families were poor five or more years ago (“usually non-poor”), and 16.9 percent or 4.7 million never experienced being poor (“always non-poor”).
The SWS said self-rated poverty has been measured 151 times since April 1983.
Self-rated poverty was at 55 percent when first surveyed in April 1983 by the Development Academy of the Philippines and peaked at 74 percent in the July 1985 survey commissioned by the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference.
In the SWS surveys from May 1986 to 2025, poor Filipino families reached as high as 72 percent in February 1992 and as low as 38 percent in March 2019.
