Percentage of Filipino Families Classified as Poor Declined to 10.9% in 2023

In 2023, the poverty rate among Filipino families dropped to 10.9%, with approximately 3.0 million families living below the poverty line.

The FIES, conducted in July 2023 and January 2024, collected income data for the first and second halves of 2023, respectively.

Poverty incidence measures the proportion of families whose incomes are insufficient to meet basic food and non-food needs as defined by the poverty threshold.

On an individual level, 15.5% of Filipinos, or about 17.54 million people, were considered poor in 2023.

In addition, 2.7% of Filipino families, or 740,000 families, did not earn enough to cover their basic food needs in 2023.

This represents 4.3% of the population, or approximately 4.84 million individuals, living below the food threshold.

The FIES includes income from various sources such as wages, entrepreneurial activities, cash receipts from abroad, rentals, interest, pensions, dividends, and gifts.

The decline in poverty incidence from 2021 is attributed to changes in the poverty threshold and income data. The poverty threshold increased by 15.3% in 2023 due to rising food prices.

In 2023, the income for families near the poverty threshold increased by 22.9%, leading to a 2.3 percentage point reduction in the poverty rate among families and a 2.6 percentage point reduction in the poverty rate among the population. (ASC)