SWS: Poverty In the Philippines Increasing end of 2013

MANILA, Philippines - The year 2013 ended with more Filipino families considered themselves poor (mahirap), the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in their report.

The survey was done from December 11 to 16 with 55% of the respondents or  11.8 million Filipino families consider themselves as poor, it is up from 50% three months earlier. 8.8 million or 41 percent of the respondents considered themselves food-poor, which is 4 points above the September result.

SWS interviewed a total of 1,550 adults in Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao and they were asked to rate themselves whether their families were poor, not poor, or borderline poor.

The rise in both self-rated poverty and food poverty was “roughly due to increases in all areas except Mindanao,” the SWS said.

The 2012 self-rated poverty was at 52%.