Poverty incidence among Filipinos registered at 21.6% in 2015 - PSA

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) releases its latest report today on the country’s official poverty statistics for the full year of 2015.  The PSA report provides the estimates of poverty incidence using income data from the first and second visit of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) conducted in July 2015 and January 2016, respectively. 

Poverty incidence among Filipinos¹  in 2015 was estimated at 21.6 percent.  During the same period in 2012, poverty incidence among Filipinos was recorded at 25.2 percent². 

On the other hand, subsistence incidence among Filipinos, or the proportion of Filipinos whose incomes fall below the food threshold, was estimated at 8.1 percent in 2015. In 2012, the subsistence incidence among Filipinos is at 10.4 percent³ .  Subsistence incidence among Filipinos is often referred to as the proportion of Filipinos in extreme or subsistence poverty. 

Food and Poverty Thresholds

Food threshold is the minimum income required to meet basic food needs and satisfy the nutritional requirements set by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) to ensure that one remains economically and socially productive.  It is used to measure extreme or subsistence poverty.  Poverty threshold is a similar concept, expanded to include basic non-food needs such as clothing, housing, transportation, health, and education expenses. 

In 2015, a family of five needed at least PhP 6,329, on average, every month to meet the family’s basic food needs and at least PhP 9,064, on average, every month to meet both basic food and non-food needs. These amounts represent the monthly food threshold and monthly poverty threshold, respectively.  They indicate increases of about 15 percent in food and poverty threshold from 2012 to 2015⁴.

Poverty among Filipino families

PSA also releases statistics on poverty among families – a crucial social indicator that guides policy makers in their efforts to alleviate poverty.

The poverty incidence among Filipino families based on the first and second visit of 2015 FIES was estimated at 16.5 percent in 2015.  In 2012, the poverty incidence among Filipino families was estimated at 19.7 percent⁵. 

The subsistence incidence among Filipino families, or the proportion of Filipino families in extreme poverty, was estimated at 5.7 percent⁶  in 2015.  In the same period in 2012, the proportion of families in extreme poverty was recorded at 7.5 percent.

In addition to the thresholds and incidences, the PSA also releases other poverty-related statistics in the report such as the income gap, poverty gap and severity of poverty. The income gap measures the average income required by the poor in order to get out of poverty, expressed relative to the poverty threshold.  The poverty gap refers to the income shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families with income below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of families.  The severity of poverty is the total of the squared income shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families with income below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of families.  This is a poverty measure that is sensitive to income distribution among the poor.

In 2015, on average, incomes of poor families were short by 24.6 percent of the poverty threshold. This means that on average, an additional monthly income of PhP 2,230 is needed by a poor family with five members in order to move out of poverty in 2015. 

¹ Poverty incidence among Filipinos is the proportion of people below the poverty line to the total population.

² Based on the T-Test that was used to determine the statistical significance of the decrease in the poverty incidence among population at 90% level of significance, the results of the 2012 and 2015 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) indicate significant change from 2012 to 2015. 

³ Based on the T-Test at 90% level of significance, the subsistence incidence among population from the results of the 2012 and 2015 FIES indicate significant change from 2012 to 2015.

⁴ Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Food for the Bottom 30% increased by 14% between 2012 and 2015.

⁵ Based on the T-Test that was used to determine the statistical significance of the decrease in the poverty incidence among families at 90% level, the results of the 2012 and 2015 FIES indicate significant change from 2012 to 2015.

⁶ Based on the T-Test at 90% level of significance, the subsistence incidence among families from the results of the 2012 and 2015 FIES indicate significant change from 2012 to 2015.

 See more on the Poverty Statistics main page.

Related Files: 

 2015 Full Year Poverty Statistics_Press Release

 2015 Poverty in the Philippines

Data: 

 Table 1. Annual Per Capita Poverty Threshold, Poverty Incidence and Magnitude of Poor Families, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 2. Annual Per Capita Poverty Threshold, Poverty Incidence and Magnitude of Poor Population, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 3. Annual Per Capita Food Threshold, Subsistence Incidence and Magnitude of Subsistence Poor Families, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 4. Annual Per Capita Food Threshold, Subsistence Incidence and Magnitude of Subsistence Poor Population, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 5. Magnitude and Share to Total Poor Families and Population, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 6. Standard Error and Confidence Interval of Poverty Incidence and Magnitude of Poor Families, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 7. Standard Error and Confidence Interval of Poverty Incidence and Magnitude of Poor Population, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 8. Standard Error and Confidence Interval of Subsistence Incidence and Magnitude of Subsistence Poor Families, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 9. Standard Error and Confidence Interval of Subsistence Incidence and Magnitude of Subsistence Poor Population, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 10. Distribution of the Coefficients of Variation (CVs) for Poverty Incidence among Families - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 11. Income Gap, Poverty Gap and Severity of Poverty, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 12. Standard Error and Confidence Interval of Income Gap, Poverty Gap and Severity of Poverty, by Region and Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 13a. Poverty Incidence, Magnitude of Poor Families and Share to Total Poor Families in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 13b. Poverty Incidence, Magnitude of Poor Population and Share to Total Poor Population in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 14a. Subsistence Incidence, Magnitude of Poor Families and Share to Total Subsistence Poor Families in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao- 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 14b. Subsistence Incidence, Magnitude of Poor Population and Share to Total Subsistence Poor Population in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 15. Clustering of Provinces based on 2015 Poverty Incidence among Families, by Province - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

 Table 16. Annual Per Capita Food and Poverty Threshold, by Province and Urban or Rural Classification - 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.xlsx

Publication: 

 2015 Full Year Official Poverty Statistics of the Philippines

Tag: Philippine Statistic Authority, Philippine Poverty Statistic of 2015

Poverty incidence among Filipinos registered at 26.3%, as of first semester of 2015 - PSA

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) releases its latest report today on the country’s official poverty statistics for the first semester of 2015.  The PSA report provides the estimates of poverty incidence using income data from the first visit of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) conducted in July 2015. 

Poverty incidence among Filipinos¹ in the first semester of 2015 was estimated at 26.3 percent.  During the same period in 2012, poverty incidence among Filipinos was recorded at 27.9 percent ². 

On the other hand, subsistence incidence among Filipinos, or the proportion of Filipinos whose incomes fall below the food threshold, was estimated at 12.1 percent in the first semester of 2015. In the first half of 2012, the subsistence incidence among Filipinos is at 13.4 percent ³.  Subsistence incidence among Filipinos is often referred to as the proportion of Filipinos in extreme or subsistence poverty. 

Food and Poverty Thresholds

Food threshold is the minimum income required to meet basic food needs and satisfy the nutritional requirements set by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) to ensure that one remains economically and socially productive.  It is used to measure extreme or subsistence poverty.  Poverty threshold is a similar concept, expanded to include basic non-food needs such as clothing, housing, transportation, health, and education expenses. 

During the first semester of 2015, a family of five needed at least PhP 6,365 on the average every month to meet the family’s basic food needs and at least PhP 9,140 on the average every month to meet both basic food and non-food needs. These amounts represent the monthly food threshold and monthly poverty threshold, respectively. They indicate increases of about 17 percent in food threshold and poverty thresholds from the first semester of 2012 to the first semester of 2015 ⁴.

Poverty among Filipino families

PSA also releases statistics on poverty among families – a crucial social indicator that guides policy makers in their efforts to alleviate poverty.

The poverty incidence among Filipino families based on the first visit of 2015 FIES was estimated at 21.1 percent during the first semester of 2015.  In the first semester of 2012, the poverty incidence among Filipino families was estimated at 22.3 percent ⁵. 

The subsistence incidence among Filipino families, or the proportion of Filipino families in extreme poverty, was estimated at 9.2 percent during the first semester of 2015.  In the same period in 2012, the proportion of families in extreme poverty was recorded at 10.0 percent ⁶.

In addition to the thresholds and incidences, the PSA also releases other poverty-related statistics in the report such as the income gap, poverty gap and severity of poverty. The income gap measures the average income required by the poor in order to get out of poverty, expressed relative to the poverty threshold.  The poverty gap refers to the income shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families with income below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of families.  The severity of poverty is the total of the squared income shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families with income below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of families.  This is a poverty measure that is sensitive to income distribution among the poor.

In the first semester of 2015, on the average, incomes of poor families were short by 29.0 percent of the poverty threshold. This means that on the average, an additional monthly income of Php 2,649 is needed by a poor family with five members in order to move out of poverty in the first semester of 2015. 

(sgd) LISA GRACE S. BERSALES, Ph.D.

National Statistician

_____________________________

¹Poverty incidence among Filipinos is the proportion of people below the poverty line to the total population.
²Based on the T-Test that was used to determine the statistical significance of the decrease in the poverty incidence among population at 90% level of significance, the results of the 2012 and 2015 First Semester Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) does not indicate significant change from first semester 2012 to 2015.  
³Based on the T-Test at 90% level of significance, the subsistence incidence among population from the results of the 2012 and 2015 First Semester FIES does not indicate significant change from first semester 2012 to 2015.   
⁴Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Food increased by 13.6% while CPI for All Items increased by 9.5% between first semesters of 2012 and 2015.

⁵Based on the T-Test that was used to determine the statistical significance of the decrease in the poverty incidence among families at 90% level, the results of the 2012 and 2015 First Semester FIES does not indicate significant change from first semester 2012 to 2015.
⁶Based on the T-Test at 90% level of significance, the subsistence incidence among families from the results of the 2012 and 2015 First Semester FIES does not indicate significant change from first semester 2012 to 2015. 

The country’s official poverty statistics for the basic sectors in 2015

Farmers, Fishermen and Children consistently posted the highest poverty incidence among basic sectors - PSA

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) releases its latest report today on the country’s official poverty statistics for the basic sectors for 2015.  PSA report provides the estimates of poverty incidence for 9 of the 14 basic sectors identified in Republic Act 8425 or the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act using the income and sectoral data from the merged Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) and Labor Force Survey (LFS).

 

5 of the 9 basic sectors have higher poverty incidence than the general population

Among the nine basic sectors, farmers, fishermen and children belonging to families with income below the official poverty threshold or poor families posted the highest poverty incidences in 2015 at 34.3%, 34.0% and 31.4%, respectively.  These sectors consistently registered as the three sectors with the highest poverty incidence in 2006, 2009 and 2012.  Also, 5 of the 9 basic sectors consisting of farmers, fishermen, children, self-employed and unpaid family workers, and women, belonging to poor families, had higher poverty incidence than the general population estimated at 21.6% in 2015.

 

Table 1. Poverty Incidence for Basic Sectors: 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

a/ Considering data available in the Philippine Statistical System, poverty estimates for self-employed and unpaid family workers, which serve as a proxy indicator for informal sector workers, have been generated since the June 2012 release of the 2009 Poverty Statistics for the Basic Sectors.

Notes:

1/ Basic sectors are not mutually exclusive, i.e., there are overlaps for sectors (women may also be counted as senior citizens, farmers, etc.)
2/ Income derived from the FIES, which was used for classifying poor or non-poor basic sectors, refer to the total family income and not necessarily the income of the individual in a particular sector. Hence, total income of a family with two family members who are both working, one is a farmer while the other is a fisherman, for example, is divided among the family members to get the per capita income of each member including the farmer. If the per capita income is below the poverty threshold, then all the members of the family are considered poor.

3/ Poverty estimates for the three other basic sectors, i.e., indigenous people, persons with disabilities, and victims of calamities and disasters were not generated as information on these were not available in the merged FIES and LFS, the major data sources for the estimation of poverty statistics for the basic sectors. On the other hand, poverty estimates for the remaining two sectors, i.e., nongovernment organization, and cooperatives are not generated as they are not applicable due to the nature of the sector (i.e., not individuals). 

 

Poverty incidence among employed and unemployed Filipinos who belong to poor families registered at 18.0% and 16.4%, respectively, in 2015 

Similar in 2006, 2009 and 2012, employed individuals belonging to poor families posted higher incidence in 2015 with 18% compared to the unemployed with 16.4%.  It may be noted, however, that the difference between the poverty incidence among employed and unemployed has declined through the years.       

 

Table 2. Poverty Incidence for Employed and Unemployed Population:  2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

a/ PSA releases poverty estimates for the employed population starting with the June 2012 release of the 2009 Poverty Statistics for the Basic Sectors in response to the need to measure the country’s performance towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target on achieving full and productive employment and decent work, i.e., indicator 1.6 or the proportion of employed people living below the national poverty thresholds. Similarly, poverty incidence for unemployed population was generated for comparison.

b/ Poverty incidence among employed population refers to the proportion of employed individuals who belong to poor families to the total number of employed individuals. On the other hand, poverty incidence among unemployed population refers to the proportion of unemployed individuals who belong to poor families to the total number of unemployed individuals.

 

 

 

The Poverty in the Philippines

About half of the Philippines’ 88 Million people live in rural areas, Poverty is most severe and most widespread in these areas and almost 80 percent of the country’s are poor people live there. Agriculture is the primary and often only source of income for poor rural people, most of whom depend on subsistence farming and fishing for their livelihoods. In general, illiteracy, unemployment and the incidence of poverty are higher among indigenous people living in the upland areas. Overall, more than a third of the people in the Philippines live in poverty.

The poorest of the poor are the indigenous people, small-scale farmers who cultivate land received through agrarian reform, landless workers, fishers, people in upland areas and women.

There are substantial differences in the level of poverty between the regions and provinces and the poverty gap between urban and rural areas is widening. Indigenous people living in highly fragile and vulnerable ecosystems, people in the uplands of the Cordillera highlands and on Mindanao Island are among the poorest in the country.

The causes of poverty in rural areas in the Philippines vary widely from island to island. Among the causes of rural poverty are a decline in the productivity and profitability of farming, smaller farm sizes and unsustainable practices that have led to deforestation and depleted fishing waters. Rural areas lag behind in economic growth and they have higher underemployment. This is partly because poor people have little access to productive assets and business opportunities. They have few non-farm income-generating activities, and people lack of access to microfinance services and affordable credit. Some vulnerable groups also face specific problems. For example indigenous people have high illiteracy rates and are affected by the encroachment of modern technology and cultures onto traditional norms and practices. Fishers face continuing reduction in their catches and they have few opportunities or skills outside of fishing. Women have limited roles outside of marketing and family responsibilities.

About half of the Philippines’ 88 Million people live in rural areas, Poverty is most severe and most widespread in these areas and almost 80 percent of the country’s are poor people live there. Agriculture is the primary and often only source of income for poor rural people, most of whom depend on subsistence farming and fishing for their livelihoods. In general, illiteracy, unemployment and the incidence of poverty are higher among indigenous people living in the upland areas. Overall, more than a third of the people in the Philippines live in poverty.

The poorest of the poor are the indigenous people, small-scale farmers who cultivate land received through agrarian reform, landless workers, fishers, people in upland areas and women.

There are substantial differences in the level of poverty between the regions and provinces and the poverty gap between urban and rural areas is widening. Indigenous people living in highly fragile and vulnerable ecosystems, people in the uplands of the Cordillera highlands and on Mindanao Island are among the poorest in the country.

The causes of poverty in rural areas in the Philippines vary widely from island to island. Among the causes of rural poverty are a decline in the productivity and profitability of farming, smaller farm sizes and unsustainable practices that have led to deforestation and depleted fishing waters. Rural areas lag behind in economic growth and they have higher underemployment. This is partly because poor people have little access to productive assets and business opportunities. They have few non-farm income-generating activities, and people lack of access to microfinance services and affordable credit. Some vulnerable groups also face specific problems. For example indigenous people have high illiteracy rates and are affected by the encroachment of modern technology and cultures onto traditional norms and practices. Fishers face continuing reduction in their catches and they have few opportunities or skills outside of fishing. Women have limited roles outside of marketing and family responsibilities.

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The Poverty in the Philippines

About half of the Philippines’ 88 Million people live in rural areas, Poverty is most severe and most widespread in these areas and almost 80 percent of the country’s are poor people live there. Agriculture is the primary and often only source of income for poor rural people, most of whom depend on subsistence farming and fishing for their livelihoods. In general, illiteracy, unemployment and the incidence of poverty are higher among indigenous people living in the upland areas. Overall, more than a third of the people in the Philippines live in poverty.

The poorest of the poor are the indigenous people, small-scale farmers who cultivate land received through agrarian reform, landless workers, fishers, people in upland areas and women.

There are substantial differences in the level of poverty between the regions and provinces and the poverty gap between urban and rural areas is widening. Indigenous people living in highly fragile and vulnerable ecosystems, people in the uplands of the Cordillera highlands and on Mindanao Island are among the poorest in the country.

The causes of poverty in rural areas in the Philippines vary widely from island to island. Among the causes of rural poverty are a decline in the productivity and profitability of farming, smaller farm sizes and unsustainable practices that have led to deforestation and depleted fishing waters. Rural areas lag behind in economic growth and they have higher underemployment. This is partly because poor people have little access to productive assets and business opportunities. They have few non-farm income-generating activities, and people lack of access to microfinance services and affordable credit. Some vulnerable groups also face specific problems. For example indigenous people have high illiteracy rates and are affected by the encroachment of modern technology and cultures onto traditional norms and practices. Fishers face continuing reduction in their catches and they have few opportunities or skills outside of fishing. Women have limited roles outside of marketing and family responsibilities.