SWS: 16.3 M families consider themselves poor

Six in every 10 Filipinos rated their families as poor in the third quarter of 2024, the highest in more than 16 years, a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

- JANVIC MATEO

The survey conducted from Sept. 14 to 23 found 59 percent of respondents considered their families poor -- up one point from the 58 percent obtained in a similar survey in June.

Based on SWS data, it matched the 59 percent obtained in June 2008 during the Arroyo administration.

SWS has conducted quarterly surveys on self-rated poverty since 1992, except in the first three quarters of 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the most part of the current administration, self-rated poverty ranged from 45 percent to 51 percent. But it jumped by a significant 12 points in the June survey, from 46 percent to 58 percent.