SWS: Self-rated poverty highest in 21 years

An estimated 17.4 million Filipino families deemed themselves poor in the last quarter of 2024, the highest in over two decades, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found.

- By JANVIC MATEO

The survey, conducted from Dec. 12 to 18, found that 63 percent of the respondents rated their families as poor, up four points from the 59 percent or 16.3 million poor families in September 2024.

It was the highest since the 64 percent obtained in November 2003.

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. In November 2020, self-rated poverty was at 48 percent, even lower than the pre-pandemic figure of 54 percent obtained in December 2019.