The Philippine Statistics Authority releases today the preliminary estimates of 2018 poverty incidence among 10^a of the 14 basic sectors identified in Republic Act 8425 or the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act as well as individuals residing in rural areas. Poverty incidence among persons with disability^b (aged 15 years and over) was also generated and released for the first time.

Source: Merged datafile of the 2015 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) and January 2016 Labor Force Survey (LFS) and preliminary merged datafile of the 2018 FIES and January 2019 LFS, Philippine Statistics Authority Note: r – revised; The 2015 estimates were revised/updated based on the following: a) rebasing of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) market basket of prices from 2006 to 2012; b) adoption of the 2015 Census of Population (PopCen) results for the weights in the merged FIES-LFS; and c) updated urban-rural classification of barangays based on the 2015 PopCen.

In 2018, farmers, fisherfolks, individuals residing in rural areas and children who belong to families with income below the official poverty thresholds posted the highest poverty incidences among the basic sectors^c at 31.6, 26.2, 24.5 and 23.9 percent, respectively. These sectors also registered the highest poverty incidences in 2015 at 40.8, 36.9, 34.0 and 33.5 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, individuals residing in urban areas, senior citizens, and migrant and formal sector workers had the lowest poverty incidences among the basic sectors in 2018 at 9.3, 9.1 and 8.8 percent, respectively. In 2015, these sectors recorded poverty incidences of 13.2, 14.4 and 14.4 percent. Meanwhile, the poverty incidence among persons with disability (aged 15 years and over) was recorded at 14.7 percent in 2018.

CLAIRE DENNIS S. MAPA, Ph.D.
Undersecretary
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General

Additional Notes:
1/   Income derived from Family Income and Expenditure Survey (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 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.

2/   Poverty estimates for the indigenous people and victims of calamities and disasters are currently not generated as information on these were not available in the merged FIES and Labor Force Survey (LFS). On the other hand, poverty estimates for nongovernment organization and cooperatives are not generated as these are deemed not applicable due to the nature of the sector (i.e., not individuals).

3/   The 2018 estimates were generated based on the following: (i) merged FIES-LFS with weights updated using population projections based on the 2015 Census of Population (PopCen); ii) updated urban-rural classification of barangays based on the 2015 PopCen; and (iii) poverty thresholds released in December 2019, which used the actual prices based on the Consumer Price Index market basket for 2012.

^a   Considering data available in the Philippine Statistical System, self-employed and unpaid family workers served as proxy indicators for informal sector workers. Estimate for persons with disability for 2018 was also included since rider questions on functional difficulty were incorporated in the January 2019 round of the Labor Force Survey.

^b   Persons with disability are those who experienced a lot of difficulty or  who cannot do at all any of the following:  a) Seeing even if wearing eye glasses;  b) Hearing even if using hearing aid; c) Walking or climbing steps; d) Remembering or concentrating; e) Self-care; and f) Communicating. The Washington Group on Disability Statistics recommended this cut-off for disability.

^c   Basic sectors are not mutually exclusive. There are overlaps in the sectors where women may also be counted as senior citizens, farmers, etc.