Type of Building/House

Based on the results of the 2020 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS), majority of families lived in a single type of building/housing unit (90.3%). The rest of the families dwelt in apartment/accessoria/rowhouse (6.7%), duplex houses (1.9%), and other multi-unit residential building or commercial/industrial/agricultural building house, including condominium or condotel (1.1%). (Table 1 and Figure 1)
 

All regions posted higher than 90 percent of its families residing in single type housing units, except in the National Capital Region (NCR) (79.4%) and its nearby regions CALABARZON (75.4%), and Central Luzon (86.1%). These regions had highest percentages of families residing in apartment/accessoria/rowhouse with 20.4 percent in CALABARZON, 12.0 percent in Central Luzon, and 11.9 percent in NCR. (Table 1)

By place of residence, more rural families (98.2%) lived in single houses compared with urban residents (82.9%). About 12.3 percent of families in urban areas and 0.8 percent of families in rural areas were living in apartment/accessoria/rowhouse.

Construction Materials of Roof and Outer Walls

Filipino houses were generally made of strong materials. For the materials of the roof, majority of the families had galvanized iron/aluminum (93.5%), followed by cogon/nipa/anahaw (3.6%), and concrete/clay tile (1.1%). For the materials of the outer walls, about three out of five families had concrete/brick/stone (60.1%), followed by wood (13.3%), and half concrete/brick/ stone/and half wood (12.6%). (Tables 2 and 3)

Across regions, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) (99.4%) recorded the highest proportion of families living in houses with strong materials for the roof¹, while NCR (92.1%) had the highest proportion with strong materials for the outer walls². On the other hand, Bicol Region (80.0%) and BARMM (34.8%) had the lowest proportions of families living in houses with strong materials for their roof and outer walls, respectively. (Tables 2 and 3, and Figure 2)

By place of residence, the percentage of urban families (95.1%) living in houses with galvanized iron/aluminum roof is higher than that of rural families (91.7%). On the other hand, the percentage of rural families (6%) living in houses with roof made of cogon/nipa/anahaw is higher than that of urban families (1.3%). (Table 2)

For the type of walls of the housing units, concrete/brick/stone walls were more popularly used by families residing in urban areas (69.3%) than among those in rural areas (50.3%).  On the other hand, higher percentage of families residing in rural areas (18.3%) used bamboo/sawali/cogon/nipa as walls of housing units compared to those in urban areas (6.3%). Higher percentage of families in rural areas (17.0%) were observed to have housing units made of wood as outer walls than in urban areas (9.9%). (Table 3)
 

Tenure Status of the Housing Unit and Lot

In 2020, about three in every five families (59.8%) owned the house and lot they occupied. About 15.8 percent of families occupied a house they owned in rent-free lot with consent of the owner, 10.2 percent rented the house/room including lot, and 9.3 percent occupied a rent-free house and lot with consent of the owner. The rest either owned the house but the lot was rent-free without consent of the owner (2.8%), owned the house but the lot was rented (1.8%), or with rent-free house and lot without consent of owner (0.3%). (Table 4 and Figure 3)
 

Across regions, the top three with highest percentage of families who owned the house and lot they occupied were Cagayan Valley (84.4%), CAR (77.6%), and Central Luzon (77.5%). On the other hand, NCR (44.3%), Western Visayas (47.0%), and BARMM (51.0%) had the lowest percentage of families who owned the house and lot they resided. Families who rented the house and lot that they occupied were highest in NCR (31.3) and CALABARZON (19.0%). (Table 4 and Figure 4)

More rural residents (65.5%) owned their house and lot compared with urban residents (54.5%), while a higher percentage of urban residents (18.0%) rented the house and lot they occupied as compared to rural residents (1.9%). Those who owned their house on rent-free land with consent of the owner was higher in rural (20.9%) than in urban (11.1%) areas. (Table 4)

Floor Area of Housing Unit

About two in every three families (65.9%) were residing in a housing unit with a floor area of less than 50 square meter (sq. m.). The remaining 34.1 percent of families resided in housing unit with floor area of 50 square meters and higher. (Table 5 and Figure 5)

The top three regions with the highest percentage of families with floor area less than 50 sq.m. were SOCCSKSARGEN (83.7%), Davao (82.5%), and BARMM (77.4%). Meanwhile, there were six (6) out of the 17 regions where families lived in housing unit with floor area of 200 sq.m. and above that is higher than the national average of 2.3 percent; these were Caraga (5.9%), CAR (3.9%), Eastern Visayas (3.7%), MIMAROPA (3.7%), CALABARZON (3.3%), and NCR (2.7%). (Table 5)

By residence, higher percentage of families in rural areas (67.9%) occupied housing units with floor area of less than 50 sq.m. than those in urban areas (64.1%). Across the floor area ranges, less than one percentage point difference was observed between urban and rural except for 10 to 29 square meters and 50 to 79 square meters, where the percentage point difference was 3.6 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively. (Table 5)

Household Conveniences

In the 2020 APIS, households were asked for the presence of household conveniences/devices in the housing unit. Cellular phone was the most common household convenience/device which was present in about nine out of 10 (90.5%) Filipino homes, followed by television set (79.8%), refrigerator/freezer (45.7%), washing machine (44.2%), and motorcycle/ tricycle (42.7%). (Table 6 and Figure 6)
 

Out of the 20 household conveniences listed, NCR had the highest percent ownership in 12 out of 20 listed household conveniences, namely: e-trike, washing machine, stove with oven/gas range, induction stove, refrigerator/freezer, personal computer, aircon, cellular phone, landline/wireless telephone, microwave/ oven toaster, videoke/magic sing, and television. (Table 6)

Families in urban areas had higher percentage of ownership for all household conveniences than those in rural areas, except for motorcycle/tricycle, radio, draft animals, motorized boat/banca, and tractor. (Table 6)

Subscription to Cable, Broadband Internet, and Video Streaming Services

Information on family’s subscription to cable, broadband internet, and video streaming in the last 6 months (January to June 2020) were also gathered in the 2020 APIS. About 22.9 percent of families had subscription to cable (e.g., Sky Cable, Destiny, Cignal, etc.), while 14.6 percent of families had subscription to broadband internet, fiber internet/ DSL, and 5.2 percent of families had subscription to video streaming services (e.g., Netflix/iflix/Hooq/iWant/Viu, etc.). (Table 7 and Figure 7)

Among regions, MIMAROPA had the highest subscription to cable network with 47.7 percent, followed by Eastern Visayas (46.4%) and Caraga (42.2%) regions. Further, NCR had the highest percentage of families with subscription to broadband internet (30.4%) and video streaming services (11.0%). (Table 7)

By urbanity, the percentage of families who subscribed to broadband internet was higher in urban areas (21.6 %) than in rural areas (7.2%). In contrast, subscription in cable network of families from rural areas (27.1%) was higher than those from urban area (19.0%). (Table 7)

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

¹  Strong materials for the roof refer to the construction materials made of galvanized iron/aluminum or concrete/clay tile or half galvanized iron and half concrete.
²  Strong materials for the outer walls refer to the construction materials made of concrete brick/stone or half concrete brick/stone and half wood or galvanized iron/aluminum.
 

TECHNICAL NOTE

The Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) is a nationwide survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) that is designed to provide non-income indicators related to poverty at the national level. lt also gathers data on the socio-economic profile of families and other information related to their living condition. ln the 2020 APIS, around 44,000 sample households were covered nationwide.