Based on the preliminary results of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), which was conducted in July 2023 (collected income data from January to June 2023) and January 2024 (collected income data from July to December 2023), the poverty incidence among families was registered at 10.9 percent or equivalent to 3.0 million poor families in 2023.  Poverty incidence is the proportion of Filipino families with incomes that are not sufficient to buy their minimum basic food and non-food needs as estimated by the poverty threshold.  At individual level, 15.5 percent Filipinos or about 17.54 million Filipinos were poor in 2023.

Meanwhile, the proportion of Filipino families whose incomes were not sufficient to meet even their basic food needs in 2023 stood at 2.7 percent or equivalent to 740 thousand families. Among population, this is around 4.3 percent or 4.84 million Filipinos living below the food thresholds in 2023. Based on these preliminary poverty statistics, the poverty situation in the country has returned to its pre-pandemic level.

It may be noted that income collected in the FIES refers to various sources, such as wages and salaries, entrepreneurial activities, and other sources of income. Other sources of income include net share, cash receipts from abroad and from domestic source, rentals received, interest, pension, dividends, net receipts, those received as gifts (in cash or in kind), and imputed rent.

The observed decline in poverty incidence from 2021 can be explained by the changes in the poverty threshold and income data from 2021 to 2023.  The poverty threshold, which is mainly affected by changes in the prices of food items in the food bundle, increased by 15.3 percent in 2023.  On the other hand, the mean per capita income, particularly of the second decile, or families near the poverty threshold, increased by 22.9 percent, which is higher than the increase in the poverty threshold. These resulted to the decreases in the poverty incidences among families at 2.3 percentage points and among population at 2.6 percentage points in 2023.

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