MANILA — More than half of Filipino families consider themselves poor, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The survey, conducted among 1,200 adult respondents and released Friday, showed that 51 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as poor, 12 percent placed themselves between poor and not poor, while 37 percent said they were not poor.

Among those who identified as poor, 6.5 percent were classified as “newly poor,” or those who were not poor one to four years ago, while 8.5 percent were considered “usually poor,” referring to those who were non-poor five or more years ago. Meanwhile, 35.6 percent said they were “always poor,” or had never experienced being non-poor.

SWS said the proportion of self-rated poor families rose by 1 percentage point from the September 2025 Self-Rated Poverty survey. The 2025 annual average of self-rated poor families stood at 51 percent, which was 6 points lower than the 57 percent annual average in 2024, but 3 points higher than the 48 percent recorded in both 2023 and 2022.

By area, self-rated poor families were highest in Mindanao at 65 percent, followed by the Visayas at 58 percent, Balance Luzon at 45 percent, and Metro Manila at 37 percent. Compared with September 2025, the Visayas saw a 4-point increase and Balance Luzon a 3-point increase, while Metro Manila posted a 6-point decrease and Mindanao a 4-point decrease.

Those who considered themselves not poor increased from 51 percent to 56 percent in Metro Manila and from 20 percent to 24 percent in Mindanao. However, the proportion declined from 49 percent to 46 percent in Balance Luzon and from 23 percent to 21 percent in the Visayas.

SWS also reported that the national median self-rated poverty (SRP) threshold rose from PHP12,000 in September 2025 to PHP15,000 in November 2025. The national median SRP gap also increased slightly from PHP5,000 to PHP6,000.

The polling firm said the SRP threshold refers to the minimum monthly budget that self-rated poor families say they need for household expenses to avoid considering themselves poor. It noted that the threshold “remained sluggish for several years despite considerable inflation,” indicating that poor families have been lowering their living standards.

SWS defined the SRP gap as half of the median SRP threshold, meaning that typical poor families lack half of what they need to avoid rating themselves as poor.

The survey was conducted nationwide, with 300 respondents each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. It has sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national results and ±6 percent for each area.