7 Facts About Poverty in the Philippines - The Borgen Project (2024)

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7 Facts About Poverty in the Philippines - The Borgen Project? ›

Data indicates that 16.6% of the population of the Philippines, or about 17.6 million people, live under the poverty line. Those who reside in rural areas have a much higher chance of experiencing poverty, with nearly one-third of those under the poverty line working as farmers.

In the Philippines, 18.1% of the population lived below the national poverty line in 2021. In the Philippines, the proportion of employed population below $1.90 purchasing power parity a day in 2022 was 2.2%. For every 1,000 babies born in the Philippines in 2021, 26 died before their 5th birthday.

The expansion of secondary education and mobility to better-paying jobs, citizen ownership of more assets and access to basic services, and government social assistance have helped reduce inequality since the mid-2000s.

Proportion of Poor Filipinos was Estimated at 16.6 Percent in 2018. The full year 2018 poverty incidence among population, or the proportion of poor Filipinos whose per capita income is not sufficient to meet their basic food and non-food needs, was estimated at 16.6 percent. This translates to 17.6 million...

Causes of poverty

Poverty in the Philippines has been linked to bad governance, corruption, and a political system dominated by political dynasties. The country's poorest provinces are ruled by political dynasties. Natural disasters have exacerbated poverty in the Philippines.

With poverty taking a toll on Filipinos, parents often can't make enough money to support their families; children then have to be taken out of school to work in harsh conditions. Statistics show that around 3.6 million children, from ages 5-17, are child laborers in the Philippines.

Key challenges face the country: significantly high unemployment numbers; a high inflation rate (forecast to reach 5.1 percent in 2023); rising policy rates; import and export bottlenecks; and the declining strength of the Philippine peso against the American dollar. ¹.

Air pollution causes significant health and economic problems in the Philippines. Due to industrial waste and automobiles, Manila suffers from air pollution, affecting 98% of the population. Annually, the air pollution causes more than 4,000 deaths.

Is the Philippines rich or poor? ›

As a developing economy, the country is working towards achieving greater industrialization and economic growth. The Philippine economy is the world's 36th largest by nominal GDP and 15th largest in Asia according to the International Monetary Fund in 2023.

How poverty affects the education in the philippines. For most of these poor households, only about 60% of the family members have education up to elementary school. As a result of this, over 18.4 million Philippines are living in extreme poverty, surviving on an average budget of $1.25 per day.

Lack of access to basic services, education and employment opportunities all serve to perpetuate poverty. Climate change is a major contributor to poverty and deaths in the world.

The recently released national poverty estimates show that poverty incidence rose from 16.7 percent in 2018 to 18.1 percent in 2021. This translates to 19.9 million poor people, an increase of 2.3 million over the same period.

The news is far from bad news for the Philippines, which has long struggled with overpopulation. The country's population is currently around 111 million, the second highest in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

About 63% of people older than 15 who live in extreme poverty have no schooling or only some basic education. 1.2 billion people in 111 developing countries live in multidimensional poverty, accounting for 19% of the world's population.

Iceland stands at the top of countries with the lowest poverty rates with a poverty rate of 4.9% in 2021.

Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is more, much more than just not having enough money. The World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way: “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter.

SWS said the Metro Manila self-rated poverty threshold – or the minimum monthly budget self-rated poor families say they need for household expenses in order to not consider themselves poor – leaped from P15,000 in December 2022 to P20,000 in March 2023.

The poorest Filipinos spend around 60 percent of their family's income on food. With over half of health care costs paid out-of-pocket, they simply cannot afford to fall ill: money that is meant for food will be diverted to health.

What is hunger in the Philippines? ›

However, the country faces a major hunger problem. According to an October 2022 World Food Programme (WFP) survey, one in 10 Philippine households experiences food insecurity. A volatile climate, social inequality and uneven wealth distribution have contributed to the country's ongoing hunger crises.

Among the issues that they address are food insecurity, hunger and poor nutrition, poor quality of education, land and housing insecurity, and poor sanitation.

Among these are the continued “harassment, threats, arrests, attacks, red-tagging against civil society actors, as well as the continued drug related killings by police.” The report also noted that “access to justice for victims of human rights violations and abuses remained very limited.”

Poverty and social inequality in the Philippines

It is also one of the most diverse countries in the world, with over 7,000 islands and 70 distinct ethnic groups. Despite its large population, the Philippines has a high rate of poverty and social inequality.

The unemployment problem is a critical issue that cannot be solved in a short period. However, the measures like change in the education system, assistance to self-employed people, change in the industrial technique, and introduction of better government policies can help tackle the situation.

Behind these are the two interrelated root causes of in-work poverty—low education of the poor, and the scarcity of productive job opportunities. The labor market is segmented into “good” and “bad” jobs, with the poor working in the latter. They hold jobs that are informal, temporary or casual, and low-paid.

Just like in other countries, scarcity affects the richest and the poorest in Philippines. Despite how rich or poor one is, productive resources remain limited. If the resources are not there, no matter how much money you have, you will not get any of these resources.

Is Philippines one of the poorest country in Asia? ›

The Philippines possesses diverse natural resources and is globally recognized for its significant level of biodiversity. In 2021, the country's GDP per adult came in at $5,580, categorizing it as one of the poorest Asian countries.

MANILA, Philippines — Real estate and retail tycoon Manuel Villar, chairman of the Villar Group, remains the country's richest man, according to the Forbes 2023 World's Billionaires list.

Industry and Trade

Services, industry, and agriculture are the main sectors of the Philippine economy. Food processing, cement, iron, and steel production, and telecommunications are among the country's most significant contributors.

This translates to around 19.99 million Filipinos who lived below the poverty threshold of about PhP 12,030 per month for a family of five. The subsistence incidence, defined as the proportion of Filipinos whose income is not enough to meet even just the basic food needs, slightly increased to 5.9 percent in 2021.

More than 13 million Filipino children—more than a third of all children in the Philippines—live below the poverty line. The Philippines aims to reduce the poverty rate to 14 per cent by 2022.

In the Philippines, at least nine out of 10 children aged 10 struggle to read and write simple text, according to the World Bank's latest statistics on learning poverty in 2021. The country also ranked lowest among 79 countries that participated in a 2018 international reading literacy assessment.

Poverty rates were highest in the states of Mississippi (19.58%), Louisiana (18.65%), New Mexico (18.55%), West Virginia (17.10%), Kentucky (16.61%), and Arkansas (16.08%), and they were lowest in the states of New Hampshire (7.42%), Maryland (9.02%), Utah (9.13%), Hawaii (9.26%), and Minnesota (9.33%).

Any family can fall on hard times and find it difficult to make ends meet. Life changes such as unemployment, illness or family separation can happen to us all. Increasing costs, especially for essentials such as food, housing and fuel, affect most people. Poverty isn't something that happens to others.

Based on the results of the 2021 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), Batangas recorded the lowest poverty incidence among population estimated at 6.3 percent or approximately about 197 thousand Filipinos.

What is unemployment in the Philippines? ›

The government aims to achieve an unemployment rate of 5.3 to 6.4 percent for the full-year 2023. To achieve this target, employment-generating policies will be implemented as outlined in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028.

Poverty is associated with substandard housing, hunger, homelessness, inadequate childcare, unsafe neighborhoods, and under-resourced schools.

At its core, a quality education supports a child's developing social, emotional, cognitive, and communication skills. They also gain knowledge and skills, and often at a higher level than those who don't attend school. They can then use these skills to earn higher incomes and build successful lives.

In conclusion, poverty is not the problem of a person but of the whole nation. Also, it should be deal with on an urgent basis by the implementation of effective measures. In addition, eradication of poverty has become necessary for the sustainable and inclusive growth of people, society, country, and economy.

Makati City is the Philippines' financial center. With a net value of Php34. 461 billion, it is unsurprisingly the richest city in the Philippines.

Quality of Life

The country has a warm climate, friendly people, welcoming culture, and low living costs make the country an ideal destination for expats. There is a lot to love about expat life here, but living conditions in the Philippines can be challenging even for experienced expats.

The Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) had estimated that the Philippine population might inflate this year from 110 million to 111.1 million due to unintended pregnancies believed to have been the consequence of stay-at-home conditions during the pandemic.

Based on the Preliminary Results of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) in 2021, poverty incidence among population, defined as the proportion of Filipinos whose per capita income cannot sufficiently meet the individual basic food and non-food needs, was recorded at 18.1 percent.

This was based on a poverty threshold in 2021 of P14,498 for half a year or P2,416.33 per month which represents the amount a Filipino needs, on the average, to meet his basic food and non-food requirements.

Yet inequality remains high: the top 1 percent of earners together capture 17 percent of national income, with only 14 percent being shared by the bottom 50 percent. With an income Gini coefficient of 42.3 percent in 2018, the Philippines had one of the highest rates of income inequality in East Asia.

How many people are unemployed in the Philippines? ›

The number of unemployed persons was 2.42 million, down 0.46 million from 2.88 million in March 2022. Meanwhile, the number of employed increased by 1.61 million to 48.58 million compared to the same period last year.

The Philippines is known for its exotic beaches, expansive forests, and abundance of volcanoes. Despite the common theme of nature, there are many islands that all differ from each other vastly. The Philippines is famous for its old, religious landmarks, and in contrast its modernized skyscrapers.

The official poverty methodology of the Philippines uses pretax income as a measure of household welfare. A household is deemed poor if its pretax income falls below a minimum income sufficient to buy the household's basic needs.

As of now, March 2023, the government's latest poverty rate is 13.2 percent of families. Its criterion is a threshold income of P12,030 per month, for a family of five, in 2021. The 13.2 percent is based on the 2021 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), publicly released in August 2022.

In 2018, the average Filipino family income was PHP 313,000/year ($6,231.27). In the National Capital Region, an average family's income was around PHP 460,000/year ($9,157.78).

In the Philippines, you can be considered “rich” if you earn at least P182,000 and up each month. You are “high income” if you make P109,200 to P182,000; “upper middle income” if you take home between P63,700 to P109,200; and middle class if you earn between P63,700 to P109,200 each month.

We investigated four factors typically cited as causing changes in household in- come inequality: namely, (1) the rising proportion of urban households, (2) age distribution changes, (3) increasing number of highly educated households, and (4) wage rate inequality.