April 29, 2026
MANILA – Around 9.2 million or 35 percent of Filipino families consider themselves “poor,” Octa Research reported on Wednesday.
Based on Octa’s first quarter Tugon ng Masa survey, the recorded self-rated poverty in March is two percentage points lower than the 37 percent (9.8 million families) reported in December 2025.
Despite the decline in numbers, Octa said the self-rated poverty in the country “remained broadly stable,” since “the difference is not statistically significant and remains within the survey’s ±3 percentage point margin of error.”
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Meanwhile, the latest survey showed that 24 percent of Filipino families consider themselves “not poor,” while 41 percent cannot say whether they are poor or not poor.
‘Self-poverty highest in Mindanao’
Mindanao continued to have the highest self-rated poverty rate at 56 percent, even though the number of Filipinos who consider themselves poor in the area this March is 11 percentage points lower than the record in December 2025, Octa said.
Mindanao was followed by Visayas at 44 percent self-rated poverty, Balance Luzon at 25 percent, and Metro Manila at 21 percent.
Octa said the self-rated poverty decreased in Metro Manila by 12 percentage points, while it increased by 3 percentage points in Balance Luzon and 4 percentage points in Visayas.
“These shifts point to widening regional variation in poverty conditions, with notable improvements in NCR and Mindanao and modest deterioration in Balance Luzon and the Visayas,” Octa said.
‘Food poverty, involuntary hunger’
Around 8.1 million households, or 31 percent, consider themselves “food poor” in the latest survey.
This is slightly higher than the 30 percent recorded in December 2025.
Octa noted the difference is “not statistically significant and remains within the survey’s margin of error, suggesting that food poverty conditions remained broadly stable during the period.”
On the other hand, 4.5 million or 17 percent of Filipino families experienced “involuntary hunger” in March 2026—slightly higher than the 4.2 million, or 16 percent, recorded in December 2025.
Octa also said the slight increase is not statistically significant and remains within the margin of error, reflecting “no meaningful quarter-to-quarter change in hunger incidence.”
“Notably, most affected families (82 percent) reported experiencing hunger only once or a few times in the past three months, suggesting that hunger remained more episodic than chronic for most households,” it also said.
The survey used face-to-face interviews among 1,200 respondents, aged 18 and above, and had a margin of error of ±3 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent. /mr