Nearly 20 million Filipinos live below poverty threshold

MANILA, Aug. 15: Nearly 20 million Filipinos were living below the national poverty line in 2021, said a government survey released on Monday.

Citing a 2021 family income and expenditure survey, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the poverty incidence among the population, or the proportion of Filipinos whose per capita income can not sufficiently meet the individual basic food and non-food needs, was at 18.1 percent.

"This translates to around 19.99 million Filipinos who lived below the poverty threshold of about 12,030 pesos (roughly 215.29 U.S. dollars) per month for a family of five," PSA head Dennis Mapa said.

The Philippines has a population of about 110 million.

Mapa said 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.

"It was estimated that a family of five needs at least 8,379 pesos (roughly 150 U.S. dollars) per month to meet their basic food requirements," Mapa added.