Half of Filipino families felt “poor” during the fourth quarter of 2022, based on the latest Social Weather Stations survey.

Conducted from 10 to 14 December 2022, the survey found that the percentage of Filipinos who considered themselves poor slightly increased to 51 percent from 49 percent last October.

SWS said the percentage translated to 12.9 million families, an increase of 300,000 households from the previous figure.

In the survey, 31 percent consider themselves as “borderline”, or those who feel that they are “between poor and not poor.”

Only 19 percent, meanwhile, rated themselves as “not poor.”

The private pollster said the two-point increase in the self-rated survey was due to the rise in Balance Luzon, combined with decreases in the National Capital Region, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The non-commissioned survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The sampling error margins are ±2.5 percent for national percentages and ±5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.