TACLOBAN CITY — One in every five families in Eastern Visayas (EV) is poor with a monthly income that is insufficient to buy their basic food and non-food needs, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) regional office reported on Monday.

PSA 8 said 241,000 families have remained poor in 2023 or a poverty incidence of 20.3 percent, which is lower than the 251,320 poor families in 2021 when the poverty incidence stood at 22.2 percent.

This regional poverty incidence is almost twice above the national average of 10.9 percent indicating a higher concentration of poor families in Eastern Visayas than the national average.

The statistical arm of the government set the average poverty threshold in the region at P13,492, which is the estimated minimum monthly income for a family of five to meet their basic food and non-food needs.

Among the six provinces and one high-urbanized city in Eastern Visayas, Tacloban City has the highest poverty threshold at P14,057 indicating a higher cost of living while Biliran has the lowest at P11,989.

The report said that of the six provinces and one HUC in the region, Northern Samar and Leyte recorded a higher poverty incidence in 2023 than compared to 2021 — 29.2 percent in 2023 from 25.9 percent in 2021 for Northern Samar and slight increase to 29.3 percent from 29.2 percent over the same period for Leyte.

Meanwhile, significant improvements in poverty situation among families between 2021 and 2023 were noted in Biliran and Southern Leyte. Poverty incidence among families in Biliran dropped to 8.5 percent in 2023 from 19.9 percent in 2021 while Southern Leyte registered 7.1 percent poverty incidence among families in 2023, lower than the 16.0 percent in 2021.

Of the six provinces in the region, only Southern Leyte and Biliran recorded a poverty incidence among families lower than the national average of 10.9 percent.