THE country’s poverty rate declined to 15.5 percent in 2023 from 18.1 percent in 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said yesterday.
Preliminary data from the PSA showed that the poor population declined to 17.54 million from 19.99 million in 2023.
The poverty rate is a statistical measure that assesses the proportion of the population with income falling below the per capita poverty threshold.
The subsistence incidence, or share of the total population with per capita income lower than the per capita food threshold, went down to 4.3 percent from 5.9 percent two years ago.
This brings the estimated number of Filipinos whose income was not enough to buy basic food needs to 4.84 million, which is lower than the 6.55 million in 2021.
This release is one year earlier than its scheduled release of two years after the reference year based on Designated Statistics. (Mariedel Irish U. Catilogo © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
