By Joseph B.A. Marzan
Poverty rate in Western Visayas in 2021 rose by 1.9 percent from 2018, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) conducted throughout last year.
Poverty incidence rate among families also rose to 13.9 percent in 2021 from 11.9 percent in 2018.
According to the 1997 Philippine Poverty Statistics, poverty incidence refers to the proportion of families or individuals with per capita income or expenditure less than the per capita poverty threshold to the total number of families or individuals.
Negros Occidental has the highest poverty incidence rate among provinces (19.3 percent), followed by Antique (18.2 percent), Iloilo province (14.5 percent), Aklan (13.9 percent), Guimaras (7.3 percent), and Capiz (6.1 percent).
The highly urbanized cities of Iloilo and Bacolod recorded similar poverty incidence rates, with 3.3 percent and 3.4 percent respectively.
As to the jump in rates, Antique logged the greatest (+5.3 percent), followed by Aklan (+5.1 percent), Negros Occidental (+2.2 percent), Capiz (+2 percent), Iloilo City (+1 percent), Guimaras (+0.5 percent), Iloilo province (+0.4 percent), and Bacolod City (+0.1 percent).
The annual per capita poverty threshold of families in the region, also known as the poverty line or the minimum income needed to secure living necessities, is at P27,083, higher than the 2018 threshold of P24,494.
Iloilo City has the highest poverty threshold in the region (P29,303), followed by Iloilo province (P27,746), Bacolod City (P27,266), Guimaras (P27,090), Aklan (P26,837), Capiz (P26,692), and Antique (P26,633).
As to food poverty, or the condition of being unable to obtain healthy food due to economic disparity, the region’s rate increased to 3.6 percent in 2021 from 2.7 percent in 2018, with the annual per capita food poverty threshold at P18,954 in 2021 from P16,981 in 2018.
Antique has the highest 2021 food poverty rate (5.8 percent), followed by Iloilo province (4.7 percent), Negros Occidental (4.5 percent), Aklan (4.1 percent), Capiz and Guimaras (0.8 percent each), Iloilo City (0.7 percent), and Bacolod City (0.4 percent).
Iloilo City remains to have the highest food poverty threshold (P20,462), followed by Guimaras (P19,431), Iloilo province (P19,411), Bacolod City (P19,040), Aklan (P18,752), Capiz (P18,747), Negros Occidental (P18,678), and Antique (P18,604).
The FIES results nationwide indicated that there was a 13.2 percent poverty incidence rate in 2021, with an 18.1 percent rate for individual Filipinos translating to 19.99 million poor Filipinos.
