Self-rated poverty in the country dropped to 37 percent in the last quarter of 2025 from 54 percent in the third quarter, according to the latest OCTA Research.
OCTA Research fellow Guido David, in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview on Tuesday, said 1,200 respondents were asked if they consider themselves poor during the survey conducted from Dec. 3 to 11, 2025.
“I think people having money because of bonuses was a factor. But another factor, perhaps, was the administration’s continued efforts to distribute ‘ayuda’ (assistance),” he said.
David added that another contributor to the decline was that “the inflation rate has stabilized.”
“Life is not as hard as it was before, because our economic indicators have stabilized,” he said.
The survey result, he said, represents about 4.5 million Filipino families who no longer consider themselves as poor.
In the same survey, food poverty dropped to 19 percent from 49 percent in the previous quarter.
“I think government programs have helped significantly in terms of access to food. There are food centers where people could go,” David said.
According to OCTA, this “translates to roughly 5 million families who perceived themselves as better able to meet their food needs within one quarter.”
The survey has a ±3% margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.*
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