1. Poverty as Income
Deprivation
Leland Joseph R. Dela Cruz
Director
Development Studies Program
School of Social Sciences
Ateneo de Manila University
ldelacruz@ateneo.edu
Updated June 13, 2010

2. When is a person considered
poor? NSCB
The poor refers to individuals and families whose
income falls below the poverty threshold and/ or those
that cannot afford in a sustained manner to provide
their basic needs. The poverty threshold refers to the
minimum income/ expenditure required for a family/
individual to meet the basic food/ non-food
requirements (clothing and footwear; fuel, light, and
water; housing maintenance and other minor repairs;
rentals or occupied dwelling units; medical care;
education; transportation and communications; non-
durable furnishing; household operations; and personal
care and effects

3. How does the government
compute for the poverty line?
1. The government constructs a menu per
region that satisfies basic nutritional
requirements. The government computes
for the cost of that menu. (ex. P43)
2. The government computes for the
proportion of income that is budgeted for
food using survey data. (ex. 66%)
3. The figure obtained in #1 is divided by the
figure obtained in #2. (ex. P27 / 66% =
P65)

4. Food Threshold
 Also referred to as the subsistence threshold
or the food poverty line
 Refers to the minimum income/expenditure
required for a family/individual to meet the
basic food needs, which satisfies the
nutritional requirements for economically
necessary and socially desirable physical
activities (Virola, 2008, NSCB website)

5. Poverty Threshold/ Line
 Refers to the cost of minimum basic
needs: food + non-food
 Refers to the minimum
income/expenditure required for a
family/individual to meet the basic food
and non-food requirements

6. What is the NCR poverty line
(2008)?
Individual/ year* P24,000.00
427 Euro, 3,355 Krone, 47,346 Yen
Individual/ month* P2,000.00
35 Euro, 279 Krone, 3,945 Yen
Individual/ day* P65.76
1. Euro, 9.20 Krone, 129.73 Yen
Family/ year* P120,000.00
2,135 Euro, 16,779 Krone, 236,733 Yen
P10,000.00
Family/ month 178 Euro, 1,398 Krone, 19,728 Yen
Family/ day* P328.77
6 Euro, 46 Krone, 649 Yen
*Unofficial, self-computed

7. What is the Philippine poverty
line (2006)?
Individual/ year P15,057.57
NSCB 268 Euro, 2106 Krone, 29705 Yen
Individual/ month* P1,254.80
22 Euro, 175 Krone, 2475 Yen
Individual/ day* P41.26
0.73 Euro, 5.77 Krone, 81.40 Yen
Family/ year* P75,287.85
1,340 Euro, 10528 Krone, 148526 Yen
Family/ month* P6,273.99
112 Euro, 877 Krone, 12,377 Yen
Family/ day* P206.29
4 Euro, 29 Krone, 408 Yen
*Unofficial, self-computed

8. Regional poverty lines 2006, NSCB
Region Threshold Region Threshold
NCR P20,566 VIII P13,974
I P15,956 IX P13,219
II P13,791 X P14,199
III P17,298 XI P14,942
IV-A P17,761 XII P14,225
IV-B P14,800 CAR P16,810
V P15,015 ARMM P15,533
VI P14,405 CARAGA P15,249
VII P13,390

9. Poverty incidence 2006, NSCB
 32.9% or 27.6 million Filipinos are poor.
 32.9% of Filipinos earn less than
P15,057.57 a year, P1,254.80 a month
and P41.26 a day.
 26.9% or 4.6 million Filipino families are
poor.
 26.9% of families earn less than
P75,287.85 a year, P6,273.99 a month and
P206.29 a day.

10. Regional poverty incidence
(Individual) 2006, NSCB
Poverty Poverty
Region Region
Incidence Incidence
NCR 10.40% VIII 48.50%
I 32.70% IX 45.30%
II 25.50% X 43.10%
III 20.70% XI 36.60%
IV-A 20.90% XII 40.80%
IV-B 52.70% CAR 34.50%
V 51.10% ARMM 61.80%
VI 38.60% CARAGA 52.60%
VII 35.40%

11. Regional poverty incidence
(Individual) 2006, NSCB
Region N* % of total Region N* % of total
NCR 0.8M 4% VIII 1.6M 7%
I 1.4M 5% IX 1.2M 5%
II 0.8M 2% X 1.5M 6%
III 1.6M 6% XI 1.2M 5%
IV-A 1.6M 8% XII 1.5M 5%
IV-B 1.0M 5% CAR 0.5M 1%
V 2.5M 9% ARMM 1.6M 6%
VI 2.7M 9% CARAGA 1.0M 4%
VII 2.0M 8%
* Percentages are unofficial, self-computed

12. Poorest Provinces (2006) NSCB
Poverty Incidence
Tawi-Tawi 78.9%
Zamboanga del Norte 63.0%
Maguindanao 62.0%
Apayao 57.5%
Surigao del Norte 53.2%
Lanao del Sur 52.5%
Northern Samar 52.2%
Masbate 51.0%
Abra 50.1%
Misamis Occidental 48.8%

13. Least Poor Provinces (2006)
NSCB
Poverty Incidence
Batanes 0%
Rizal 6.4%
Bataan 6.8%
Cavite 7.8%
Benguet 8.2%
Pampanga 8.3%
Bulacan 10.0%
Laguna 10.6%
Nueva Vizcaya 12.7%
Quirino 15.9%

14. Poverty trends NSCB
35
30
25
20 2000
15 2003
2006
10
5
0
Families Individuals

15. Philippine Poverty Incidence:
Families (Percentage) NSCB
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003

16. Philippine Poverty Incidence:
Individuals (Percentage) NSCB
60
50
40
% 30
20
10
0
1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003

17. Income Gap (2006) NSCB
Region Income Gap Region Income Gap
NCR 21.6% VIII 30.9%
I 25.2% IX 35.7%
II 23.5% X 33.4%
III 23.4% XI 30.0%
IV-A 24.5% XII 28.1%
IV-B 32.5% CAR 32.1%
V 30.1% ARMM 29.3%
VI 26.6% CARAGA 34.4%
VII 29.5%

18. Average family income, expenditures
and savings per decile 2006, NSO
Avg. Annual Avg. Avg. Savings Avg. Monthly
Income Expenditures Income
Phil 173,000 147,000 25,000 14,416
Poorest 10% 32,000 35,000 -3,000 2,666
2nd decile 51,000 52,000 -2,000 4,250
3rd decile 65,000 66,000 Less than 500 5,417
4th decile 81,000 79,000 2,000 6,750
5th decile 100,000 95,000 5,000 8,333
6th decile 124,000 116,000 7,000 10,333
7th decile 156,000 143,000 13,000 13,000
8th decile 205,000 181,000 23,000 17,083
9th decile 292,000 244,000 46,000 24,333
Richest 10% 622,000 460,000 156,000 51,833

19. Income Distribution 2006, NSO
40 36
35
30
% of Income
25
16.8
20 11.8
15 9
7.1
10
1.9 3 3.8 4.7 5.8
5
0
1st 3rd 5th 7th 9th
Decile

20. Income Distribution
40
35
30
% of Income
25
20
15
10
5
0
1st to 7th 8th 9th 10th
Decile

21. Income Distribution
60
50
% of Income
40
30
20
10
0
1st to 8th 9th to 10th
Decile

22. Gini Coefficient
Country Gini ratio Country Gini ratio
Denmark 0.247 U.S.A. 0.408
Japan 0.249 Thailand 0.425
Norway 0.258 Philippines 0.445
France 0.327 Brazil 0.550
Malaysia 0.379 Namibia 0.743
UNDP.org, 2007 data

23. Self-Rated Poverty Pulse-Asia
June October March
2004 2004 2005
Philippines 70% 70% 70%
Class ABC 37% 21% 35%
Class D 68% 68% 69%
Class E 84% 87% 82%

24. Self-Rated Poverty Pulse-Asia
June October March
2004 2004 2005
NCR 52% 41% 48%
Luzon 69% 69% 66%
Visayas 71% 82% 80%
Mindanao 80% 79% 81%
Urban 66% 57% 58%
Rural 73% 83% 82%

25. Self-Rated Poverty SWS

26. Summary
Official Perception-
Statistics based measure
Poverty 26.9% 50-70%
Incidence
Poverty P6,273 a P12,000 a
threshold month month (NCR)

27. Data Sources
 NSCB: www.nscb.gov.ph: poverty statistics
 NSO: www.census.gov.ph: income and
poverty statistics (FIES final report, Table 4A)
 UNDP: undp.org
 Pulse-Asia: Public Perceptions on Poverty. CD
obtained directly from Pulse-Asia
 SWS: www.sws.org.ph

28. Poverty as Income
Deprivation
Leland Joseph R. Dela Cruz
Director
Development Studies Program
School of Social Sciences
Ateneo de Manila University
ldelacruz@ateneo.edu