There was a significant change in the number of Filipinos who rated themselves as poor and food-poor.
In the latest Tugon ng Masa survey, 37% of respondents—or an estimated 9.8 million Filipino families—said they considered themselves poor in December of last year.
This figure dropped by 17 percentage points from September 2025, when 54% or about 14.3 million families rated themselves as poor.
OCTA explained that this is the largest single-quarter decline in self-rated poverty in the history of their survey series.
Meanwhile, food poverty also recorded a 19-point decrease.
From 49% in September 2025, it fell to 30%, equivalent to around 7.9 million Filipino families.
According to OCTA, this change represents approximately five million families who said they were better able to meet their food needs within just one quarter.
The research firm added that this is one of the fastest shifts in perceptions of food poverty recorded across the entire series of their studies.
