In the First Semester of 2021, the Region of SOCCSKARGEN had a small decrease of poverty incidence of 0.1 percent from 27.2 in the First Semester of 2018 to 27.1 in the same period in 2021. This is equivalent to a decrease of around 13,000 families from 313,700 poor families recorded in 2018. In the same period of 2021, a family of five in SOCCSKSARGEN needs an income of around 11,081.90 to be able to meet its food and non-basic need. First semester per capita threshold was recorded at 13,298 in 2021.

The proportion of food per poor family in SOCCSKARGEN also declined to 12.5 percent in the first semester of 2021 from 13.7 in the same period of 2018. This implies that in the first semester of 2021, a family of five must have at least 7,711.34 per month to meet its basic food needs. 2021 First semester per capita food threshold was recorded at 9,254.60.

Meanwhile, poverty incidence in the region had a slight increase of 0.5 percent from 33.6 percent in the first semester of 2018 to 34.1 percent in the same period of 2021. This is equivalent to an increase of 96,300 from 1,606,300 of people categorized as poor in 2018. Poverty incidence among population is the proportion of poor individuals whose incomes are below the poverty threshold.

These official statistics on poverty were generated from the results of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) which was conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority. Its first semester survey visit was conducted last July 2021 with the reference period of January to June 2021. Its second semester survey is currently being conducted on January 10-31 of 2022 with the reference period of July to December 2021.

More details of the data can be accessed through the PSA official website: https://psa.gov.ph.