Why this matters to Filipinos
FMB News connects the verified facts and evidence in this report to the decisions, costs, opportunities, and risks that may affect Filipinos, Philippine communities, and the country.
Editorial standard: Sources are listed below. Verified reporting, attributed claims, uncertainty, and analysis remain distinct.
Verified facts
What happened
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that poverty incidence among individuals fell to 9.7% in 2025, equivalent to about 11.08 million Filipinos classified as poor under the official poverty threshold.
Poverty incidence among families fell to 6.4%, equivalent to about 1.90 million poor families. PSA said this was the first time the family poverty rate had fallen to a single-digit level.
Context
Context
The figures come from the 2025 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, conducted in July 2025 and January 2026. PSA said mean annual per-capita income grew faster than the poverty threshold between 2023 and 2025, helping push more households above the official line.
The approved FMB News brief characterized 9.7% as the country's record-low national poverty rate. FMB News is using PSA's more precise distinction between individual poverty incidence at 9.7% and family poverty incidence at 6.4%.
Filipino relevance
Why this matters
A lower poverty incidence suggests more households are earning enough to cover the minimum food and non-food needs represented by the official poverty threshold. The result also gives policymakers a clearer benchmark for judging whether growth, wage gains and social-protection programs are reaching lower-income households.
What to watch next
What to watch next
Watch the PSA's regional and sectoral poverty tables for differences across provinces and population groups, as well as inflation, employment and income trends that could either reinforce or reverse the improvement.