GUIMARAS – The poverty incidence among the population or the proportion of poor Filipinos in this island province, whose per capita income is insufficient to meet their basic food and non-food needs, reduced to 6.5% in 2023 from 10.0% in 2021.
This translates to 7 out of 100 Guimarasnons have income below the amount needed to buy their basic food and non-food needs, based on the preliminary results of the 2023 Family Income and Expenditure Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
About 12,380 Guimarasnons had income below the poverty threshold in 2023, translating into a reduction of 6,360 individuals from the 18,740 individuals in 2021. The 2023 level is lower than the 17,190 Filipinos in 2018.
Moreover, the Guimaras poverty incidence among families in 2023 was estimated at 3.8%, a reduction of 47.9% from the 2021 level, translating that about 4 out of 100 families have income below the amount needed to buy their basic food and non-food needs in 2023. The 2023 level is lower by 3.5 and 3.0 percentage points compared to 2021 and 2018, respectively.
“The annual per capita poverty threshold in Guimaras at P30,847 translates that a family of five needed at least P12,853 monthly income, on average, to meet both the basic food and non-food needs in a month, lower than the 13,801 monthly income, required for Western Visayas,” Provincial Statistics Officer Nelida B. Losare said.
Losare further discussed that the income gap in Guimaras in 2023 was estimated at around 9.1%.
“The poverty gap refers to the income shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families with income below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of families,” she added.
For the food threshold, a family of five in Guimaras needed at least P9,059, on average, to meet their family’s basic food needs in a month in 2023, showing an increment of 11.9% from the 2021 level estimated at P8,096 and an increase of 20.4% from the 2018 level, estimated at P7,523.
The comparative poverty incidence among population across provinces disclosed that Aklan got the lowest poverty incidence among the five provinces of Region 6, estimated at 4.6%, followed by Guimaras and Capiz at 6.5% and 13.4%, respectively.
Three provinces recorded more than 13% poverty incidence among population in 2023, with Antique posted the highest at 18.9%.
The poverty incidence among Filipino families was lowest in Aklan at 3.1% in 2023, the lowest among the six provinces of the region. Guimaras came in next with 3.8%. The rest of the provinces posted double-digit poverty incidence among families. Antique got the highest at 13.8%.
In 2023, Iloilo and Antique belonged to Cluster 5, while the provinces of Aklan, Capiz, and Guimaras fell under Cluster 6.
Furthermore, Aklan improved to a least-poor cluster in 2023 from cluster 5 in 2021, while Antique and Iloilo remained at cluster 5. Capiz and Guimaras remained at cluster 6./PN
