Over 20 million Filipinos were poor in 2021 as the poverty incidence hit 18.1 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced on Monday, Aug. 15.

According to the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) conducted in 2021, a Filipino family with five members needed about Php 12,030 on average, per month to sufficiently meet their basic food and non-food needs.

The regions with recorded the lowest poverty incidence in 2021 were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 3.5 percent, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with 9.9 percent, Region III with 11.4 percent, and Region IV-A with 10.2 percent.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) had the highest poverty incidence with 37.2 percent.

While the food threshold increased to 5.9 percent, this means that a family of five needed at least Php 8,379 on average, per month to meet their basic food needs.

Among the families, about 3.50 million were considered poor, this is equivalent to 13.2 percent in 2021.

The substance incidence on the other hand was at 3.9 percent or 1.04 million poor Filipino families below the poor poverty line.