core poor and the rich families. In 1997, however, the master sample design was adopted to address this issue.
5.7. The break in the series due to certain changes such as the change in sampling frame between 1988 and 1991 necessitates that results for urban and rural areas be qualified between the two periods.
6.0. Poverty
6.1. Official estimates on poverty are available for the years 1985, 1988, 1991 and 1994, that is, depending on the availability of the FIES estimates. Data are available at the regional level (urban rural) only.
6.2. Poverty statistics in the Philippines is estimated by determining the food or subsistence threshold, then the poverty threshold, and finally the poverty incidence. In establishing food thresholds, low-cost menus are drawn up by region and urbanity. Own-produced components of the menus as well as those purchased are then costed. The resulting food thresholds are then inflated to impute for the non-food portion of the poverty thresholds.
6.3. Poverty incidence for the Philippines in 1994 was placed at 35.7 percent which was 4.2 percentage points lower than the 1991 figure of 39.9. This was equivalent to 4.6 million poor families in 1994 compared to 4.8 million in 1991. There was a substantial decline in the number of the urban poor and a slight increase among the rural poor.
6.4. Subsistence incidence for 1994 was estimated at 18.2 percent down from 20.4 percent. The core poor then numbered 2.3 million in 1994 compared to 2.4 million families in 1991. Most of the core poor are in the rural areas.
Methodological Issues
6.4. The current methodology is not able to accurately estimate poverty incidence at the provincial level since it is based on poverty thresholds which are only available at the regional level.
6.5. The estimation of poverty relies on the availability of FIES results, and therefore can only be generated every three years; there has been demand for monitoring poverty on a more frequent basis, say, once a year, through the development and identification of proxy indicators, including those which are not based on income solely.
