43% of Nagueños see themselves as ‘poor’

NAGA CITY --- Two out of five households in this city (43%) considered themselves “poor” during the first quarter of this year, according to a self-rated poverty and food insecurity survey conducted by the Ateneo Student Researchers Pool (ASRP).

The self-rated poverty incidence increased by 4.5% from last year’s 38.5% of the same quarter.

The survey, otherwise known as the 2019 First Quarter Naga City Poverty and Governance Public Opinion Poll, is funded by the Ateneo de Naga University.

The survey further says that those who considered themselves “poor” perceived themselves as such due to lack of income (37%), lack of permanent job (30%), and lack of education (12%).

Moreover, 42.3% of Naguenos deemed themselves as food insecure which is alsocompared t last year’s first quarter result of 37.3%.

The median poverty threshold or the monthly income that an average Nagueno household needs in order to consider themselves “not poor” remains at P20,000.

But the same survey also shows that 2 out of the five Naguenos (42%) reported that their quality of life has improved compared to the past 6 months, while one out of five (18%) reported that it worsened.

On the other hand, more than half of Nagueno households (52%) anticipate that their quality of life in the next 6 months will get better while only very few (8%) anticipate that it will get worse.

The poverty and governance public opinion poll used face-to-face interview of 400 randomly selected registered voters of Naga City.

With the coming elections, about half of Naguenos (50.0%) recommend that candidates focus on addressing concerns on income and poverty.

Other recommended issues include crime prevention (45%), access to social services (29%), environment conservation and protection (24%), improving governance (16%), addressing traffic congestion (11), infrastructure development (8%), and macroeconomic policies (4%).

- Headline -