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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines recorded its lowest poverty incidence on record at 9.7 percent in 2025, bringing the share of Filipinos living below the official poverty threshold into single-digit territory for the first time in history, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The historic rate, however, may not tell the whole story, with an economist saying it does not reflect current economic conditions and that the poverty threshold used by the PSA remains too low to reflect the actual cost of meeting basic needs.
Latest data from the PSA showed that the poverty incidence rate fell to 9.7 percent in 2025, equivalent to 11.08 million Filipinos living below the poverty threshold, down from 15.5 percent, or 17.5 million in 2023.
This meant that 6.5 million Filipinos were lifted out of poverty during the period. It also puts the government three years ahead of its target under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP), which aims to bring poverty incidence down to between 8.8 percent and 9 percent by the end of the Marcos administration.
