In 2018, the proportion of families whose income falls below the poverty threshold (poverty incidence among families) in the region was estimated at 17.2 percent. This is significantly lower by 14.8 percentage points from the recorded poverty incidence in 2015 at 32.0 percent. The 2018 poverty incidence of 17.2 percent translates to around 193 thousand poor families in the region.

Table 1 shows that four of the provinces in the region, namely –Bukidnon, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental posted significant decreases in poverty incidences. The province of Bukidnon registered the biggest drop of poverty incidence to 22.2 percent in 2018 from its recorded poverty incidence of 47.1 percent in 2015, showing a drop of 24.9 percentage points in poverty incidence.

Furthermore, there is an estimated 3.9 percent of the proportion of families in the region whose income falls below the food threshold (subsistence incidence among families). Subsistence incidence of the region in the same period of 2015 was recorded at 14.8 percent. The region has significantly dropped its subsistence incidence by 10.9 percentage points in 2018 from the same period in 2015. The 3.9 percent subsistence incidence among families translates to around 43 thousand families in the region who cannot afford to buy their basic food needs.

Table 2 shows that four of the provinces posted significant decreases in subsistence incidence in 2018. Bukidnon posted the biggest drop in subsistence incidence, bringing down the subsistence incidence to 5.6 percent in 2018 from 26.6 percent in the same period of 2015. The subsistence incidence among families shows the proportion of families living in extreme poverty.

Poverty and Subsistence Incidence among Population

The poverty incidence among Region X population in 2018 was estimated at 23.0 percent. During the same period in 2015, poverty incidence among population was recorded at 38.4 percent. The poor population in the region accounted to around 1.13 million individuals. The provincial poverty incidences among population are presented in Table 3.

The subsistence incidence among Region X population was 6.0 in 2018, significantly lower than the recorded subsistence incidence of the same period in 2015 at 19.4 percent. This accounted to around 292 thousand food poor population in the region. Table 4 shows the subsistence incidence among population of the provinces.

Poverty and Subsistence Incidence of the Highly Urbanized Cities (HUCs)

Given the new master sample of the 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), the PSA is able to generate reliable estimates down to the provincial level as well as for the highly urbanized cities (HUCs). Such estimates are presented in Tables 5 to 8.

Food and Poverty Thresholds

Food threshold is the minimum income required to meet the basic food needs and satisfy the nutritional requirements set by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) to ensure that one remains economically and socially productive. Poverty threshold, on the other hand, is the minimum income required to meet the basic food and non-food needs such as clothing, fuel, light, water, housing, transportation, health, and education expenses.

In 2018, a family of five in the region needed at least PhP 7,227, on average, every month to meet the family's basic food needs and at least PhP 10,333, on average, every month to meet both basic food and non-food needs. These amounts represent the monthly food threshold and monthly poverty threshold, respectively.

Among the provinces, Camiguin posted the highest poverty and food thresholds in 2018 while Misamis Oriental posted the lowest poverty and food threshold as shown in Tables 9 and 10.