The Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) is a survey on family income and expenditure of households undertaken by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) across the country. It is the main source of data on family income and expenditure in the Philippines. The 2021 FIES is the nineteenth survey conducted from the time it started in 1957.

Based on the recent preliminary results of 2021 FIES, the annual poverty per capita threshold in Misamis Oriental (including Cagayan de Oro City) increased by 17.22% which is Php24,118 in 2018 to Php28,270 in 2021. This increase is higher than year-on-year growth between 2015 to 2018 which is only 9.05% (Figure 1).

This means that the minimum income requirement to meet daily needs has increased since 2015, 2018 and 2021. It only takes Php1,843.08 in 2015 and Php2,009.83 in 2018 of monthly income to meet basic food and non-food requirements, it has reached Php2,355.83 to meet these requirements in 2021 in Misamis Oriental including its Highly Urbanized City of Cagayan de Oro.

A Misamisnon needs at least Php2,339.58 on average monthly to meet the basic food and non-food requirements in 2021

The annual per capita food threshold in Misamis Oriental (excluding Cagayan de Oro City) is Php28,075 based on the preliminary results of the 2021 FIES. This means a Misamisnon needed at least Php2,339.58 on average monthly to meet the basic food and non-food requirements in 2021 (Table 1). This annual per capita poverty threshold is higher than 16.89% compared to the previous year (Figure 2).

Table 1. Per Capita Poverty Threshold (Monthly), Poverty Incidence and Magnitude of Poor Population and Families

in Misamis Oriental(excluding Cagayan de Oro City):Full Year 2018 and 2021

A Misamisnon needs at least Php1,628.08 on average monthly to meet the basic food needs

The annual per capita food threshold in Misamis Oriental (excluding Cagayan de Oro City) is Php19,537 in 2021. This amounts to a minimum monthly requirement of Php1,628.08 to cover 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 (Figure 4 and Table 2).

Subsistence incidence in the province increased from 3.3% to 5% from 2018 to 2021, this is the proportion of the families in Misamis Oriental with income that falls short to meet their daily food needs (Table 3).

There were about 72 thousand Misamisnons that were considered living below the subsistence level or the magnitude of the poor population in Misamis Oriental who cannot meet the basic food needs in 2021 (Table 2).

Table 2. Per Capita Food Threshold (Monthly), Subsistence Incidence and Magnitude of Poor Population and Families

in Misamis Oriental (excluding Cagayan de Oro City): Full Year 2018 and 2021

Income and poverty gaps in Misamis Oriental increase from 2018 to 2021 as well as the severity of poverty

The PSA also releases other poverty-related statistics such as the income gap, poverty gap, and severity of poverty in addition to the thresholds and incidences (Table 3).

The income gap measures the average income needed by the poor to get out of poverty, expressed relatively to the poverty threshold. While the poverty gap refers to the income shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families with income below the poverty threshold divided by the total number of families.

The severity of poverty is the total of the squared income shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families with income below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of families. This is a poverty measure that is sensitive to income distribution among the poor.

Table 3. Income Gap, Poverty Gap and Severity of Poverty in Misamis Oriental: Full Year 2018 and 2021

In 2021, the average income of poor families in Misamis Oriental were short by 22.1% of the poverty threshold. This means that in order to move out of poverty, a poor family of five members needed an average additional monthly income of about PhP2,589.

Moreover, the poverty gap in the province was estimated at 4.0 percent in 2021. This implies that each family has an income shortfall of four percent of the poverty threshold to eliminate poverty. The income gap, poverty gap, and severity of poverty have worsened in 2021.