FAMILY INCOME, EXPENSES SURVEY KICKS OFF

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The Philippine Statistics Authority has started conducting the first visit of the 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey in 91 sample barangays in Aklan.

The FIES is a nationwide survey that gathers data on the income distribution and levels of living and spending patterns of Filipino families across the country.

Data from this survey will be used, among others, as inputs in the estimation of poverty incidence and threshold, and to measure Human Development Index, which is a tool to assess the social and economic development levels of countries.

According to Provincial Statistics Officer Antonet B. Catubuan, the FIES has a total samples of 1, 540 households, which were randomly selected to serve as respondents for this survey.

This number according to PSO Catubuan is almost four times higher than the usual samples used by PSA in other surveys.

“We increased the number of sample households because we will generate provincial data on income and expenditure levels for the province which are highly demanded by LGUs and local planners,” PSO Catubuan explained.

Fifty six data collectors were deployed by PSA Aklan to conduct the house to house visit and to gather around 1, 980 data items from households comprising of expenditures on food, clothing, electricity, household equipment, health, transport, communication, education, restaurants, and miscellaneous goods and services.

Also included are housing characteristics, social protection, and sources of income both in cash and in kind.

Results of similar survey conducted last 2015 showed that the poverty incidence among Aklanon families was estimated at 10.9 percent, lower by 47 percent compared to 20.4 percent reported in 2012.

The subsistence incidence among families, or the proportion of Aklanons in extreme poverty, was estimated at 0.6 percent, a decline by 88 percent compared to 4.7 percent recorded in 2012.

Meanwhile, the annual per capita poverty threshold or the minimum income required to meet the basic food and non-food needs of Aklanons was estimated at P21, 387.00.

PSA assured respondents that all information given to data collectors will be held strictly confidential as provided for by law./ PSA-Aklan