THE poverty incidence in Davao Region has dropped by 22.6 percent to 1.1 million in 2015 from 1.4 million in 2012, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The region remained to have the lowest poverty rate in Mindanao.
In their latest data, PSA-Davao Region revealed the poverty incidence estimates indicated that 22 out of 100 Dabawenyos were not able to meet the basic food and non-food requirements in 2015.
The figure stood at 22 percent which was an 8.7 percentage points decline compared to the 2012 estimate of 30.7 percent.
On the other hand, in 2015, the subsistence incidence among individuals is pegged at 7.5 percent which is a decline of 5.6 percentage points from the previous estimate of 13.1 percent.
The magnitude of Dabawenyos who were not able to meet the basic food requirements has declined by 37.8 percent to 374,332 in 2015 from 602,248 in 2012.
Among the five provinces in the region, Davao Oriental appeared the top province with the most improved poverty situation as it climbed from the bottom poor cluster of provinces in 2009 to moderately poor in 2012 and 2015.
It has also the largest drop in poverty incidence among families with 23.0 percentage points and 16.5 percentage points lower from the 44.3 percent in 2009 and 37.8 percent in 2012, respectively.
Compostela Valley’s poverty had also improved as it went from cluster 2 in 2012 to cluster 3 in 2015 with poverty incidence of families dropping by 8.7 percentage points between the two periods.
Davao del Norte also placed at cluster 2 in 2015 from cluster 3 in 2012 as its poverty incidence slightly declined by 0.6 percentage point from 26.7 percent in 2012 to 26.1 in 2015.
With 12.0 percent poverty incidence among families, Davao del Sur had the lowest among the provinces in Davao region in 2015.
The province consistently belongs in the least poor cluster in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
The PSA data showed of the 192,449 extremely poor families in Davao in 2015, 42.9 percent of it belongs to Davao del Sur, 27.4 percent in Davao del Norte, 16.4 percent were in Compostela Valley and 13.3 percent in Davao Oriental.
Davao had the biggest reduction of number of poor families and individuals with a decline of 28.4 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively, between 2012 and 2015.
With this positive result, Davao maintained its rank as the lowest poverty incidences of both families and individuals in Mindanao.
Davao was also the highest gainer in terms of poverty improvement with 8.4 percentage points and 8.7 percentage points reduction in poverty incidences among families and among population, respectively.