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Friday, February 17, 2017

Which Philippine Region Has the Highest Income Inequality?

We all know that Metro Manila, otherwise known as the National Capital Region (NCR), is the richest region in the Philippines.  Without question, it is the center of government, business, and finance in the entire country.

This is plainly evident in the 2015 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), where the NCR towers above the rest of the country in terms of Median Income Per Capita: Php 313,000 for NCR vs. Php 180,000 for the entire Philippines.



But which region has the highest income inequality?  One easy way to do that is by taking the ratio of the tenth decile (the top 10% in income) to the first decile (the bottom 10% in income).

From the 2015 FIES, we get this table...


Median Income Per Capita (In Thousands of Pesos)
Region Overall Bottom 10% Top 10% Top/Bottom
Philippines 180 83 652 785.54%
NCR 313 164 940 573.17%
CAR 196 93 595 639.78%
Region I - Ilocos Region 173 99 553 558.59%
Region II - Cagayan Valley 168 98 557 568.37%
Region III - Central Luzon 223 103 614 596.12%
Region IVA - Calabarzon 234 106 711 670.75%
Region IVB - MIMAROPA 142 79 608 769.62%
Region V - Bicol Region 136 88 482 547.73%
Region VI - Western Visayas 149 87 523 601.15%
Region VII - Central Visayas 160 62 607 979.03%
Region VIII - Eastern Visayas 124 72 526 730.56%
Region IX - Zamboanga Peninsula 127 73 503 689.04%
Region X - Northern Mindanao 135 68 612 900.00%
Region XI - Davao Region 166 85 571 671.76%
Region XII - SOCSKSARGEN 123 56 495 883.93%
Region XIII - Caraga 134 74 544 735.14%
ARMM 115 82 255 310.98%


and this chart:




Based on this, we can see that the region with the highest income inequality is actually Region VII - Central Visayas, composed of the three provinces of Bohol, Cebu, and Siquijor.  In terms of overall income, this region is "middle of the road." Its median income per capita was only Php 160,000 in 2015, slightly lower than the Philippines median income per capita of Php 180,000. But, in Central Visayas, the top 10% earn almost 10 times the bottom, higher than the overall Philippine ratio of 7.85 times.

NCR was actually more egalitarian, wherein the richest 10% "only" earned 5.73 times the poorest 10%.  Surprisingly, the most egalitarian region is also the poorest: ARMM, where the median per capita income is only Php 115,000 (around US$ 2,300). There, the richest 10% earn "only" around 3.11 times the poorest 10%.

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