THE annual family income of households in the Davao Region increased by 4.4 percent in 2021, based on the latest survey by the regional Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-Davao) released on Monday, October 24.
The Family Income and Expenditure Survey showed that the average annual family income in Davao Region increased to P281,880 in 2021 from P269,910 in 2018.
Among the provinces and highly urbanized cities (HUC) in the region, the average family incomes of the provinces of Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao Occidental, and highly urbanized Davao City made significant increases but Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro recorded a decrease.
“However, when we look at the average income and expenditure in Davao Region as compared to the national estimates, the average income and expenditure are lower,” said Mechelle Viernes, chief statistical specialist of the Income and Employment Statistics Division of PSA-Davao.
On the national level, the average annual income of families is approximately P307,000 while expenditure is P228,000.
Davao City consistently has the highest average annual family income with P368,450 in 2021, which increased from P341,910 in 2018.
It is followed by Davao del Sur whose income increased from P252,940 to P260,340 during the same period.
For Davao Oriental, the average annual family income increased from P195,320 in 2018 to P210,210 in 2021 while Davao Occidental also increased from P164,870 to P174,320 during the same period.
On the other hand, the average annual family income in Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro decreased but Davao del Norte is still the third province with the highest average income overall while Davao de Oro is the fifth.
From P262,400 in 2018, the average family income of Davao del Norte decreased to P255,120 in 2021, while Davao de Oro decreased from P218,340 to P205,530 during the same period.
Also according to the survey, the majority of the income source of families comes from wages or salaries, followed by entrepreneurial activities, and imputed rent.
For 2021, wages and salary made up P200 billion of the family income by income source, while entrepreneurial activities made up P84.36 billion, and P36.69 billion for imputed rent.
Meanwhile, the average annual expenditure of families decreased from 4.0 percent from P191,620 in 2018 to P183,890 in 2021.
The biggest portion of the expenditures is spent on food and non-alcoholic beverages, followed by housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels.
Viernes explained that the lowest to highest income class have different priorities in terms of expenditures.
The lower income class spends majorly on food and non-alcoholic beverages but toward the higher income class, families tend to spend more or equally on housing and miscellaneous goods.
“Looking at the low decile/income class, 60.3 percent of their expenditure goes on food and when we look at the 10th decile, 26.8 percent na lang ang (goes to) food nila since the other expenses nila napupunta sa (goes to) other expenditures,” she said. ICM