One out of three Filipino families surmounted poverty in 2017, a new survey from the Social Weather Stations showed Friday.

The figure is the highest rate of newly non-poor families since it was first conducted in Dec. 2014.

The SWS survey, conducted from Dec. 8 to 16, 2017, revealed that 56 percent of families rated themselves as non-poor families.

Out of self-rated non-poor families, 31 percent of the respondents transitioned out of poverty - 17 percent (usually non-poor) used to be poor five or more years ago and 14 percent (newly non-poor) used to be poor 1-4 years ago.

Twenty-five percent of the respondents said they have never experienced poverty (always non-poor).

FELL INTO POVERTY

However, one out of eight Filipino families fell into poverty in the last quarter of 2017, the SWS poll also showed.

The survey found that 44 percent of families rated themselves as poor.

Thirty-one percent were always poor while 12.4 percent transitioned into poverty.

The poll was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide.

The SWS said it has a sampling error margins of ±2.5% nationwide and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.