In high-income countries, however, it is measured in relative terms as a share of a country’s average, or
median, standard of living. In other words, poverty is defined in relation to the economic
status of other members of society and people who live below the prevailing standard
of living in a given societal context are poor. On both counts, the Philippines compares
unfavourably with selected ASEAN member countries. In 2006, absolute poverty in the
Philippines was 23%, and relative poverty was 17%. Those figures mean that not only
were a lot of people poor, there was a high degree of inequality.