Sep 9, 2012

Home Issue: How much is the average electricity bill of Philippine households?

What is the average electric consumption of Filipino households? For curiosity, I look into the data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO). In 2009, there were about 2.6 million households which did not have electricity in their homes, that is roughly 14% of the 18.4 million households in the country.
Meralco Electric Bill
For those who have electricity, each family paid an average of P7,809 for the whole year in 2009 (current prices) or about $164.  This formed an average of 3.7% of their total expenditures (7.3% of non-food expenditures) for the year. The average monthly bill therefore was around P650, or $13.66.
To have a more nuanced look at the expenditures, I have tabulated the data by income groups. The average electric bill of the poorest family in 2009 was around P1,559 ($33) while for the richest family - P20,192 (roughly $424).

Income Groups      Phil. Pesos*    US dollars*
Poorest 1559.28 32.73
2 2045.60 42.94
3 2659.00 55.82
4 3366.97 70.68
5 4209.41 88.36
6 5507.90 115.62
7 6900.75 144.86
8 9175.30 192.61
9 12119.59 254.41
Richest 20192.07 423.87


*Weighted averages; based on my personal calculations using the 2009 Public Use File of the FIES; for the official data, please contact the NSO.
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