Two municipalities of Kalinga Province were among the country’s twenty poorest municipalities in 2003 based on the latest Small Area Poverty Estimates of the National Statistical Coordination Board. The Municipalities of Tanudan and Tinglayan were ranked 2nd and 12th nationwide for having the highest poverty incidences, with 88.06 percent and 82.14 percent respectively. Two more Kalinga municipalities, Pasil and Pinukpuk are among the twenty poorest in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

The Province of Abra had twelve out of a total of twenty-seven municipalities listed as the poorest in the region in 2003. The municipalities of Sadanga, Natonin and Paracelis in Mountain Province, and the municipality of Asipulo in Ifugao were also among the poorest in CAR (see Table 1).

Baguio City, with 2.8 percent, had the lowest poverty incidence in the region, and the 16th lowest nationwide in 2003. Eight of the twelve municipalities of Benguet belonged to the twenty least poor in the Cordilleras, with La Trinidad on top with 5.64 percent poverty incidence. The other top twenty in Benguet were Mankayan, (14.37%), Bokod (14.5%), Tuba (19.13%), Itogon (19.74%), Atok (20.83%), Buguias (21.16%) and Tublay (23.97%). Completing the twenty least poor cities/municipalities in the region were the following: Luna, Apayao (19.42%); Bangued, Abra (19.74%); Bontoc, Mt. Province (21.13%); Santa Marcela, Apayao (22.6%); Calanasan, Apayao (22.9%); Flora, Apayao (23.9%); Manabo, Abra (26.52%); and Tabuk City, Kalinga (28.11%)

The Municipality of Atok in Benguet was the most improved in 2003, cutting down poverty by 33.5 percentage points. Four more Benguet municipalities, three Ifugao municipalities, Calanasan in Apayao, and Bauko in Mt. Province were also among the most improved in the region (see Table 2).

Out of seventy-seven municipalities and cities in the region, ten had failed to reduce their poverty incidences since 2000 – the municipalities of Tanudan, Tinglayan and Pasil in Kalinga and San Isidro, Langiden, Villaviciosa, Boliney, Dolores, Pidigan and Danglas in the province of Abra