MANILA, Philippines — The proportion of Filipino families that experienced hunger decreased in the first quarter, a new poll released Thursday found.
Results of a March 28 to 31 Social Weather Stations survey of 1,440 adults nationwide showed 9.5% or an estimated 2.3 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.
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The latest reading was one percentage point lower than the 10.5% (estimated 2.4 million families) recorded in the preceding quarter. It also marked the second consecutive quarter that hunger incidence fell.
Hunger went down 6.6 points to 11.7% (estimated 387,000 families) in Metro Manila and 2.2 points to 6.1% (estimated 345,000 families) in Mindanao. But it went up 0.6 points to 10.3% (estimated 1.1 million families) in Balance Luzon and 0.8 points to 10% (estimated 472,000 families) in Visayas.
Broken down, 8.1% (estimated 2 million families) experienced “moderate hunger” — which the pollster defines as those who starved "only once" or "a few times" in the past three months — while 1.3% (estimated 327,000 families) of respondents who said they “often” or “always” lacked food to eat experienced “severe hunger.”
Those who did not state their frequency of hunger (0.4% or estimated 98,000 families) were classified under “moderate hunger,” SWS said.
The poll has sampling error margins of ±2.6% for national percentages, and ±5% each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral