SWS: 3 million families experienced hunger in Q4 of 2022
MANILA, Philippines — A new poll by the Social Weather Stations showed that an estimated three million families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The survey conducted on December 10 to 14 found that 11.8% of Filipino households experienced involuntary hunger — being hungry and not having anything to eat — in the last three months of the year.
The latest hunger figure is slightly above the 11.3% obtained in a survey in October 2022, but it is slightly below the 12.2% in April.
SWS said the 11.8% hunger rate is the sum of 9.5% who experienced “moderate hunger” — or those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” — and 2.3% who experienced “severe hunger” — or those who experienced it “often” or “always.”
The highest hunger incidence was highest in Mindanao, where 12.7% of families or around 738,000 said they experienced this. The pollster noted that “it has been highest in Mindanao in 38 out of 100 surveys since July 1998.”
It was followed by Visayas at 12%, Metro Manila at 11.7% and Balance Luzon at 11.3%.
“The 0.5-point increase in Overall Hunger between October 2022 and December 2022 was due to increases in the Visayas and Balance Luzon, combined with decreases in Metro Manila and Mindanao,” SWS said.
The polling firm added that overall hunger rose among those who rated themselves as “non-poor” to 7.8% from 6.7%, and among “non-food-poor” to 11.8% from 7.4%
Hunger fell slightly among “self-rated poor” to 15.7% from 16%, and among “self-rated food-poor” to 17.7% from 18.9%.
The survey was based on face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide, with 300 each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The margin of error for national percentages is ±2.5%, while it is ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
The highest incidence of hunger is in Metro Manila, where 16.3% of families or roughly 558,000 said they experienced this, followed by Mindanao at 15.3%, Balance Luzon at 9.6% and the Visayas at 7%.
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