SWS: Hunger rate slightly down in Q3

MANILA, Philippines — One in every 10 Filipino families has experienced involuntary hunger in the third quarter of the year, slightly down from the previous quarter, a recent survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

Results of the Sept. 28 to Oct. 1 survey found that 9.8 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger or being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months.

It was slightly down from 10.4 percent obtained in a similar survey conducted in June, and 9.8 percent in March.

The latest hunger rate was still above the pre-pandemic average of 9.3 percent in 2019, but slightly lower than the 10.8 percent in 2018.

The September 2023 hunger rate is composed of 8.4 percent of respondents who said they experienced moderate hunger (from 8.3 percent in June) and 1.3 percent who experienced severe hunger (from 2.1 percent).

Moderate hunger refers to those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months, while severe hunger refers to those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the last three months.

By area, the hunger rate was highest among those in Metro Manila at 17.3 percent (from 15.7 percent), followed by those in the rest of Luzon at 10.3 percent (from 11.3 percent) and the Visayas and Mindanao at 6.7 percent (from 9.3 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively).

Based on the survey, some 7.7 percent of those who rated their families as “poor” in September experienced hunger in the past three months, down from 10.8 percent in June.

The recent survey also found that 48 percent of the respondents rated their families as “poor,” 27 percent as “borderline poor” and 25 percent as “not poor.”

The survey had 1,200 adult respondents and a margin of error of plus/minus 2.8 percent for the national percentages.

A recent survey conducted by OCTA Research group also found lower self-rated poverty and hunger in the third quarter of the year.